DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[DetroitSky]

^^^ Interesting that the Pao Detroit space was originally going to be Tirana Grille and for some unknown reason has morphed into the Asian concept. I do enjoy the connection between having an Asian restaurant there, since the space was originally the Oriental Theatre's lobby.

This Crain's article has the Monroe Blocks timeline:

• Winter/spring 2019: Site clearing/mass excavation

• Summer 2019: Foundations

• Fall 2019: Office tower structure

• Spring 2020: Residential building structure

• Spring 2020: Office tower MEP (shorthand for mechanical, electrical and plumbing) and fire protection systems

• Summer/fall 2020: Office tower enclosure

• Summer 2020: Vertical transport (read: elevators)

• Summer/fall 2020: Residential enclosure

• Spring/summer 2021: Office tower interior finishes

• Summer/fall 2021: Residential building interiors

• Fall 2021: Office tower complete

• Spring/summer 2022: Residential building complete

The same link also includes a video of the "super blocks" between Comerica and Woodward. The video has mysteriously been removed since the article came out, conveniently. Here's a screenshot, though:



In the screenshot some new buildings are shown in the Ilitch sea of parking lots behind the Fox and Hockeytown has magically turned into a brown surface lot. I doubt any of this will happen, but it's still an interesting bit of "news".

Canadian activist magazine moves to Detroit

Geez Magazine, a progressive Canadian quarterly that focuses on spirituality, social justice and politics, is moving to Detroit.

After 13 years publishing out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, the magazine will move its operations to a church in the city's Corktown neighborhood under new leadership.

Southwest Detroit native Lydia Wylie-Kellermann will helm Geez in its new home at St. Peter's Episcopal Church Detroit at 1950 Trumbull Ave. She's been editing the magazine's Catholic Worker section for five years.

Moving to Detroit places Geez in "the belly of the U.S. empire beast" and will likely change its identity, said Wylie-Kellermann, 32, but it's aiming to maintain its activist slant. It's also just across the river from its birth country.

Lawmakers want Detroit fort site designated as national park

Two lawmakers are pushing to have the site of a military fort in southwest Detroit designated as a national park.

Democratic state Sen. Stephanie Chang and Detroit City Councilwoman Raquel Castaneda-Lopez want the city to deed Historic Fort Wayne, located at 6325 W Jefferson Ave, to the federal government. Nearly 3,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition to support the initiative.

The star-shaped fort was built between 1842 and 1851 and features an 1848 limestone barracks building, commanding officers house, Spanish-American War guard house and a Tuskegee Airmen Museum. The grounds also contain a Native American burial site dating back more than 1,000 years.

[LMich]

Greenways to shared streets: Detroit to revamp 7 business corridors starting this spring

Detroit is finalizing plans to revamp seven business corridors across the city this spring as part of a $125 million campaign to breathe life into its neighborhoods. A request for proposals for the projects will be released later this month.

Dozens of city blocks, from the Livernois "Avenue of Fashion" to the heart of Mexicantown, are set to be overhauled into pedestrian-friendly plazas and greenways to encourage the type of "comeback" energy seen downtown and in Midtown. The designs, drawn up after dozens of community meetings, reimagine long-struggling retail centers that have the potential to be revitalized.

Livernois:



Bagley:



Joseph Campau (south of Jefferson):

[seabee1526]

Spring 2019:
Hudson parking deck foundations and structure
Hudson building the tower structure
Monroe site clearing / mass excavation
Summer 2019:
Hudson building the block structure
Monroe foundations
Fall 2019:
Hudson mechanical electrical plumbing site utilities
Monroe office tower structure
Winter / Spring 2020:
Hudson enclosure of block and tower
Monroe residential building structure
Monroe office tower mechanical electrical plumbing
Summer 2020:
Monroe residential enclosure
Monroe office tower enclosure
Spring 2021:
Hudson interiors
Fall 2021:
Monroe office tower complete
Summer 2022:
Hudson final site work
Monroe residential building complete

[DetroitRises]

Originally Posted by seabee1526

Spring 2019:
Hudson parking deck foundations and structure
Hudson building the tower structure
Monroe site clearing / mass excavation
Summer 2019:
Hudson building the block structure
Monroe foundations
Fall 2019:
Hudson mechanical electrical plumbing site utilities
Monroe office tower structure
Winter / Spring 2020:
Hudson enclosure of block and tower
Monroe residential building structure
Monroe office tower mechanical electrical plumbing
Summer 2020:
Monroe residential enclosure
Monroe office tower enclosure
Spring 2021:
Hudson interiors
Fall 2021:
Monroe office tower complete
Summer 2022:
Hudson final site work
Monroe residential building complete

Saw they were back to removing truckloads of gravel today possibly from ramp on tower side of of the development. Didn’t have a view from above to see whether it was the ramp or from the big pile that had been sitting On the old garage floor since last fall. Also 3/4 of Monroe Blocks now fenced with graghics and barriers

[animatedmartian]

Demolition has started on the city-owned portion of the Packard Plant.

