It's about time I was starting to worry that 1001 was going to stall
Some good news on the Eastern Market redevelopment plan:
Eastern Market revival planned
For control, nonprofit vows to put $30M into venue
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
April 27, 2006
DETROIT -- Eastern Market, one of the nation's oldest farmers' markets and site of some of the best people watching in Metro Detroit, is on the verge of a radical makeover.
The city of Detroit is poised to turn over control of the 115-year-old open-air market to a public-private group that vows to invest $30 million in renovations and lure a new wave of private development to the surrounding neighborhood.
The nonprofit group, to be called Eastern Market Corp., wants to attract crowds to the area seven days a week all year by using the same formula that now draws tens of thousands of people to Eastern Market on Saturdays during warm weather.
The corporation plans to tout the products of local farmers and specialty food retailers and create a scene that will attract everyone from working-class immigrants to well-heeled suburbanites and young hipsters, much as Flower Day at the market, coming May 21, does every year.
"We are not going to take away any of the ambience, we are going to enhance it," said Edward Deeb, chairman emeritus of the Eastern Market Merchants Association, which represents 172 area businesses and is one of several key groups backing the changes. "More stores, more restaurants, more specialty and ethnic foods but, most of all, the city and the businesses working together."
Before the makeover can get under way, the Detroit City Council must approve establishing the Eastern Market Corp. and turning over management of the market to the corporation, which organizers expect to happen within two months. Organizers and city officials have been hammering out details for two years. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is a major supporter of the change.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...604270348/1001