DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[animatedmartian]

Wayne County votes to end construction of over-budget jail



Detroit— Members of a Wayne County board voted unanimously Thursday morning to terminate construction contracts and halt work on an over budget jail construction project.

The county is spending $2 to $4 million a month since work was suspended in June on the half-finished jail on Gratiot and Madison, June Lee, chief of staff for Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, told the county’s building authority.

About $120 million has been spent so far on the jail, but it’s unclear how much more must be spent to wind down the project, officials said. It could cost at least $5 million more.

The termination of contractors won't be immediate but they will be given an estimated few weeks to wrap up work at the site.

Ficano recommended halting work on Wednesday and exploring proposals from three developers to buy the site and nearby county-owned facilities. The county would instead use proceeds from the sale and other money to retrofit the state’s abandoned Mound Road Correctional Facility into the jail.

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From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2c3ieEDrJ

Two of the three proposals are from Gilbert and Triple Properties. I don't think they've released the third proposal yet. According to Crain, this is all there's known about the third proposal:

Todd Fenton, former Wayne County EDGE member who is fronting a plan on behalf of an unknown investor.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...to-3-proposals

Shady, shady...

[uaarkson]

The good ol' Fail Jail. What a classic Detroit saga.

[animatedmartian]

According to Detroiturbex, demolition crews are starting on the Brewster Douglass projects (finally).

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9112636&type=1

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Preservation prevails in Detroit!


http://www.freep.com/article/2013081...ank-demolition

Bob Kraemer must have been paid some big bucks to support the demolition of a historic building. Doesn't exactly bring a good name to his architectural firm considering they've been behind a lot of the historic renovations around downtown.

No comment should have been his answer if asked. Wanting to tear down that building was an awful idea. And architects should always deal with challenges creatively, not wiping them out. The Penobscot isn't doing well because it's vintage. The demands on modern office space are so extreme nowadays since every firm is heavy into tech and bigger on open office space. Typically these buildings were well suited for boutique firms, small non profits, and doctors offices. In any major city, these firms don't typically receive the luxury of connected parking....that's why they pay less in an old building. Architects should work to make upper floors more desireable to boutique firms that typically have younger employees that will park further away, bike or take transit to their job.

I should point out that for evey garage Detroit builds, it's equally a loss to economic development. That's less available property to put tax paying businesses workers and residents on. Detroit's core is so tied up with infrastructure and support systems that I worry sometimes future transit won't be as effective as it could be.

Ideally most folks would get in the mindset that the people mover could provide great utility as a shuttle from parking to the office. Plus walking a couple blocks to work is healthy and enjoyable.

[LMich]

I would not worry about running out of developable space due to parking garage. A cursory look at any aerial will show there being more than enough room when you look at underutilized surface lots.

As for the consolidated jail project failure, it rolls into one all that is wrong with the business community's relationship to local government in this region, particularly the construction/demolition and contracting industry in Detroit. The only solace I take in all of this is that the jail was a project conceived years ago under a previous administration and in the era of pay-for-play, and that this mistake wouldn't be made post-Kilpatrick. Kwame's gone, now, but there is no way Ficano is getting re-elect, god willing. These were and are two of the biggest crooks you'll ever meet. There is a reason Kym Worthy launched an investigation into this, yesterday. I can't for the life of me figure out how Ficano has been able to escape the feds when everyone around him as fallen; that dude has nine lives.

[LMich]

Here's an update on Detroit Bikes. I really do hope they do well. I was kind of surprised to find that their facility is deep in the westside on Schaefer near Plymouth.

Jessica J. Trevino | Detroit Free Press

Detroit Bikes aims to crank up mass production

By Frank Witsill | Detroit Free Press

August 16, 2013

A day before its public debut, Zak Pashak is tweaking the $550 commuter bike he’s manufacturing in west Detroit and plans to sell nationwide, mostly through bike retailers.

The company plans to roll out and start selling its bikes at a public party from 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Friday at the Old Miami bar on Cass Avenue in Detroit. Other debuts are planned in Windsor on Saturday and in Toronto on Wednesday.

“I think there’s a market for the bikes,” said Pashak, 33, who moved to Detroit from Canada and has invested about $2 million in the company, Detroit Bikes. “The key for us is volume. We need to sell a lot of bikes.”

The bicycle business has gained traction in metro Detroit in the past year.

The trend has been driven in part by people looking for American-made products and a sense that the Detroit label is hip. Other metro Detroit bike makers include Detroit Bicycle, AutoBike and Shinola, which opened a retail shop in Detroit this year.

But Detroit Bikes is the only one that is also mass-producing the frames.

Model T of bikes

Pashak, a drummer who made his money promoting music venues in Canada, said he is capitalizing on urban biking and environmental trends nationally, and a need for reasonably priced mass-production bikes.

