DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[Detroit]

Originally Posted by Detroit1800

Are they just boarding up the windows or taking them out?

Unfortunately I wasn't around long enough to find that out. I was passing by on my way to a meeting. I couldn't remember if the windows were boarded up or not.

[DetroitSky]

They’re just boarding up windows. I just drove by and there’s more boarded up in the lightwell than in the photo posted. Big surprise there. I honestly doubt we’re going to see any of the redevelopments or new construction announced by Olympia anytime soon, if at all. I wonder if threatened to fine them for leaving it open so long or if this is just to appease them after the Eddystone missed its deadline.

Also, LMich, I think the Presbyterian Villages of Michigan development will be near their Thome Rivertown development they've been building in phases, but I haven't heard any actual details.

[LMich]

Originally Posted by DetroitSky

Also, LMich, I think the Presbyterian Villages of Michigan development will be near their Thome Rivertown development they've been building in phases, but I haven't heard any actual details.

Okay, so maybe I hadn't heard of this one, then. Do you know the preliminary specs on this one? It looks like there are two or three surface lots directly across the street they could build a slim, rectangular building on like their current property.

[DetroitSky]

Originally Posted by LMich

Okay, so maybe I hadn't heard of this one, then. Do you know the preliminary specs on this one? It looks like there are two or three surface lots directly across the street they could build a slim, rectangular building on like their current property.

Unfortunately I don't have any more information. The mention in the article was the first I've heard of it.

On solid footing, Belle Isle Aquarium plans expansion

^^^ This headline is misleading, but good news regarding the aquarium either way:

According to the Detroit News, all but a handful of tanks will be open by the end of the year, filled with aquatic species from as far as the Congo River Basin. "[W]ith its operations now securely in the hands of the nonprofit Belle Isle Conservancy," writes Maureen Feighan, "the aquarium continues to reinvent itself with new exhibits and structural improvements."

Other potential improvements include new signage, a walkway connecting the aquarium to the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, and a new water reservoir system and an electrical system upgrade so tanks can be automatically filled instead of manually by its staff of volunteers.

The ultimate goal is having all 56 tanks in operation, which aquarium curator Paul Shuert says they are on track to do by next summer.

This article mentions two new builds by the same developer near the corner of Trumbull and Bagley in Corktown:

The next step is to build, and Mulloy plans to start soon. On Bagley, they own the lot right next door. It’s skinny, but it can fit a retail space with an apartment above it. In the past few years, they’ve considered building another larger property on the adjacent lot on Trumbull—now their parking lot. It’s still a possibility, but they’ll first build on Bagley, with hopes that it will finish next year.

Wayne State's most expensive student housing opens this week

Students will start moving in Saturday to the 407-bed, 11-story center tower of Wayne State University's newest and priciest apartment complex.

The first phase of the three-building, $111 million mixed housing-retail project is coming online for the fall semester.

The other two connected buildings comprising Anthony Wayne Drive Apartments are still under construction and are expected to open in June 2019. The entire complex is to be the largest student housing structure on the Detroit campus, with 841 total beds in 406,800 square feet, university Chief Housing Officer and associate vice president Tim Michael said during a tour Monday.

Supino Pizzeria owner buys building in New Center for new restaurant

Dave Mancini of Supino Pizzeria in Detroit's Eastern Market bought a building in the city's New Center neighborhood and is planning a restaurant.

Mancini bought the building at 6519 Woodward Ave., Sue Mosey, executive director of area nonprofit and developer Midtown Detroit Inc., confirmed to Crain's. Mosey did not respond to questions on timeline and purchase price.

Kuzzo's Chicken & Waffles plans second location for Woodward Avenue, owner says
Queen Lillian II LLC, The Platform LLC in advanced negotiations to develop project together

Ronald Bartell said he's signed a five-year lease for a 4,000-square-foot location in a to-be-built mixed-use development called The Woodward @ Midtown, which has long been planned by Detroit-based developer Queen Lillian II LLC. The site is at Woodward Avenue at Stimson Street just south of Mack Avenue across from The Bonstelle Theatre.

Construction of the building, which will include ground-floor retail and several stories of residential units along Woodward Avenue, is expected to take 18 months after work begins this fall, Bartell said. His own restaurant build-out will take 60 days, which leads to an opening in early 2020, he said.

Bartell has not yet hired a restaurant designer, but said he plans to have a larger kitchen. That's a lesson from the first Kuzzo's, whose kitchen isn't large enough to handle food demand at times, he said.

[LMich]

The Platform is proposing another building in New Center. Their The Boulevard across the street is well under construction and includes 231 apartments and commercial space.