• Video Link

[DetroitSky]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Demolition has started on the city-owned portion of the Packard Plant.

• Video Link

Sad but necessary. I've been in that building a few times. It's been beyond saving for years.

In other Packard Plant news:

Packard Plant owner vows to pay $185,000 tax bill to avoid foreclosure

The Spanish-born owner of the Packard Plant in Detroit has pledged to pay the property's overdue bills to avoid losing his portions of the massive factory ruin to foreclosure, his local attorney said Friday.

“There is no danger of this going to foreclosure," said attorney Joseph Kopietz of Clark Hill.

Arte Express Detroit, the development firm belonging to Packard Plant owner Fernando Palazuelo, was hit with a $185,000 bill for unpaid 2016 property taxes and last month appeared on a list of Wayne County properties that are at risk of tax foreclosure and forced auction in the fall.

[LMich]

An interesting article about business being pushed to Hamtramck as the inner-city spaces in Detroit get more expensive.

‘New blood’ helps refresh Hamtramck business scene

Hamtramck — Zlatan Sadikovic wanted to take a leap in life.

The Huntington Woods resident was looking for a place he could afford in an urban environment where he could live and work.

Sadikovic found it in a 3,000-square-foot rundown building on Jos. Campau. After two years and a complete overhaul, he opened up a coffee shop, Oloman Cafe, in late 2016.

“I’m happy being here,” Sadikovic said while standing by floor-to-ceiling windows in his loft overlooking Hamtramck’s downtown. “I plan to stay here a long time. I hope the community is going to grow and things will be better in the coming years. It’s obvious we’re heading that way.”

More small businesses are opening up shop in the two-square-mile enclave within Detroit, city officials say. That’s critical as the city, which has about 21,000 residents, faces the possibility of life without its General Motors plant, a large source of tax revenue.

According to Hamtramck officials, there are 568 registered businesses this year compared to 494 in 2015.

“It’s been steadily increasing since then,” City Manager Kathy Angerer said.

One draw could be the affordability of opening a business in Hamtramck.

As commercial and residential prices rise in Detroit — particularly in Detroit's downtown and Midtown Detroit — residents and business owners are finding Hamtramck as a viable option, Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski said.

[Docta_Love]

S&P upgrades Detroit's credit rating one notch closer to investment grade

CHAD LIVENGOOD
Crain's Detroit Business
February 07, 2019

-S&P upgrades Detroit's credit rating from B+ to BB-
-City's credit rating remains three notches below investment grade
-Rating upgrade follows $135 million bond sale solely using Detroit's credit

Detroit's credit rating is one step closer to exiting the Wall Street doldrums of junk bond status that has hampered the city's ability to borrow for years

"The rating improvement reflects our view of the city's stabilizing financial position, whereby we feel it is well situated to absorb increasing pension commitments and scheduled increases in debt service in the coming years, as well as possible revenue setbacks, while still sustaining year-to-year budget balance and very strong reserves," S&P analysts wrote in a note to investors published Thursday.

S&P analysts cited several economic and budgetary factors that continue to restrain Detroit's credit rating, including a looming increase in pension payments set to escalate in 2024 after a 10-year post-bankruptcy pension holiday ends.

"We feel that stabilizing these neighborhoods will be key to long-term stability," S&P analysts wrote. "A major factor still holding back this progress continues to be the struggling state of the Detroit public school system."

At the end of June, the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System was 77 percent funded, while the larger General Retirement System for city civil servants was 70 percent funded, according to the S&P report.

Detroit has set up a trust fund to cushion the blow of increased pension payments in 2024 when the city has to resume making full payments to the retirement systems after getting a 10-year reprieve in its 2013-2014 bankruptcy.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/news/s...vestment-grade

Detroit's Hotel Yorba under contract to new ownership

KIRK PINHO
Crain's Detroit Business
February 11, 2019



-Hotel Yorba under contract to unknown buyer
-Southwest Detroit property opened in 1926 on West Lafayette
-Broker, seller decline comment on pending deal

The property listing says the sale is contingent upon the seller, which Detroit property records say is Gerald Jankowski, investing the proceeds in a 1031 exchange, which allows the seller to invest the proceeds in another real estate deal and defer capital gains taxes. The deal includes both the real estate and the business.

