News

No matter how beautiful and vibrant the Michigan winter, a Michigan spring feels pretty good, too.

This year, plan to spend time taking in the many sights of the Southfield City Centre…from the seat of your Zagster bike.

Zagster is the Southfield City Centre’s bike share program, an inexpensive, fun, healthy way to get around the district.

And right now, you can save $10 on an annual Zagster membership, riding all season long for a special membership price of just $15. (For members, first hour is free, $2 per additional hour, up to a maximum cost per ride of $20.)

A lunchtime ride perfectly shakes off the stagnant feeling of sitting at a desk or behind a computer. A weekend ride gets the heart pumping, and allows you to further explore the many pleasures of the Southfield City Centre.

Cruise down the Evergreen Road corridor and breathe in air that you are helping make fresher by pedaling instead of driving. Stop for a sandwich or a beverage at the south end. Fly up to the Southfield Public Library and the Mary Thompson Farm.

Meet up with friends for a game of volleyball or to walk a nature trail. Ride to the nearby Lawrence Tech campus. Don’t forget to stop and get a close-up view of the many art installations along the way, or just rest on a bench and take in the sights. Spring is a beautiful time to enjoy the Southfield City Centre.

Register now and get ready to ride the City Centre spring through fall. But hurry! This special offer expires May 1, 2018.

The Spring Bike Share promotion is a $10 discount on the annual membership. 

Annual memberships are $15 using promo code spring18. 

Special code expires May 1, 2018.

We are excited to announce the Southfield City Centre Bike Share program.

Feel like a kid again, ringing the bell with the wind blowing in your face down Evergreen Road. Our official launch will take place next week with a  ribbon cutting at 10:00 AM on 7/26/17.

In the meantime, learn more about the program at http://bike.zagster.com/southfield/

Lansing, Mich. – The Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the City of Southfield today announced a new crowdfunding campaign through Michigan-based crowdfunding platform Patronicity. The campaign will create an interactive art installation along the new Northwestern Highway Pathway in Southfield’s City Centre.

If the campaign reaches its crowdfunding goal of $50,000 by August 4^th, the project will win a matching grant with funds made possible by MEDC’s Public Spaces Community Places program. For project details and to donate, please visit: http://www.patronicity.com/redpolepark

“Supporting projects that find innovative ways to engage the public in their environment is what Public Spaces, Community Places is about,” said MEDC Community Development Director Katharine Czarnecki. “We are pleased to be able to resource this productive effort.”

Funding raised during this campaign will support the creation of Red Pole Park as a destination that will exemplify Southfield’s redevelopment as connected and pedestrian friendly community. This redevelopment began with converting an old goat path into a brand new bike-walk accessible greenway to join a growing network of trails and new sidewalks throughout Southfield. The greenway will include a series of outdoor “rooms” or art installations that residents and visitors will experience when using the path, of which Red Pole Park will be the first.

“Red Pole Park will give Southfield’s newest bike/walk trail a sense of place, and be the first big step towards making it not just a route but a destination in and of itself,” said the Director of Planning for the City of Southfield Terry Croad. “Southfield was built for cars, and so building appealing places for pedestrians, cyclists, and mobility aid users to get around is an important transformation here. The matching grant for this will make it possible for us to build this at a large enough scale to make it visually interesting.”

Public Spaces Community Places is a collaborative effort of the MEDC, MSHDA, the Michigan Municipal League, and Patronicity where local residents can use crowdfunding to be part of the development of strategic projects in their communities and be backed with a matching grant from MEDC. Communities, non-profits and other business entities can apply at https://patronicity.com/puremichigan.

“Southfield is really on the right path with this project,” said Dan Gilmartin, CEO and Executive Director of the Michigan Municipal League. “Creating art-filled places along the city’s bike-walk greenway will encourage residents and visitors to get out of their cars and explore the community in a more up close and personal way.”

Pure Michigan is a brand representing business, talent and tourism initiatives across Michigan. These efforts are driven by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which serves as the state’s marketing arm and lead advocate for business growth, jobs and opportunity with a focus on helping grow Michigan’s economy.

For more on the MEDC and its initiatives, visit michiganbusiness.org. For Michigan travel news, updates and information, visit michigan.org. Michigan residents interested in seeking employment with any of Michigan’s growing companies should check mitalent.org, where more than 93,000 jobs are currently available in a variety of industries.

An RFP is due for developers this Friday, April 21, to transform the city of Southfield.

Southfield is seeking to transform an 8.15-acre parcel into a pedestrian-friendly, traditional downtown, something the city has never seen. Planned in the middle of the 20th century, Southfield embodies a suburban era of design where cities were built for the automobile and not people.

Terry Croad is Director of Planing for the City of Southfield. Since joining the city in 2010, he’s made it his mission to help transform the city center into a more urban, walkable destination.

He started with a series of small steps; things like filling in gaps in the sidewalk around the municipal center, making Evergreen Road more pedestrian friendly, and installing bike racks and improved bus stops. The increased pedestrian activity from those efforts has helped convince city leaders that a change was possible and vital for Southfield.

“It wasn’t an easy sell five to seven years ago,” says Croad. “But the improvements made over the last couple of years have changed many of the naysayers and doubters into believers.”

The RFP put out calls for the construction of EverCentre, a high-density, mixed-use district that incorporates a pedestrian-friendly Complete Streets infrastructure at the corner of Evergreen Road and Civic Center Drive.

Plans call for multiple-story buildings of mixed residential and office use with retail on the ground floor, creating a more traditional downtown setting complete with a streetwall built right up to a sidewalk filled with outdoor seating. There’s also plans for a new park with entertainment programming among its features.

That’s not all Croad and his team are working on. Southfield is launching a bike share program by mid-to-late June, with 22 bikes spread out over five to seven locations, including the municipal center and Lawrence Tech campuses. A bike and greenway trail is also being built, with landscaping to be installed this spring. The trail will run along Northwestern Highway. Croad likens it to the High Line Park in New York City.

“We’re in competition for young talent,” says Croad. “Entrepreneurs used to locate around natural resources and transportation centers. Now they go to where the human resources are, where people want to be.”

Original Article Located here.

Evergreen Road from 11-13 Mile will be under construction from now until November 2017.  Portions between 12-13 Mile are closed to thru traffic, Lahser being the posted detour route.  Signs were posted regarding this closure two weeks ago. The rest of Evergreen and the service drives are open but with reduced lanes and some turning prohibitions per posted signs.  This week will be the worst of it as drivers find alternate routes to avoid the construction as best they can.

Lastly, Evergreen Road between 9 Mile and Northwestern will be under construction this year as well, starting mid to late May, again lasting through November.