Another Platform development: 304 apartments, 28,000 square feet of grocery in New Center

By Kirk Pinho, Crain's Detroit Business

August 24, 2018

A Detroit-based developer has revealed plans for a new multifamily mixed-use building with a grocery store and hundreds of residences in the city's New Center area.

The Platform LLC, headed up by Peter Cummings and Dietrich Knoer, expects to build 304 units and a 28,300-square-foot grocery store on what is a surface parking lot immediately west of the Fisher Building it co-owns.

Update on The Boulevard

July 25


The Platform

August 16


The Platform

[DetroitSky]

Updates from the past month:

July 28


Rocco's Italian Deli opened in June 2018 at 3627 Cass


Not sure when this was done, but this old Chinatown sign was restored on Cass and Peterboro. This is the last remnant of Detroit's last Chinatown.

July 29


Franklin Lofts


Book Tower


G-Star RAW is now open


Detroit Is The New Black storefront work


The Detroit Thermal steam vent on the block of Woodward, John R, Farmer and Grand River has been incorporated into Shinola Hotel's new building. Thought this was interesting and a lot better than the huge silver vent that was there before

Aug 1


Work continues on Tirana Grille in Briggs Houze


Floyd Furniture on Division Street in Eastern Market seems to be expanding


Viola Building


A bar called Collect is opening on the second floor of Gather restaurant on Gratiot in Eastern Market. It will also include rooftop seating.


2315 Orleans Street

August 14


Detroit Pistons Performance Center


City Club Apartments CBD Detroit. There's a large tower crane on the site now.


Fisher Arcade Building base


Grinnell Brothers Building base


The Skillman/Downtown library had a pipe burst several months ago. I guess repair work has been ongoing and it may reopen by Labor Day, according to the sign on the door


The fencing surrounding the roadwork I thought may have been preliminary work for One Campus Martius' addition now has Bedrock banners on it


8300 Woodward Avenue. This place had a Value World store in it until about a year ago. It was for sale for awhile, and now there seems to be terra cotta work being done and a dumpster in back. I hope they open those second floor windows.


114 E. Euclid Street


30 E. Philadelphia Street apartments


8414-8420 Brush Street. There's an identical corner building to the right that has not seen any renovations and still sits abandoned.

August 19


Lake Okonoka habitat restoration on Belle Isle. This project includes access to the Detroit River, a new picnic shelter, and some new bridges.


Regency at Chene


Fail jail demolition


Here's a rendering for St. John's Ministry Center renovation that I posted about in my last update.


Little Caesar's HQ expansion. Not very much has changed on the outside, but there have been workers here daily.



Looking up the Woodward Avenue pizza slice facade.


Fyfe Building's ground floor renovation is complete


Mootz Pizzeria & Bar is coming soon to Library Street in the Z Lot garage


Columbia Street


Infill on Columbia between the Fox and the Detroit Life Building


Patterson Terrace


Aurora Apartments


64 Watson


Second Best Bar


59 Harper Avenue


222 Harper Avenue


Baltimore Station 2


The Boulevard

August 20


2702-2704 W. Grand Boulevard


Henry Ford Hospital Brigitte Harris Cancer Pavilion. There's a parking garage in the rear thats maybe 4-5 floors as well


St. Rita Apartments


220-222 Kenilworth Street

August 21


5764 Woodward Avenue appears to be undergoing some work


89 E. Edsel Ford Freeway. I'm just as confused on the paint colors as you are.


Boulevard Hostel


Woodbridge Estates senior apartments


The Corner


WCCCD Downtown Campus expansion

August 22


This parking garage at 65 W. Baltimore Street seems to be having work done


Baltimore Station


Urbanum Furniture


Ferne Boutique and the Kitchen. Ferne opened this past Friday.


Two of the eco homes on Fourth Street. There's another one thats getting walls, but the rest are still foundations.


4100 Third Street


Book Tower

August 25


1306 Holden Street


Laferte Terrace on W. Warren and Vermont Street in Woodbridge


1938 W. Warren Avenue, about half a block away from Laferte Terrace


644 and 634 Selden Street


Lawyers Building

[cityguy]

WOW.Fantastic update.

[caldor120la]

DetroitSky, Thanks for your August update just great. I'm sure the photos are enjoyed by many around the country. Again thanks

[deja vu]

Love seeing all of the evidence of Detroit's many neighborhoods stabilizing and growing. What's up with that Little Caesar's HQ facade? It looks like some of the gaskets between the pizza slice windows are popping out / coming loose.

[LMich]

My family used to shop at 8600 Woodward. I think it was a Purle Heart thrift store back in the 80's. So glad to see them hopefully restoring it and keeping the fantastic terra-cotta facade.

Great to see all of the infill in New Center, too.

[SupaK]

Thanks DetroitSky for the awesome update. I just moved to Houston from the Detroit area so I've been monitoring this forum heavily to see these projects work their way into reality!

