Visteon Village and Monroe's Mason Run Win 2006 CREW-Detroit Impact Awards

BIRMINGHAM, Mich., Sept. 8 -- Mason Run, a residential redevelopment of a brownfield site in Monroe, and Visteon Village in Van Buren Township have won 2006 Impact Awards from the Detroit chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW-Detroit).

The annual CREW-Detroit Impact Awards recognize two southeast Michigan commercial properties that made significant positive impacts on their surrounding communities. The fifth annual competition was open to new construction and redevelopment projects completed between Jan. 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

Winners will receive their awards at a Sept. 21 luncheon at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Tickets, available online at http://www.crewdetroit.org/ , are $70; the registration deadline is Sept. 14. For information, contact Donna Hanson at 248.375.7239.

Mason Run, which won in the redevelopment category, transformed a contaminated 45-acre site on the River Raisin into a "new urbanism" neighborhood of up to 500 single-family homes. Environmental consultant and CREW member Soil and Materials Engineers, developer Crosswinds Communities and the city of Monroe secured more than $6.5 million in brownfield financing and developed environmental response strategies that saved more than $2.5 million, making the $90-million project economically viable. Judges lauded its success in "creating a whole new sub community for Monroe and a new class of housing" and its positive environmental impact.

Visteon Village, the 265-acre headquarters of global automotive supplier Visteon, won in the new construction category. It features a total of 882,000 square feet (SF) in nine buildings fronting a 37-acre lake and 40 acres of wooded wetlands. The buildings contain 122,000 SF of lab space, a 10,000-SF fitness center and 748,000 SF of offices and amenities including a cafeteria, convenience store and bank.

Impact judges praised "Visteon's willingness to create something very different than the typical corporate headquarters," the project's environmental sensitivity and its architectural design. They also cited Visteon's heavy involvement of employees and the community in planning the project, noting that "relationships between coworkers drove the entire design."

Campbell/Manix, Inc. and Herman Miller/WorkSquared are the Impact Awards' platinum sponsors.

CREW-Detroit, founded in 1986, is one of the largest local chapters of the CREW Network, a professional organization of nearly 7,000 commercial real estate women in the U.S. and Canada.