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Posted Dec 20, 2014, 2:03 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Metropolitan Detroit
Posts: 712
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I cant wait to see the LED sign when its finished its gonna give Cobo a more refreshed modern look to it. There had been a steady stream of smaller announcements that have made it under the radar along with some not so small ones, im gonna try and get the best ones in without making this too long.
First off we got the Neudeck Building built in 1917 and later modernized, once home to Wayne County offices looks to be on track to be converted into 100 apartments, the word is according to Crain's Detroit Business that the new owners are in talks with an upscale gym to take up the retail space on the ground floor.
Quote:
Ugly Office Building Dreams of Becoming Ugly Apartments
Friday, December 19, 2014, by Paul Beshour
After 5 years of vacancy, the Neudeck Building has moved closer to becoming downtown's ugliest apartment building. Wayne County just issued a press release declaring that Neudeck will be sold for $2.3M to developer Joseph Barbat, who first revealed plans for a 100-apartment conversion back in June.
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No word on when construction will start, but it might not be for some time. Barbat is in the midst of renovating the former Park Apartments.
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http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...apartments.php
Next we have Galapagos Art Space the The Institution That Helped Put Brooklyn On The Art Map Is Moving To Detroit, its been a Brooklyn staple for 20 years and is closing up shop in New York and moving to Corktown and Highland Park due to the high costs in NY.
Quote:
Born in Brooklyn, Now Making a Motown Move
Galapagos Art Space Will Make Detroit Its Home
By COLIN MOYNIHAN DEC. 7, 2014
In Detroit, over the past year, Executive Director Robert Elmes and his wife, Philippa Kaye, have bought nine buildings totaling about 600,000 square feet in Corktown and in neighboring Highland Park, paying what he described as the price of “a small apartment in New York City” for the properties.
The main building appears to be the abandoned APAC paper structure behind the Michigan Central Station, according to Lowell Boileau on DetroitYES!. Boileau also writes that the building Elmes bought in Highland Park is the old high school, on Glendale and 2nd.
The centerpiece of the new Galapagos will be a 10,000-square-foot lake, Elmes told The Times, and he is planning about 16 months of renovation work before opening. Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder; the state’s Economic Development Corporation; and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation have been supportive of the project, Mr. Elmes said, adding that Galapagos is planning to start a Detroit Biennial in 2016.
During its time in Brooklyn, Galapagos produced more than 7,500 events that drew a total of more than a million people. Those events included musical performances, burlesque, films, variety shows, performance art and visual art.
There was a series called “Nerd Night” with science lectures and beer, and another called the “Floating Kabarette,” a weekly circus that included aerialists, jugglers and contortionists. The venue has hosted a lavish costume ball inspired by the novel “Alice in Wonderland” and a fund-raiser for a nomadic bookmobile associated with an underground publisher called Autonomedia.
Eames told Moynihan: One of the places where “young artists and thinkers” appeared to be gravitating, he said, was Detroit.
Last month, the Berliner behind the famous Tresor techno club told The Wall Street Journal he is eyeing the old Fisher Body Plant on Piquette, near I-75 and I-94, for a local music club.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/ar...home.html?_r=0
Good news for H.P.
Quote:
Galapagos Plans to Rehab a Staggering Amount Blight in Highland Park
Tuesday, December 9, 2014, by Paul Beshouri
It makes for an easy, more catchy headline to say that Galapagos Art Space is leaving Brooklyn for Detroit. In reality, it's actually Highland Park—an independent enclave of Detroit—that will feel most of the Galapagos love.
Four of the five major properties purchased by executive director Robert Elmes are in Highland Park, including the abandoned monstrosity will serve as the main Galapagos structure. Since we're already familiar with the one Detroit property (a warehouse in Corktown).
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http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...hools.php#more
After a slow and rocky start with residents of the exclusive Palmer Woods neighborhood and other community activists expressing concern that the big box/strip mall approach to Redico's $200 million "live, work and play" community at the former state fair grounds it seems that things could start moving more rapidly now that WCCC is expressing interest.
Quote:
Wayne County college explores fairgrounds site
Laura Berman, November 18, 2014
In a sign of life at the former state fairgrounds, officials at Wayne County Community College District say they're in serious conversations with the fairgrounds developers to create a campus presence on the 160-acre site.
Once the state center of pig-racing and pie baking, the fairgrounds is being marketed by the Magic Plus development group and its partner Redico as a $200 million "live, work and play" community that will transform the now-vacant location on Woodward.
George Swan, the college district's vice chancellor for external affairs, said the school has a "serious interest" in the project as a site for training and workforce development programs or college classes.
"It's an opportunity to those students who have limited transportation because of the location," Swan said, since it is on a major bus line and a potential extension of the M-1 Rail project along Woodward.