According to Historic Detroit, which tracks Detroit buildings and architecture, the hotel opened in 1926 after being designed by Detroit architecture firm Pollmar & Ropes for hotelier Samuel Plotkin. It cost less than $200,000 to build.

A 2013 article in Curbed Detroit describes it as a building that has "grown up to be part retirement home, part transient destination, and formerly part parolee drop-off." It has about 300 rooms.

The listing says the property is 49,500 square feet and has been on the market since late September. It also says it costs $100,000 annually to operate it.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/voices...-new-ownership

[DetroitSky]

I just came across a higher quality and altered rendering of Chemical Bank/TCF's headquarters posted about a week ago.



It still looks as if it's abutting the Fyfe Building. I wonder if it'll be cantilevered over the alley there or if they're closing the alley at this end.

Here's the original rendering for comparison:

[LMich]

I'm really not sure how new that is, though I saw it included in a story a week or two ago. It's certainly a refined one from the original, but not the one they are selling to the trades which was posted a few pages back, which is better in my opinion. That screen on Woodward can not be allowed.

[LMich]

One Campus Martius: Feb 11


https://www.detroityes.com/mb/showth...-Martius/page2

You kind of forget since it's filling in a "gap" in the building, and thus not the most visible of projects just how big this is. 310,000 square feet of new office space is not nothing.

[DetroitSky]

And development news keeps pushing out of the greater downtown area:

Sugar House owner envisions Korean bar, high-end sushi counter in southwest Detroit

The Detroit restaurateur known for Sugar House bar in Corktown and Wright & Co. downtown bought a building in southwest Detroit that he plans to turn into a Korean watering hole and chef's-choice sushi counter.

Dave Kwiatkowski of the Detroit Optimist Society — the parent company for Sugar House, as well as The Peterboro, Honest John's and Bad Luck Bar — plans an $800,000 overhaul and expansion of a two-story building on Michigan Avenue west of I-96.

The enclave is about a mile and a half straight west from Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Central Station, which it's redeveloping for $350 million as part of a wider planned Corktown campus.

With City Council approval in early February, Kwiatkowski has the green light to buy a 0.28-acre vacant lot at 4503 Michigan Ave. that neighbors the one set for the two Asian concepts. The $63,000 property sale hasn't yet closed.

In a second phase of a longer-term vision, Kwiatkowski wants to build a mixed-use development on the lot, which used to house a gas station. Plans aren't firm, but the current idea is connected live-work space — storefronts below and apartments above. The team and financing haven't yet been assembled.

The article also contains updated info on this restaurant planned by Eastern Market:

Gratiot Avenue Provisions, a restaurant, charcuterie and wine bar, was previously expected to open in fall 2018 at 1528 Gratiot Ave. in Eastern Market. It's now expected to open later this year due to building issues.

Detroit to sell historic Lee Plaza for affordable housing project

The City of Detroit plans to sell the historic building to Detroit-based Roxbury Group and Ethos Development Partners for $350,000, according to a news release.

If approved by the Detroit City Council, a $50 million renovation project would create 180 residential units, half of which would be reserved for families with a median income level between $40,000 annually or lower. The council is expected to take up approval this month.

Construction is expected to begin in 2021.

Former Salvation Army complex in Detroit sells again

The vacant former Salvation Army Denby Center for Children & Family Services in northwest Detroit has again changed ownership.

The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division left the multi-building property in 2016, consolidating services for homeless women and children there to other facilities.

An entity of Southfield-based IDG Holdings LLC bought the sprawling campus on nearly four acres in 2017 for $515,000 and has now sold it to ARI Management LLC, registered in Southfield, for $1.8 million under a land contract.

The deal closed Jan. 2, according to city property records.


The Denby Center property, mostly enclosed by fencing, has approximately 92,000 square feet of buildings. The most distinctive is the original mansion with an added gymnasium and cafeteria. It's at 20775 Pembroke Ave., just south of Eight Mile Road.

ARI Management plans housing and services for homeless veterans there, according to city of Detroit zoning board documents from mid-2018.

[LMich]

Kind of uneasy about Roxbury thinking it's going to take them two years to do all of the preliminary work (finding financing, getting council approvals, etc.) just to get the Lee Plaza renovation started, though. I thought they had more development juice than that.

