The Redevelopment of Detroit

[fishrose]

Originally Posted by Detroit Free Press

Apartment project to ease housing shortage in Midtown


An artist's rendering of the Auburn, a mixed-use project that will provide retail and housing options in Midtown Detroit. / Berg Muirhead and Associates

BY JOHN GALLAGHER

DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

The shortage of rental apartments in Detroit’s popular Midtown district would be eased a little by construction of a new mixed-use project breaking ground today.

Known as the Auburn, the $12-million project will create 58 rental apartments and 11 retail storefronts on a vacant site on the southeast corner of Cass and Canfield. There will be 97 parking spaces behind the L-shaped building. The project is scheduled to open in August 2012.

Designed by Kraemer Design Group of Detroit, the Auburn would feature studio and one-bedroom apartments renting for about $700 to $850 per month. The target market is graduate students, young professionals and others looking for reasonably priced units in the district.

This was announced over a year ago, and with The Union at Midtown going through its entire development cycle before anything happened I figured this project was dead. Good to see they're starting work on it.

[north 42]

This is a great announcement, it will really help that area, as it's one of the few bright spots in the city. I can't wait for the Whole foods to open there next year too. It'll be so convienent since I only live a couple miles away in Windsor.

[DetroitMan]

Dan Gilbert to purchase two more buildings in downtown Detroit

Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert has agreed to buy two more downtown buildings on Woodward Avenue, adding to his portfolio of real estate as he tries to shape a new entrepreneurial zone in the heart of the city.


Gilbert and his partners will acquire two city-owned structures at 1520 and 1528 Woodward, just south of Grand Circus Park. The city took control of the buildings during the run-up to Super Bowl XL in 2006 and has been marketing them without success ever since.

http://www.freep.com/article/2011092...text|FRONTPAGE

[fishrose]

Media production partners buy GAR Building in Detroit

Originally Posted by Detroit News

It took six years, but the downtown Detroit's castle-like building originally used byUnion soldiers of the Civil War is now owned by a group of longtime believers in Detroit.
The Grand Army of the Republic Hall, commonly known as the GAR building, at Cass and Grand River has been purchased byTom and David Carleton and their partner Sean Emery from the city of Detroit for $220,000, the company's officials confirmed Thursday.
They are partners in the media production firm called Mindfield, which the Carleton brothers have housed in The Library Loft building in downtown. They bought that building, which now houses Vicente's Cuban eatery, in 1992 and founded Mindfield in 2000.
Mindfield will eventually move into the top two floors of the GAR, and the partners said they plan a $2 million to $3 million renovation. The rest will be of a mix of retail —possibly a ground-floor restaurant — office space and a small memorial to Civil War veterans.

Great news about a great building.

[LMich]

A pretty significantly sized (and interesting) mixed-use development is taking place in lil' ole Corktown that's sort of flying under the radar:

Corktown alternative movie house planned

by John Monaghan | Detroit Free Press

November 9, 2011

Organizers of the Burton Theatre, a downtown Detroit alternative film space that lost its lease in May, hope to reopen early next year in a renovated industrial building in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood.

Corktown Cinema will screen movies as part of a 100,000-square-foot complex at 2051 Rosa Parks Blvd. (near Michigan Avenue) that once housed a brass foundry. A January launch is expected, as long as organizers can raise around $15,000 for start-up costs.

"We look forward to showing offbeat, cult and independent movies that challenge the audience and us," says Nathan Faustyn, who is spearheading the project with fellow Detroiters Jeff Else and Brandon Walley.

...

He says he already has a quarter of the old foundry building leased with retail and service businesses, including the New Horizons computer education center and the Detroit offices of Curbed and the Huffington Post. He has additional ideas for the Corktown corridor, already home to the popular Slows Bar BQ a couple of blocks down Michigan Avenue.

...

[Centropolis]

Glad to see the Grand Army building building renovated, it's always a classic "Detroit blight" photo, but it's a really neat building.

[hudkina]

The city needs to do to Michigan Avenue through Corktown what it did to Woodward Avenue between Campus Martius and Grand Circus Park. Either that or do the Washington Blvd treatment.

[DeBaliviere]

Originally Posted by fishrose

Media production partners buy GAR Building in Detroit



Great news about a great building.

LOVELOVELOVE that building.

[bigboy]

Two year just to get a grocery store approved. really? am i the only one who finds that time frame ridiculous? Id hate to see how long it would take them to approve a new factory but at that rate id have to ball park it at 15 years. And with all the bureaucracy involving international water crossings at the federal state and local government levels i'll be a dead man before i see a second bridge to Canada.