The college isn't necessarily planning an expansion, but it has been broadening its presence across the city as a way to "increase educational opportunities" for students.
Joel Ferguson, who chairs the Michigan State University trustee board and is the lead developer, sees the college as "very key to this development" and envisions WCCC occupying between six and 10 acres of the site, probably in conjunction with other university partners.
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The developers have been working hard to allay community criticism that early plans reflected "a big box store" or "strip mall" approach to development that wouldn't improve the city or the historic site. They've hired a respected architectural firm, Smith Group, and invested more than $400,000 in plans and site development. But their investment to date is minimal relative to the ambitious goals of the $200 million project.
With the success of the adjacent Gateway Project, which includes a Meijer store and Starbucks, the fairgrounds project been poised for take-off — but no major retailer or other potential tenant has signed a lease or announced interest publicly.
"You will hear many announcements in the next few months," Ferguson said. The Wayne County Community College announcement is a signal to other potential tenants that the project is on track.
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http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opi...site/19205069/
In an effort to spruce up the local neighborhood grocery stores which Detroiter's depend on because there are only 3 major national chains operating in the city (once the Meijer at Grand River and McNichols opens), $5.3 million has been allocated for facade improvements by the Kresge Foundation.
Quote:
$5.3M to Make Grocery Shopping in Detroit More Cheerful
Monday, November 17, 2014, by Paul Beshouri
Without major chain grocery stores (aside from a tiny Whole Foods in Midtown), Detroit is served by a colorful collection of independent grocery stores and an unbeatable farmers market. Unfortunately, the industry's razor-thin profit margins (and security concerns) leave many independent stores stuck with drab, bunker-like exteriors. The Green Grocer Facade Program was created to help beautify these ugly ducklings, and it's already making a huge impact.
Funded by the Kresge Foundation and administered by the DEGC, the program offered 50% matching grants (up to $50,000) and technical expertise to businesses willing to improve their external appeareance. The response was unexpectedly huge. According to a press release, sixteen stores have agreed to begin an estimated $5.3M in total renovation, $500K of which will be covered by grant money.
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http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...e-cheerful.php
More Midtown Apartments to come, im not sure why they say distant future when work has already started and is expected to be done by late 2015, maybe its some of that end of the year denial.
Quote:
711 Alexandrine Rehab: New Apartments in the Distant Future
Wednesday, November 12, 2014, by Paul Beshouri
They're saying that the building original setup--56 teeny apartments--will be opened up into 35 one-bedroom units renting at market rate. No word on potential street-level storefronts, and we might not know for a while. The building isn't expected to reopen until late 2015.
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http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...ant-future.php
And lastly the mayor's brother Dan has been a big proponant of bringing the MLS to Detroit, he owns the Michigan Bucks who play in Pontiac and are essentially a AA baseball farm team equlivilant and plans to locate the new team and 5,000 seat staduim somewhere in downtown Detroit.
Quote:
Detroit soccer update: Stadium details coming; USL Pro club team delayed
By Bill Shea, December 19, 2014
The organizer of a plan to build a soccer-specific stadium in Detroit said he intends to have renderings of it done by January, but he hasn’t picked a location or finalized details of the new venue.
Those details will come later next year, said Dan Duggan, who announced in April he had preliminary approval from the Tampa, Fla.-based United Soccer Leagues to launch a USL Professional Division expansion team in Detroit.
The original plan was for a USL Pro club to play in Detroit next year, but the planning and financing work behind the scenes has pushed that back a year – a delay first reported online Wednesday by ClickOnDetroit’s soccer correspondent.
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The new Detroit team would cost about $2 million to operate annually, Duggan told Crain's in April, and he estimated a 5,000-seat stadium in the city could be built for up to $5 million.
He's not yet identifying potential stadium sites or other investors.
Duggan said he’s looking for 2.5 to 7 acres of land for a stadium complex that also would include two outdoor practice fields for adult and youth soccer use. He has said the stadium could be incorporated into an existing developed area or be a stand-alone project.
Duggan said he looked at sites in Pontiac, Livonia and Canton Township before deciding on downtown Detroit.
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A Detroit USL Pro team could open the door for potential MLS expansion: MLS and USL Pro agreed in January 2013 that the third-tier league would eventually integrate into MLS' reserve team system. Every USL Pro team will be owned and operated by MLS teams or have a formalized affiliation.
Duggan has said his long-term goal is to field a profitable USL team that eventually could be elevated to MLS — which is what happened to Orlando City FC. That team, last season's USL Pro champions that averaged 8,000 fans per game, is shifting from USL Pro to MLS in 2015.
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http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-pro-club-team
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Amazing addition to skyline. 
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