One Campus Martius expansion: 310,000 square feet off office space, February 13



https://twitter.com/DetDevelopment/s...37925332074503

Baltimore Station 1: 23 apartments, over 10,000 square feet of retail space, February 8





https://twitter.com/DetDevelopment/s...84785486278656

[DetroitSky]

Detroit's The Lip Bar to open downtown store

The Lip Bar, a Detroit-based lipstick line, is celebrating the grand opening of its flagship store on Feb. 23. The store is located in Parker's Alley, a retail section behind the Shinola Hotel downtown.

Detroit native Melissa Butler founded The Lip Bar in 2012. The cosmetics brand offers vegan and cruelty-free lipsticks and lip glosses.

She received national attention when she appeared on an episode of "Shark Tank" in 2015, but her proposal was rejected by the judges. However, three years later, Butler partnered with Target and her lipsticks were sold in stores across the country. In 2017, she launched a retail store in Detroit's West Village.

Market, affordable housing to anchor Jefferson Chalmers revitalization

Detroit — A new development with a grocery store and affordable housing is expected to anchor a revamped Jefferson Avenue in east Detroit.

The project is a part of the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, a city initiative seeking to reinvigorate areas in the city outside downtown and Midtown with the help of philanthropic dollars. Jefferson Chalmers is one of seven neighborhoods the city is targeting to attract investment. Plans presented to residents Saturday seek to attract investment to return East Jefferson to the walkable, thriving retail corridor it once was.

Anchoring the revitalization plans are a new building on a city-owned 14-acre parcel at Jefferson and Piper Boulevard. It would house a brand-name grocery store a developer would attract, and affordable rental apartments with a price goal of about $950 per month for a two-bedroom unit. The first phase would include 60-70 units, though the property has space for more in the future. The city expects to put out a request for proposals from developers in the spring.


Down the street, the vacant Vanity Ballroom building at 1024 Newport would come to life with first-floor retail and community space on the second floor. The city hopes to work with East Jefferson Development Corp. and Shelborne Development on the project and gather community insight on the types of businesses that should move into the 1929-built dance hall that has been closed for decades. Renovations are expected to begin in the spring, starting with stabilizing the building's roof.

The plans also call for the vacant Kresge building at 14300 E. Jefferson to become an Alma Kitchen restaurant and new offices for East Jefferson Development.

Investments into the Jefferson streetscape would also seek to improve bus service, ensure crosswalk safety, protect utility lines and plant trees.

The city also is working to preserve and grow the 600 units of affordable housing already existing in the neighborhood.

While it is unfeasible for Guyton Elementary to reopen, the city plans to turn the first floor into a community space and transform some of the classrooms into 40 affordable rental apartments with a $950 price point for a two-bedroom unit. A request for proposals will go out this spring.

"Right now, it's vacant and having a pretty negative impact on everything around it," Cox said. "So the notion of saving one of the schools and repurposing it for housing and for community uses in it, I think that will be a big win for the neighborhood."

Also in the spring, the city will seek a developer to rehabilitate 16 vacant land-bank houses to preserve into affordable, for-sale housing. They are also offering zero percent home repair loans and launched a nonprofit called Rebuilding Together, which will allow free home repair services for low-income houses in the neighborhood, said Allen Penniman, the city's urban planner leading the Jefferson Chalmer projects.

These projects join construction already underway at the vacant Marlborough apartment building north of Jefferson and the IDAO Building south of Jefferson. The $5.4 million redevelopment with East Jefferson Development and Shelborne would create 23 mixed-income residential units with 12 set aside for residents making $30,000 or less. They are expected to open in the fall.

Proposed grocery and apartment building on E. Jefferson and Piper


14300 E. Jefferson, formerly Kresge's. Planned to house Alma Kitchen and Jefferson East Inc. offices.


The Marlborough, currently under renovation into 15 apartments


IDAO Building, currently under renovation into 8 apartments

[LMich]

Another recent shot showing the Pit and One Campus Martius expansion:


https://www.detroityes.com/mb/showth...388#post566388

I guess ostensibly the shot was to show of the Stott Building crown's lighting, but it's really not much different than its past iterations.

[LMich]

Interesting story:


Kirk Pinho

New retail tenants move into Cadillac Place after a change in state law

The Cadillac Place office building in Detroit's New Center area has a pair of new retail tenants that have signed on after a change in state law.

