[QUOTE=DetroitSky;8247464]An updated list:

Currently being renovated/renovations planned:
1. Book Tower-475ft
2. David Stott Building-437ft
3. Free Press Building-190ft
4. Metropolitan Building-183ft
5. Michigan Central Station-232ft
6. United Artists Building-230ft

Reopened since 2010:
1. David Broderick Tower-369ft
2. Book-Cadillac Hotel-349ft
3. David Whitney Building-272ft
4. Crowne Plaza Riverfront-262ft
5. Fort Shelby Hotel-242ft

New construction approved/underway/recently completed:
1. Hudson's site development-800ft
2. One Monroe Avenue-536ft
3. Crowne Plaza Riverfront tower 2-338ft
4. Monroe Blocks residential tower 1-26 floors
5. Monroe Blocks residential tower 2-16 floors
6. The Griswold-15 floors

Planned/rumored new construction:
1. Grand & Woodward tower- ~30 floors
2. Residential tower near Comerica Park
3. Hotel near LCA
4. Hotel on Hockeytown Cafe site

Still vacant without plans:
1. Executive Plaza-290ft[/QUO

July 27 2018
Chemical Bank along with city and Wayne county leaders announced plans to locate its HQ in downtown Detroit on the corner of Elizabeth and Woodward in a soon to be built 20 story tower.

[QUOTE=jmcilreavy;8261141]http://www.crainsdetroit.com/sites/d...?itok=zAauwDFk

Not to give any false hope to rumors, but I've been hearing a lot of rumblings about the purchase and redevelopment of Executive Plaza. Apparently, Holy Trinity Church shares a parking lot with Executive Plaza and the details are being worked out to move forward with a sale/redevelopment. Like I said, this could all just be rumored, but I have no reason to not trust my source.

Executive Plaza was listed for sale not too long ago. The sale includes four surface parking lots. I would not be surprised if it sold and an announcement for plans is on the way. Would be cool to reopen it as office space and build some residential mid rise/high rises on some of the parking lots.

Updated list 8/6

Currently being renovated/renovations planned:
1. Book Tower-475ft
2. David Stott Building-437ft
3. Michigan Central Station-232ft
4. United Artists Building-230ft
5. Free Press Building-190ft
6. Metropolitan Building-183ft

Reopened since 2010:
1. David Broderick Tower-369ft
2. Book-Cadillac Hotel-349ft
3. David Whitney Building-272ft
4. Crowne Plaza Riverfront-262ft
5. Fort Shelby Hotel-242ft

New construction approved/underway/recently completed:
1. Hudson's site development-800ft
2. One Monroe Avenue-536ft
3. Crowne Plaza Riverfront tower 2-338ft
4. Chemical Bank headquarters-20 floors
5. Monroe Blocks residential tower 1-26 floors
6. Monroe Blocks residential tower 2-16 floors
7. The Griswold-15 floors

Rumored new construction:
1. Grand & Woodward tower- ~30 floors
2. Residential tower near Comerica Park
3. Hotel near LCA
4. Hotel on Hockeytown Cafe site

Still vacant without plans:
1. Executive Plaza-290ft

I asked a journalist that covers this kind of stuff in Detroit to look into it. Hope it's true. I share the hope for redevelopment with low rise apartments to fill the parking lots. Wouldn't be shocked if Ford was involved.

Excellent! I can't wait to hear what this person finds. Please keep me informed

Kirk Pinho from Detroit Crains is the reporter I reached out to. He definitely has been looking into based on a couple tweets he recently made. It appears that the property is still listed and was in fact updated to reflect the Ford purchase of the train station. No asking price was listed.

For those of you interested, here's the link to the listing.

Updating the list due to some Monroe Block heights being revealed:

Currently being renovated/renovations planned:
1. Book Tower-475ft
2. David Stott Building-437ft
3. Michigan Central Station-232ft
4. United Artists Building-230ft
5. Free Press Building-190ft
6. Metropolitan Building-183ft

Reopened since 2010:
1. David Broderick Tower-369ft
2. Book-Cadillac Hotel-349ft
3. David Whitney Building-272ft
4. Crowne Plaza Riverfront-262ft
5. Fort Shelby Hotel-242ft

New construction approved/underway/recently completed:
1. Hudson's site development-800ft
2. One Monroe Avenue-536ft
3. Monroe Blocks b3-341 ft
4. Crowne Plaza Riverfront tower 2-338ft
5. Chemical Bank headquarters-20 floors
6. Monroe Blocks a2-187ft
6. The Griswold-15 floors
7. Monroe Blocks b1-122ft

Rumored new construction:
1. Grand & Woodward tower- ~30 floors
2. Residential tower near Comerica Park
3. Hotel near LCA
4. Hotel on Hockeytown Cafe site

Still vacant without plans:
1. Executive Plaza-290ft

Crown Plaza Hotel is now on hold/canceled due to opposition within the city council.

Hudson tower is now over 900 feet tall. It's a city within a city.

^ That's awesome news!!:tup:

YESSS! Not only is the Hudson tower bigger, 912 ft or 62 stories but so is the building next to it. The Podium or Block as it's known, is now 14 stories at 232 feet. This softens the gut punch that the second Crown Plaza tower being killed off by city council.