He bought a 50,000-square-foot building, outfitted it with equipment and hired two dozen workers.

He aims to make and sell 5,000 bicycles by the end of the year, 20,000 next year, 40,000 after that.



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[LMich]

This is from a few weeks ago, but it's about a developer doing renovations in out-city neighborhoods, particularly Palmer Park:

TONY BARCHOCK

Mark Leipsitz and his wife, Kathy Makino-Leipsitz, share a dream of revitalizing Detroit apartment buildings and, in turn, improving the surrounding neighborhoods. They recently restored the La Vogue building in Palmer Park.

Developer scours city to rehab Art Deco-era apartment buildings

By Maureen McDonald | Crain's Detroit Business

August 4, 2013

If Mike Ilitch collects stadiums, Dan Gilbert buys downtown office buildings and the Cooley family captures Corktown real estate, Kathy Makino-Leipsitz is a collector of distressed Art Deco-era apartment buildings found deep in Detroit's neighborhoods.

As the owner of Shelborne Development LLC, she owns 26 apartment buildings and four parking lots in three Detroit neighborhoods: five in Jefferson Chalmers, 14 in Palmer Park and seven in New Center.

Thirteen of the properties are fully rehabbed or are barreling toward completion, including her most recent accomplishment: a $10.1 million restoration of three buildings in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood.

"We find diamonds in the rough and put them back on the tax rolls," said Makino-Leipsitz.

Makino-Leipsitz, 52, bought her first Detroit property in 1983 on West Alexandrine Street and continued to make investments as she found good deals. But when she married her second husband, Mark Leipsitz, they decided to start targeting their development in specific neighborhoods.

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Since then, Shelborne Development has completed three of the 14 buildings in Palmer Park: the La Vogue, Sarasota and Seville. To get there, Makino-Leipsitz has to replace roofs, install new windows and even alter studio configurations into one-, two- and three-bedroom options. Often the team rips walls down to studs and replaces infrastructure, including wire and insulation. They also add new appliances, granite counter tops and oak kitchen cabinets.

"We're building brand new units in the envelope of historic buildings and stabilizing neighborhoods," said Makino-Leipsitz.

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[animatedmartian]

• Video Link

Officials unveil rail cars for planned Ann Arbor-Detroit commuter train
LEONARD N. FLEMING - THE DETROIT NEWS

Ypsilanti — The future rail commuter line from Ann Arbor to Detroit got a boost Friday as transportation officials unveiled three of the 23 refurbished cars that will support the route.

The 38-mile MITRAIN line, which has been discussed for years with millions of dollars spent, still has no official start date. But transportation officials at a Friday event touting the new cars estimated the line could start in two to three years after the rail tracks along the route are upgraded.

“When we get the five trains a day each way, it’s got to be reliable, clean, safe and frequent enough so people have flexibility,” said Paul Tait, executive director of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, which covers seven counties. “It takes an inordinate amount of time. But all the pieces are in place. We’ve got the cars. We’ve got the engines. We’ve got the money for the track improvements.”

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The rail cars, which can go as fast as 84 miles per hour, are old train cars from Chicago’s mass transit system. The bi-level cars have new seats and flooring.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2cChIXSPY

[Rizzo]

^ Once M1 Rail is in place, this will really function like an efficient regional transit system. It will be a boom to tourism. So many folks I know travel to Detroit or Ann Arbor from Chicago but can't do both because there is no good service between the two

[LMich]

Originally Posted by Hayward

^ Once M1 Rail is in place, this will really function like an efficient regional transit system. It will be a boom to tourism. So many folks I know travel to Detroit or Ann Arbor from Chicago but can't do both because there is no good service between the two

Tourists will be a big part of this, no doubt, but I also see this as a really big hit with residents of both cities getting too and from the airport more than anything else if the fare is right.

[LMich]

It absolutely blows my mind that Ford didn't keep these properties up and use them as something. Hopefully, they'll find a local benefactor. I mean, the kind of money we're talking about - at least simply to buy the buildings - is what someone like Gilbert finds in his couch cushions, and we're talking about a major piece of Detroit, Michigan, and United States history, here.

Group makes final push to save historic Ford buildings

By Karl Henkel | The Detroit News

August 19, 2013

A local economic and community development group is making a final push to turn a historic car plant into an automotive attraction center.

The Woodward Avenue Action Association, beginning today, will try to crowd-source the $125,000 needed to purchase two former Ford Motor Co. buildings in Highland Park. The association wants to use the buildings as a central location where tourists and automotive enthusiasts can learn and seek information about auto-related activities in the Metro Detroit area.

“We’ve not been very good at telling our own story,” said Deborah Schutt, interim director of the Woodward Avenue Action Association, said of the automotive industry. “So we’ve decided, let’s pull everything together and tell our story.”