[subterranean]

Speaking of a bridge to Canada, what do you speculate will happen to Michigan Central Depot if the state-sponsored bridge ever gets approved? Moroun seems to be pumping quite a bit of money into that thing right now, but I think Detroit and the state will never absolve that guy no matter how much he spends on the building. Here we are in this awkward predicament of desiring this beautiful building to be restored and reused. I wouldn't put it past him to threaten to demolish it even after he sinks millions into it if the state bridge is approved.

[fishrose]

Originally Posted by subterranean

Speaking of a bridge to Canada, what do you speculate will happen to Michigan Central Depot if the state-sponsored bridge ever gets approved? Moroun seems to be pumping quite a bit of money into that thing right now, but I think Detroit and the state will never absolve that guy no matter how much he spends on the building. Here we are in this awkward predicament of desiring this beautiful building to be restored and reused. I wouldn't put it past him to threaten to demolish it even after he sinks millions into it if the state bridge is approved.

Maroun is sick of being associated with the train station. He's a douchebag, but he doesn't want people to think he is, and handing that huge PR nightmare off to someone else for redevelopment is allegedly becoming one of his top priorities. He has a New York-based investor who's very interested in redeveloping it, and the work he's doing now is the first step. I'm skeptical of anything Maroun does, but I don't think he's stupid enough to vindictively tear down Michigan Central. The public relations fallout and legal consequences would effectively strip him of any political influence he has in the area.

[bigboy]

I was just making a point that to get anything off the ground and moving in this country takes far too long. That's one reason America is in the shitter right now but i digress. Isn't it illegal to tear down a building if its on the historic building list? And what would the building even be used for if it was renovated? The police don't want it for a headquarters, Its been said it would be more profitable to build a new casino rather than renovating it into one and There's not enough people coming to Detroit via Train to restore it to its original purpose.

[hudkina]

The building could conceivably work for residential, but it would never be cost effective. The work that Maroun is doing now will only help lower the costs of redevelopment for whoever may purchase the building. The casino is still by far the best option, IMO. Granted, it's highly unlikely that the powers that be (namely the other three casinos) would allow that to happen.

[DetroitMan]

David Whitney Building renovation moves forward

A plan to remake the vacant David Whitney Building into retail, apartments and a boutique hotel is taking two big steps forward.

First, developers have signed Starwood Hotels to brand the 136-room hotel as part of its Aloft line, a high-design, urban-oriented model similar to Starwood's W brand hotels but at a more modest price.

And, second, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority is expected Tuesday to take up the project's request for tax credits that will undergird financing for the $82-million project.

David DiRita of the Roxbury Group, the Detroit-based development company heading up the project, said if other financing falls into place then construction could begin in the first half of 2012, with the reopening of the building sometime in late 2013 or 2014.

http://www.freep.com/article/2011121...text|FRONTPAGE

[Rizzo]

Very exciting news. With the David Whitney and Broderick renovations + recent news of additional employees downtown, there's definitely potential for more ancillary business growth of cafes, restaurants, and retail.

[hudkina]

Sounds great. While a W would have been a nice feather, Aloft is just as good. I wonder what will become of the old Pontchartrain Hotel. It was the perfect location for a Sheraton. How easy would it be to reopen the hotel? Did anyone stay there in the short time it was called the Sheraton Riverwalk (or whatever it was called...)

[Rizzo]

Can't really speak on this since I didn't stay there but I heard it was dated despite renovations. The old ponch could be something nice with right kind of investment / management

[fishrose]

I stayed at Aloft Minneapolis back in September and loved it. This is going to be huge for downtown. Does anyone know if Starwood is developing the apartments as well? I'd be very interested in living there.

[DTW]

Originally Posted by hudkina

Sounds great. While a W would have been a nice feather, Aloft is just as good. I wonder what will become of the old Pontchartrain Hotel. It was the perfect location for a Sheraton. How easy would it be to reopen the hotel? Did anyone stay there in the short time it was called the Sheraton Riverwalk (or whatever it was called...)

There was thead in DYes about this, when it became a Sheraton it got all new decor and fixtures, this stuff is still in the building. But the hotel was plauged with faulty heat/cooling, plumbing and elevators so HVAC and the like need a major overhaul.

[DecoJim]

A major step backward?

The light rail system would have been an investment in the revitalization of the Woodward corridor. It was decided that Detroit could not afford the upkeep costs.

Link to one of the articles about the cancellation and the "Fast" bus route that will replace it.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...eaper-bus-plan