[DetroitSky]

I'm glad you all enjoyed the update!

Atwater Beach officially breaks ground along Detroit’s East Riverfront

Atwater Beach won’t be a swimming beach—the currents are too strong in the river. When finished next summer, the site will have a sandy beach; green spaces for picnics; a musical garden for kids; many seating areas; a shed with a garage door opening for shelter, special events, food and beverage, and retail; and a floating barge with food and drink options.

The Detroit Skybridge creates rainbow of moving colors between two iconic buildings

Rain only slightly dampened festivities Saturday night, as a new public art installation was unveiled 16 stories above the street. The Detroit Skybridge—the work of artist Phillip K. Smith III—lit up an unused walkway between the Guardian Building and One Woodward. Missed it? No worries. The installation is permanent.

Detroit Foundation Hotel named one of ‘World’s Greatest Places’ by Time

National outlets have noticed. Time just released its “World’s Greatest Places 2018,” including places to visit, stay, and eat. Along with Giraffe Manor in Kenya, a Treehouse in Sweden, and an EcoCamp in Chile, the Detroit Foundation Hotel has made the list. The short write-up says that the hotel is “proof that Detroit is bouncing back,” and quotes Aparium’s Michael Kitchen saying, “This is a great American city, and we don’t let American cities die.”

Ford completes purchase of former brass factory for Corktown campus

September 2011 for $270,000, according to Detroit land records.

It is slated to be demolished later this year to make way for a 290,000-square-foot, four-story building, Richard Bardelli, program manager for Ford Land, said last week during a public meeting of the Neighborhood Advisory Committee on the Ford campus project. What will rise at the former brass factory is 247,500 square feet of office/lab space along with 42,250 square feet of commercial space.

The train depot is expected to be turned into about 313,000 square feet of office space, about 42,000 square feet of residential space spread across 40 or so units, 43,000 square feet of commercial space and 60,000 square feet of event space.

The book depository, designed by Albert Kahn, is expected to be transformed into 205,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet of commercial space.

Major construction work on the train station is expected to begin early next year, with a year being spent stabilizing the building and another two years spent restoring it. Major work on the book depository is expected to begin early next year.

WeWork adds another floor in 1001 Woodward

The expansion brings WeWork's total footprint in Detroit to around 85,000 square feet and 11 floors between 1001 Woodward and Bedrock's Merchants Row at 1449 Woodward Ave.

WeWork plans to open the new space Nov. 1, according to a company spokesman.

WeWork has more than 1,500 desks in downtown Detroit. The company declined to say how many are occupied. Its clients include Planet M Landing Zone, Techstars Mobility, Pinterest and May Mobility.

The expansion brings the 283,000-square-foot office tower to nearly 100 percent occupancy.

$2.4 million mixed-use redevelopment planned for Midtown

A $2.4 million mixed-use redevelopment in Midtown is the next move for the minds behind Detroit Shipping Co.

Developers are aiming to convert the 13,000-square-foot vacant building at 3700 Third Street into 10 single-unit apartments on the second floor and 6,500 square feet of restaurant/retail space on the lower level, said Jonathan Hartzell, 42, developer on the project.

The first confirmed tenant in the building is Slyde Detroit, a fast-casual slider eatery that's been on the hunt for a space to open in the city. The rest of the space will be filled by a retailer Hartzell declined to name as negotiations are in process.

Hartzell said he anticipates work on the mixed-use redevelopment will start in around 45 days and be complete with stores open by next spring. He said a rental rate for apartments has not been decided but they will be market value.

[detroiterforlife]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/201...ward-midtown-project-to-begin-in-october

"Construction on a long-stalled mixed-use development near Detroit's Midtown neighborhood is now anticipated to begin in October, according to the project's developer and the state."

[DetroitSky]

Developers celebrate progress of Packard Plant cleanup

The first phase of the project broke ground in May 2017, which included revitalizing the administration building and a nearby building. The project is estimated to cost $23 million and developer Fernando Palazuelo is financing the entire project himself.

Palazuelo touted the progress they have made in the last year having ripped up the floor, cleared asbestos and saved historical contents from the former auto plant administration building at 1580 East Grand Blvd.

While working to restore the administration building, developers at Arte Express are working in conjunction on the Packard Plant Brewery in a nearby building. The project was announced earlier this year and is expected to be completed at the same time.

Palazuelo said the 20,000-square-foot brewery will have three levels, a semi-outdoor patio, a garage-opening style facade and is a shared project with Atwater Brewery.

From food truck to storefront, Caribbean restaurant Norma G's Cuisine opens in Jefferson-Chalmers

Norma G's Cusine is slated to open its doors to the public today, Tuesday, Aug. 28. The restaurant has built a steady following while operating as a food truck these past few years. This is the first brick-and-mortar location for the business.

