Michigan Veterans Foundation

Michigan Veterans Foundation (MVF), a non-profit organization, needed to relocate their facilities quickly when Olympia Development purchased their headquarters in the city’s Cass Corridor to make way for the state-of-the-art Little Caesars Arena and Wayne State University business school.

The MVF quickly purchased a triangular group of properties totaling 5.5 acres, from the Detroit Public Schools which required rezoning.

The project consisted of a 46,000-square-foot, ground-up construction. The one-story facility was designed in a pentagon-shaped design. Programming included 124 single occupancy rooms; squad rooms, which house four veterans per room; a full-service kitchen and mess hall, with the ability to be transformed into a banquet hall for weddings and events; other spaces such as a computer lab, library, chapel, and museum.

Separate administrative staff for MVF was required and emphasis was placed on security for veterans coming in and out of the program. In the entry of the building, there is a glass room that pays homage to the veterans with memorabilia and historical artifacts from various times of war. The finished building serves 1,600 veterans, providing transitional housing and services to homeless veterans.