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Rivertown
Rivertown is Detroit's most waterfront neighborhood, featuring historic warehouses converted into loft apartments, the city's best concert venue steps from your door, and the Riverwalk running right through the backyard.
The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre is your neighborhood concert hall: It hosts a packed outdoor summer concert series every Wednesday from June through August featuring Charlie Wilson, Robert Glasper, PJ Morton, Eric Roberson, and more.
The next big thing is already in motion: A $50 million WNBA headquarters and training facility is set to break ground in 2027 on the 42-acre former Uniroyal site, bringing a new practice center, a world-class sports campus complete, and a youth development academy to the east riverfront.
You can bike from your front door to Eastern Market: The Dequindre Cut, a below-grade rails-to-trails greenway covered in murals, starts at William G. Milliken State Park at the river and runs nearly two miles north to Eastern Market.
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PLC Detroit
Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design, Michigan's only HBCU, reopened in 2021 through the vision of Dr. D'Wayne Edwards and industry partners to train the next generation of creative talent in America's only UNESCO City of Design. Situated along the riverfront, PLC Detroit reimagines design education while housing historic artifacts, including Jan Ernst Matzelinger's lasting machine, the first automated device to attach a shoe's upper to its sole.
activities
WNBA Detroit East Riverfront Campus
The future home of Detroit's WNBA expansion team will be a $50 million, 75,000-square-foot headquarters and practice facility on the former Uniroyal site at 6000 E. Jefferson. The project, breaking ground in 2027, also includes a 100,000-square-foot youth sports development academy and outdoor athletic fields, making it the single biggest transformation coming to Rivertown's eastern edge in decades.
activities
Riverwalk Outdoor Adventure Center
An “up north, downtown” indoor nature space on the riverfront inside the historic Globe Building. It features a 36-foot waterfall, a climbable 40-foot bur oak tree, virtual kayaking and snowmobiling, a fishing-boat simulator, and a giant freshwater aquarium that lets kids and adults get a hands-on taste of Michigan’s forests, rivers, and wildlife before they head out to the real thing.
food
Brix Wine
A 1,500-square-foot boutique wine bar tucked into Rivertown at Franklin and Orleans. Run by sommelier Mikiah Glynn, it’s built for intimate tastings, charcuterie boards, and curated flights that spotlight winemakers who do not usually get the spotlight. It’s the type of lounge where you can spend two hours learning something new about wine and walk away with a wealth of knowledge.
food
Steve's Soul Food
A Detroit institution serving Southern soul food on Franklin Avenue just off East Jefferson. Its menu of fried chicken, catfish, mac and cheese, greens, and cornbread has earned loyal regulars from across the city and across generations.
outdoors
Dequindre Cut
A car-free paved trail nearly two miles long. Covered in graffiti murals, lined with fitness stations, and busy year-round, it connects Rivertown's waterfront directly to Eastern Market.
outdoors
William G. Milliken State Park & Harbor
Michigan's only urban state park, offering free fishing piers, picnic shelters, a wildlife berm, direct Riverwalk access, and the southern trailhead of the Dequindre Cut.
food
Atwater Brewery & Tap House
Rivertown's most iconic local brewery at 237 Joseph Campau. Founded in 1997 inside a 1919 factory warehouse, it serves craft lagers and pub fare in a historic taproom.
food
CRED Café
A Motor City Match-winning coffee shop and speakeasy at 6340 E. Jefferson. It operates as a neighborhood café by day, with a hidden bookcase door leading to a Prohibition-era cocktail lounge by night. It has become a popular gathering place for neighbors and visitors alike.
culture
The Aretha
The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre is an outdoor waterfront concert venue at 2600 Atwater Street hosting a full summer season of R&B, jazz, and soul. Its annual concert series makes it one of Detroit's premier live music destinations.
Meet Carlos Parisi, a Detroit entrepreneur, food personality, and community builder bringing people together through food. From his business Aunt Nee's to celebrating the city's vibrant culinary scene, discover how Carlos is uplifting local businesses, building community, and sharing his love for Detroit, one bite at a time.
Meet Justin Kosmides, co-founder of Bloom, a company helping connect businesses with manufacturers to bring innovative ideas to life. Discover what inspired Justin to move from New York City to Detroit and why he believes the city is the perfect place to build a business and help shape the future of American manufacturing.
Housing
Rivertown's housing stock is unlike anything else in Detroit, featuring former manufacturing warehouses converted into loft apartments and condominiums with soaring ceilings, original brick walls, and river or park views that remind you every morning that you live somewhere special. Options range from modest one-bedrooms in converted warehouse buildings to full-floor penthouse condos at Great Lakes Tower, with modern additions like Orleans Landing rounding out the mix. With the WNBA facility set to transform the eastern corridor, property values are in the early stages of a significant upward move.
Community
The Rivertown Detroit Association holds monthly public meetings, runs the annual Riverfront Kids Fishing Fest, and has been the connective tissue between businesses, residents, and city partners for years, most recently advocating for the Rivertown Business Improvement Zone. Residents consistently point to the Riverwalk as the space that turns neighbors into regulars. CRED Café, which hosted the public WNBA facility meeting, is fast becoming Rivertown's community living room.
History
Rivertown's story begins along the water, where this stretch of East Jefferson served as Detroit's 19th-century industrial center filled with busy shipping operations, manufacturing, and warehouses. The riverfront also held profound cultural importance as an essential hub on the Underground Railroad. Proximity to Canada made Detroit one of the most vital gateways to freedom for enslaved people, supported by an active local network of Black and white abolitionists who worked together along the water to assist freedom seekers crossing into Windsor. By the Prohibition era, the area evolved into a bustling entertainment district, setting the stage for its modern chapter. The 2007 opening of the Detroit Riverwalk transformed Rivertown into one of Michigan's most active and beloved waterfront destinations, where historic purpose meets contemporary community life.
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Belle Isle Golf Course
Southern Fire
They Say
culture
PLC Detroit
Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design, Michigan's only HBCU, reopened in 2021 through the vision of Dr. D'Wayne Edwards and industry partners to train the next generation of creative talent in America's only UNESCO City of Design. Situated along the riverfront, PLC Detroit reimagines design education while housing historic artifacts, including Jan Ernst Matzelinger's lasting machine, the first automated device to attach a shoe's upper to its sole.
activities
WNBA Detroit East Riverfront Campus
The future home of Detroit's WNBA expansion team will be a $50 million, 75,000-square-foot headquarters and practice facility on the former Uniroyal site at 6000 E. Jefferson. The project, breaking ground in 2027, also includes a 100,000-square-foot youth sports development academy and outdoor athletic fields, making it the single biggest transformation coming to Rivertown's eastern edge in decades.
activities
Riverwalk Outdoor Adventure Center
An “up north, downtown” indoor nature space on the riverfront inside the historic Globe Building. It features a 36-foot waterfall, a climbable 40-foot bur oak tree, virtual kayaking and snowmobiling, a fishing-boat simulator, and a giant freshwater aquarium that lets kids and adults get a hands-on taste of Michigan’s forests, rivers, and wildlife before they head out to the real thing.
food
Brix Wine
A 1,500-square-foot boutique wine bar tucked into Rivertown at Franklin and Orleans. Run by sommelier Mikiah Glynn, it’s built for intimate tastings, charcuterie boards, and curated flights that spotlight winemakers who do not usually get the spotlight. It’s the type of lounge where you can spend two hours learning something new about wine and walk away with a wealth of knowledge.
Put a Detroiter anywhere in the world, they'll come out leading the pack.
Tam Wilson