A “Five Dollars a Day” campaign — an ode to Ford founder Henry Ford, who 99 years ago famously instituted a $5-a-day wage for auto workers — aims to help the association raise the necessary money and finalize a purchase agreement with Bloomfield Hills-based National Equity Corp. by its Sept. 19 deadline.

The association has offered $550,000 to buy the buildings; the 40,000-square-foot administration building on Woodward Avenue and the adjacent 8,000-square-foot garage. The association says it has secured a $400,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Transportation and $15,000 from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

But even if the association raises $125,000, it will still need to renovate the buildings. Schutt said the association will seek new market and historic tax credits to help with any possible renovation costs.

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The plant site in 1978 gained National Historic Landmark status.

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[JonathanGRR]

I don't know if it mentions it in the article, but the group has said that they would like to pursue a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation if they are successful with the purchase. Most of the United States' World Heritage Sites are natural landmarks, so it'd be interesting to see the Highland Park Plant added to the list.

It absolutely blows my mind that Ford didn't keep these properties up and use them as something.

I'd imagine that Henry Ford himself would have wanted it kept in better care, but many automotive companies share this story of out-growing and abandoning their heritage.

[Docta_Love]

I'm really excited to see that how close they are to their goal, although I'm not sure how confident I would be about "crowd sourcing" $125,000.

It absolutely blows my mind that Ford didn't keep these properties up and use them as something.

My Father a Ford employee told me maybe ten years ago that parts of the Highland Park Complex was still used for storage. I know that the complex also has security as well which has probably saved it from a fate similar to the Packard Plant. But I certainly agree that it's embarrassing how underutilized the complex is, a building changed the world like the Model T factory did deserves better than being a glorified storage container.

Edit: I'm not sure if it still is used for storage, it wouldn't surprise me if during the great recession Ford moved its storage to a more cost efficient building. But my point is that at least up until recently Ford Motor Company still used the complex and has at least kept it mothballed.

[LMich]

No, you're right. The vast majority of the complex is still very much in use as storage space (i.e. Highland Park Industrial Center). I believe the Highland Park Fire Department even leases space in the complex. You'd think them using the larger, less architecturally significant parts on the site, that they'd also try and keep up the stuff fronting and closer to Woodward, though. The administration building on Woodward should have never been allowed to rot like that. But, it's in one of the poorest, if not the poorest incorporated city in Michigan, so HP wasn't going to take Ford on and Ford wasn't going to proactively do anything, anyway.

Each of the Big Three have been less caring than anyone would want them to be with their inner-city heritage properties. GM has done the best having stayed within the city limits, but Chrysler and Ford have been just horrible. This shouldn't be surprising since Ford and Chrysler orginally set up in Highland Park just so they wouldn't have to deal with Detroit city government, and this was in the 1910's, no less. People tend to forget that GM was technically the only one of the Big Three technically headquartered in Detroit. Ford was in Dearborn, of course, and Chrysler in Highland Park until the early 90's. As early as the 50's, Ford was winding down their operations in HP. When Ford and Chrysler pulled out of their operations in HP and Hamtramck, they basically didn't look back.

[JonathanGRR]

Henry Ford II was a major financier for the Renaissance Center and moved Ford operations there when it was finished. I find it ironic that General Motors now occupies the buildings after Ford moved out.

[LMich]

Wayne Co. hopes to close deal on Packard Plant next week

Christine MacDonald | The Detroit News

August 22, 2013

Detroit — Wayne County Treasurer officials say they hope to close by the end of next week on a deal with a Chicago-area developer to buy the infamous Packard Plant and avoid selling the property at next month's public auction.

Negotiations are still ongoing but Chief Deputy David Szymanski said he hopes to be in Wayne County Circuit Court next week to get a judge to sign off on the deal that would let developer Bill Hults buy the property by paying off its more than $1 million unpaid tax bill.

The treasurer and Hults have been in talks for months about buying the dilapidated facility, which Hults has said he hopes to turn into a commercial, housing and entertainment complex.

Szymanski said Hults has been the only person who has expressed interest in buying the complex and is hopeful the deal is cemented soon.

"If it really takes place, it will be the rebirth of a part of Detroit," Szymanski said.

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At the very least, this gets the Packard complex an owner that can actually be reached and negotiated with. I seriously doubt his plans will be fully fulfilled, but even in the worst case scenario, we're not left wondering who owns this thing, which has been disputed for years.

The Freep has a more detailed, yet, bizarrely, more negative and editorialized, article on this that explains that if he's able to gain ownership of the plant that he has six months to either secure it or demolish it. So, whatever the case, the Packard is quickly coming upon a day of reckoning.