The documents recently released for the Hudson's development gave the Hudson block building a height of 240 feet at its highest point, so I'll use that in the list. The second Crowne Plaza tower seems to be more on hold than cancelled, but for now I'll eliminate it from the list.

Currently being renovated/renovations planned:
1. Book Tower-475ft
2. David Stott Building-437ft - should be opening within the next few months
3. Michigan Central Station-232ft
4. United Artists Building-230ft
5. Free Press Building-190ft
6. Metropolitan Building-183ft - December 2018 opening

Reopened since 2010:
1. David Broderick Tower-369ft
2. Book-Cadillac Hotel-349ft
3. David Whitney Building-272ft
4. Crowne Plaza Riverfront-262ft
5. Fort Shelby Hotel-242ft

New construction approved/underway/recently completed:
1. Hudson tower-912ft
2. One Monroe Avenue-536ft
3. Monroe Blocks b3-341 ft
4. Chemical Bank headquarters-20 floors
5 Hudson block: 240ft
6. Monroe Blocks a2-187ft
7. The Griswold-15 floors
8. Monroe Blocks b1-122ft

Rumored new construction:
1. Grand & Woodward tower- ~30 floors
2. Residential tower near Comerica Park
3. Hotel near LCA
4. Hotel on Hockeytown Cafe site

Still vacant without plans:
1. Executive Plaza-290ft

Are there any construction thread dedicated to Detroit? How is Detroit doing recently?

The city compilation thread on this site has a Detroit specific thread that has been a wealth of good information. I can only speak for myself but I'm impressed with the recovery and optimistic for the future. Long road ahead and so many challenges to overcome but night and day difference from 10 years ago.

Out of curiosity I tried to find videos of Detroit from 10 years ago. This one specifically highlighting the ones that were vacant or very visibly vacant.

• Video Link

It turns out a vast majority of the buildings pictured have been restored, some as recently as last year like the Metropolitan Building now reopening as Element Hotel.

The Broderick Tower is now home to apartments.

The David Whitney Building next door is half hotel half apartment building.

Pretty much all the buildings around Capitol Park have been restored, with the Farwell expected to be finished pretty soon.

And there's numerous other smaller buildings that are filled with resturants and retail as well as some buildings that were already occupied 10 years ago, but got updated and are now at max capacity (notably with a lot of the properties Dan Gilbert has bought).

The only building that I think is still untouched is the Park Avenue building. It changed owners less than a year ago and there are plans to put in residential units, but like with other Detroit projects it's been a slow start.

Of course, there's a few buildings in the video that were demolished over the last 10 years, notably the uniquely shaped Lafayette Building. It was leveled in 2010. Had it only lasted a few more years and its fate could have been entirely different.

• Video Link

In addition to the restorations, a number of downtown parks have seen improvements, the QLine was built, and there's been lots of new construction on the periphery of downtown such as in Corktown, Brush Park, and Lafayette Park. Extending out from there, Midtown and New Center are also seeing more new projects.

But there's still a lot more to do, namely, actually connecting downtown with the rest of the city. The QLine is hopefully a start, but the city needs a real plan for mass transit to continue this momentum. For the neighborhoods, crime and education is still an issue and will forever be a detriment to retaining a stable population until it's dealt with. Jobs aren't so much an issue now as they were in years past (the city unemployment rate has been going down), but going back to education, in the long-term, there's nothing really pointing Detroit away from manufacturing. The car industry is still king and that still makes the city vulnerable to fluctuations with car sales or any sweeping changes to the auto industry. My hope is that other industries can grow and be cultivated in Detroit before any dire situation like that happens.

For what it's worth, I believe these are the only empty buildings downtown that have no announced plans. We'll say downtown is the area surrounded by the river, I-375, I-75 and M10. All of these are 100% unused. I may be missing a few, but these are, at least, the larger ones.

1. Fowler Building, 8 floors
2. Film Exchange Building, 7 floors
3. 27-31 State St., 6 floors
4. 1133 Griswold St, 6 floors
5. Blenheim Building, 4 floors
6. Moose Lodge, 3 floors

There's a few empty buildings awaiting renovation, awaiting demolition for new construction, and a few with no announced plans but are in the hands of dependable developers. There's also the vacant Executive Plaza on the border of downtown and Corktown, but it's just outside of the 75/375/M10/river area.

Regardless, its a very small number compared to the amount of empty stuff we had 5-10 years ago.

The state street building is such a beauty, kinda shocking nothing has been done with it, who owns it? Fowler just went up for sale, it's owned by New York slumlords who did nothing with it (trash people).

I wonder if there's a historical facade hiding behind 1133 Griswold or if it was ripped off.

This is how 1133 Griswold looked as built, when it was home to the United Savings Bank:
https://www.detroityes.com/mb/attach...1&d=1492393670
Source

If you look between the vertical grills on each side of the Griswold facade you can barely see the original facade behind it. I have no idea how much of it is behind there, and obviously the ground floor has been entirely stripped.

that gives me hope that it could be restored, anybody know who owns it?