The University of Michigan’s Ypsilanti Health Center is set to relocate to downtown Ypsilanti in the fall and developers are hoping the center will bring more foot traffic to the downtown area.
The center will be among the tenants in the building that was once the EMU college of business, now owned by the Michigan Innovation Headquarters.
Matt Frost is a communications officer with MI-HQ. He says that in addition to making healthcare more accessible to the downtown area, renovating the building will attract more business to Ypsilanti’s downtown.
“There’s the foot traffic that’s going to naturally come from the medical center, which is fantastic. There's going to be, like, 300 something people downtown every day. That’s going to be good for the businesses.”
In addition to the natural increase in traffic, the health center will attract to the area, Frost says MI-HQ is looking to collaborate with the city of Ypsilanti, local businesses, restaurants, and artists.
“So, our goal in the innovation space and in the public spaces is to have local Ypsi artists work on displays, to also just collaborate as much as we can with the downtown to help shape it into something that is great for everybody.”
MI-HQ hopes the health center will allow the building to become a science and technology hub in downtown Ypsilanti.
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