Busted Bra Shop, which opened Feb. 4 in 1,000 square feet, and the Foodie Fresh Market, which opens Tuesday in about 700 square feet, have taken space in the 1.4 million-square-foot former home to General Motors Co. on West Grand Boulevard. Both are paying $17 per square foot plus utilities with seven-year leases with two five-year options, said the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget, which oversees the state's real estate assets and leasing. The state of Michigan owns the building.

The state has had difficulty securing retail tenants in recent years in spite of a hot real estate market, partly because of a state law requiring that dining and concession options in state-owned buildings be owned by blind people.

That had caused difficulty getting retail space leased to tenants because retailers generally like the foot traffic restaurants bring, and the state has had difficulty filling space with blind restaurant owners.

The Michigan Legislature modified the law in May by carving out an exemption for state-owned facilities that exceed 1 million square feet, which makes it apply only to Cadillac Place.

There is now about 27,300 square feet of usable square feet of retail space available, plus another 45,500 square feet if existing state agencies are moved to upstairs floors, the DTMB said. The office space is about 70 percent occupied.

This actually jogged my memory about this quirky rule; and it reminded me that the cafeteria in the Anderson House State Office Building in Lansing is operated by the blind.

[DetroitSportsFan]

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC-hM6...ZawzA/featured

I know a lot of people have been asking if there was a webcam for the Hudson’s site. I just found a YouTube page that’s been doing timelapses every day of the site. Cool way to see the work that’s going on.

[SupaK]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC-hM6...ZawzA/featured

I know a lot of people have been asking if there was a webcam for the Hudson’s site. I just found a YouTube page that’s been doing timelapses every day of the site. Cool way to see the work that’s going on.

This is awesome, thanks DetroitSportsFan!

[DetroitSky]

Cobo Center in Detroit to get new name, new history

Chemical Bank purchased the naming rights over the summer to the Cobo Convention Center for $1.5 million annually for 22 years – for a total of $33 million, an industry record – but the new name will not be announced until year’s end.

That is because Chemical, one of three competitors who presented naming plans to the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority that operates Cobo, recently announced plans to merge with TCF Financial Corporation.

That move that will create the 27th largest bank in the country. If the merger goes through, the convention center will become the TCF Center. If not, it will be called Chemical Bank Center. The former is likely.

Small-business incubator Ponyride sells Corktown building for $3.3M

Detroit — Ponyride, the small-business incubator that's helped foster dozens of entrepreneurs and artists, has sold its Corktown building for $3.3 million and will keep the nonprofit going in the nearby Core City neighborhood.

The current Ponyride building at 1401 Vermont was purchased by local developer Marc Nassif who plans to renovate the 30,000-square-foot building and charge market rents for the space, said Phil Cooley. Cooley co-founded the Ponyride organization.

Current building at 1401 Vermont


New building at 5203 Loraine

LGBT Detroit looks to raise $1 million for vision as gathering place

Nonprofit LGBT Detroit is seeking $1 million to complete what its founder dubs the biggest African-American-led lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender center property in North America.

The organization, which is focused on support, education, health and awareness for Detroit's LGBT residents, bought a building next door to its 3,800-square-foot center in the Murray Hill neighborhood.

The nonprofit is expanding its footprint by two-thirds in an effort that requires $150,000 to get the second building operating, but a total of $1 million by mid-2020 for its total vision of an event and community space, said Curtis Lipscomb, founder and executive director.

New angel investor group launches in Detroit

A new angel-investor group in Southeastern Michigan, the Woodward Angels, has been quietly planning a launch and will convene its first meeting this week at the Shinola Hotel in Detroit.

The group will be a legal affiliate of Grand Angels Holding Co. LLC, the holding company for the Grand Rapids-based Grand Angels, considered the most active angel investor group in Michigan and one of the most active in the Midwest.

Tim Parker, the president of the Grand Angels, said he expects about 100 high-net-worth individuals at the inaugural informational meeting, which is closed to the public and aimed at getting attendees to join the new group.

The creation of the new group would help fill a gap in the angel-investing community since the Great Lakes Angels, another group, stopped holding monthly pitch meetings early last year.

[LMich]

Ooo, the new lighting on the Stott is better than I thought:


https://twitter.com/kirkpinhoCDB/sta...83695037616130


https://twitter.com/thekraemeredge/s...39222622941184

The media was given a tour of the renovated James Scott House/Mansion, BTW. It's now apartments and includes a small, garden-level commercial space.






https://twitter.com/annalise_frank/s...05648408244227

Some great shots of the completed Shinola Hotel reconstruction:


https://twitter.com/BacktoDetroit/st...70408301699077


https://twitter.com/TheKyleBerryman/...22234247798784