[LMich]

Woodward Avenue Streetcar update:

Subcontractors begin vying for work on Detroit's $140 million M1 Rail project

David Muller | MLive.com

August 25, 2013

DETROIT, MI - At an open house for subcontractors and others needed to help build a 3.3-mile streetcar down Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Lawrence Stevenson said he considered being involved in the project as something that would be “historic.”

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The open house was held Friday at Motor City Casino by California firm Stacy and Witbeck, Inc. for the numerous subcontractors needed for the $140 million task.

Everything from asphalt milling to signage to trucking to underground electrical subcontractors are needed to complete the city’s light rail, which is slated to be finished near the end of 2015.

Construction begins this fall in the area between Larned and Adams streets. Once complete, the streetcar line will run along Woodward Avenue from Grand Boulevard in New Center to Congress Street in downtown Detroit.

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[EuphoricOctopus]

Detroit Marriott plans $30-million renovation




By John Gallagher

Detroit Free Press Business Writer

A Detroit landmark is getting a facelift.

The Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center, the city’s tallest structure, announced today it will undertake a $30-million renovation of the hotel’s rooms and meeting spaces in 2014.

All 1,329 guest rooms and 100,000 square feet of meeting space will be redone, beginning with room renovations in February. All the work should be finished in a year. The hotel will remain open throughout the work, with a few floors at a time undergoing reconstruction.

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http://www.freep.com/article/2013082...ott-renovation

[LMich]

When was the last time the Marriott was redone? I guess it's longer ago than I thought. Good to hear they are staying current, though.

The Broderick's commercial space gets another tenant (I'm pretty sure the residential space is all rented out):

Automation Alley wil open its first office in Detroit in the Broderick Tower. File photo by Patricia Beck/Detroit Free Press

Broderick Tower in Detroit to be Automation Alley's newest home

Frank Witsil | Detroit Free Press

August 26, 2013

Automation Alley, an association that aims to boost tech and innovation in southeast Detroit, is set to open its first office in Detroit in the Broderick Tower next month.

The group, which was founded in 1999 and has offices in Oakland and Macomb counties, announced its plans today.

“We didn’t do it sooner because we didn’t have the resources to do it,” said Ken Rogers, Automation Alley’s executive director. “Now we’re going, whether we have the resources to do it or not. We’ve wanted to do it for a long time.”

The 15,000-square-foot office, at 1570 Woodward, is inside the Grand Circus training institute. It is set to open Sept. 23.

The new office was chosen, Rogers said, because it is close to the emerging tech community in Detroit and fits with the new training center. In addition, he said, the association received an undisclosed amount from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to open the offices.

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And, here's a great photo from the News:


Broderick Tower | Detroit News File Photo

[LMich]

I need to start visiting Curbed Detroit more regularly. They cover a lot of the smaller projects that don't hit the News or Freep.

New Owner Dumping $3M Into Vacant Rivertown Office Complex

By Paul Beshouri | August 26, 2013

Have you ever noticed this office complex? Once the headquarters for Crain's, it recently sold to a Birmingham-based venture after being listed for $3M. It's rather sad-looking at the moment, but the new ownership is saying they'll throw down $3M to renovate the 29-year-old building. With "several tenants ready to sign leases," the new ownership sounds confident they can lease out the space, which totals over 90,000 square feet. Why might someone shell out the big bucks for this nondescript office complex? Perhaps it has something to do the 294-unit housing development planned for the area one block east.



Renovations Complete: U-Haul Officially Opens NBC Building

By Paul Beshouri |August 23, 2013

After more than a year's worth of intense renovations, the NBC Building is officially back. Built in the 1920s as a massive bakery for Nabsico, the structure was picked up by U-Haul just over a year ago. We don't know what they paid for the joint -- it was once listed at $2.25M -- but its a safe assumption that the company dumped some major cash into bringing 'er back. With its main staircase and massive windows restored, NBC's rediscovered grandeur might make it among the most inspiring self-storage facilities imaginable.

I was kind of surprised about Crain's former headquarters. I always thought it'd be one of the first things to go when the neighborhood got hot seeing as how it sticks out, and not really in a good way.

Oh, Crain's also has a blurb on a former synagogue in the northeast of Midtown going residential:

Midtown loft project receives $1 million state incentive loan

By Paul Gautz | Crain's Detroit Business

August 22, 2013

A $1 million performance-based state loan will help renovate the historic Tushiyah United Hebrew School in Midtown Detroit into 25 market-rate housing units and a gated parking lot.

The Michigan Economic Development Corp. announced Wednesday that the Michigan Strategic Fund had approved the project, located at 600 and 609 E. Kirby St.

The plan, by 609 E. Kirby Lofts LLC, in total, is expected to generate almost $6.6 million in total capital investment, according to the MEDC.

The company is owned by real estate developer Richard Hosey III. Hosey has been involved with more than 75 projects totaling more than $2 billion in commercial real estate deals, the MEDC said.

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