Lime squeezes into Detroit’s scooter-share market

Looking at the app early Tuesday afternoon, we see most in downtown and Midtown, with a few in Corktown, Lafayette Park, the east Riverfront, and one all the way up in Highland Park.

[PHL10]

Wow, that photo update above is really impressive!

[DetroitSky]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, PHL10!

Detroit church school opens as community center

After nearly six years, a Detroit parish is re-opening a closed school as a community center with services under one roof at Cody Rouge.

On a mission to empower families and youth, and touting the center as a "rebirth" for the church and community, the St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center re-opened in July.

The new space, a 50,000-square-foot facility with 24 classrooms, is in a 72-year-old school building at 19321 West Chicago on Detroit's west side.

Breithaupt trade school set to reopen after makeover

A second vocational-education high school Detroit is set to reopen this week after receiving millions of dollars in renovations underwritten in part by local corporations and philanthropic foundations.

The Breithaupt Career and Technical Center, 9300 Hubbell Ave., on Detroit's west side has undergone extensive interior and exterior updates this summer as part of a three-year effort to revitalize the city's languishing career and technical education schools to address workforce needs.

Last summer, a group of business executives led by DTE Energy Co. Vice Chairman Dave Meador breathed new life into Randolph Technical High School, renovating classrooms, buying new equipment and supplies for the construction trades classes and starting evening training classes for adults to better utilize the facility.

The rehab work was coordinated by Mayor Mike Duggan's workforce development office, which has forged a partnership with the Detroit school district to make capital and program improvements to Randolph and Breithaupt high schools.

Toma Detroit wins $50,000 Hatch Detroit prize

McIntosh anticipates they will bank as much as $900,000 behind the project, including buying the 2,000-square-foot building. Their blueprint seeks to add 800 square feet to the structure for a kitchen and handicap-accessible bathrooms. When it opens sometime in late 2019, Toma Detroit will dish up Colombian and Mexican cuisines.

Southfield’s IoT Company Guardhat Moves Headquarters to Downtown Detroit

Guardhat, an Internet of Things (IoT) industrial safety technology developer, Wednesday announced it will move its headquarters to 1520 Woodward Ave. in Detroit from its Southfield office. The new space is located between Witherell and John R streets.

Guardhat specializes in developing wearables, infrastructure, and software platforms to provide a safer and more productive work environment. The company has satellite offices in Colorado, Chicago, India, and Paris.

“Detroit continues to be a leading driver of innovation and technology, making it the ideal place to coordinate our business operations as we continue to scale,” says Saikat Dey, CEO of Guardhat. “Detroit’s established manufacturing industry and developing tech community provide the perfect backdrop for Guardhat, as represented by the city's adept manufacturing identity and intelligent software ingenuity.”

[kcexpress69]

Some awesome updates here!! So much progress has been made in Detroit. If this continues, Detroit will look radically different by 2030!!

[DetroitSky]

Finally it seems like a Hart Plaza renovation is in the works.

Hart Plaza next for a redo? Planners hope to liven up acres of asphalt

Now the City of Detroit is beginning to mull how to enliven Hart Plaza, including whether to scrap the current design that hails from the 1970s and start over with something entirely new.

Mayor Mike Duggan's administration told me it's way too early to talk about a new future for Hart Plaza. There are no solid plans yet and probably no money to accomplish any if there were.

But it's well understood among professionals who follow the revitalization of Detroit's waterfront that the city's planners are looking at a big change there. For despite the crowds that fill the plaza for special events like the jazz fest, a redo of Hart Plaza is badly needed and long overdue.

I'm sure Dodge Fountain restoration will be part of the plan. Hopefully the Detroit Zoo aquarium on the site of Ford Auditorium are part of the plan as well. Seems that would add more pedestrian activity on the east side of the plaza.


Hart Plaza today.

[animatedmartian]

The thing I worry is that any new design might actually have too much green space. There are good examples of plazas that use paved open space really well while still able to hold large crowds.

Scanning for examples, I think something equivalent but not quite is the area in front of the Ferry Building in San Francisco. There's a major thoroughfare that cuts through but the open space still allows connection between the city and the waterfront (or at least the building). Plus there's a streetcar stop. In Detroit, you could probably have Jefferson split in a similar way with less lanes on either side but enough space in the middle to add plaza space and possibly a streetcar stop (if the Qline line is to be extended up Jefferson anyway).

After dealing with Jefferson like that, I think that would allow more flexibility on what you could actually do with the park/plaza itself. Above all else, I think there needs to be a little hot dog stand or some sort of small restaurant thrown in there because it's actually kind of far from all the other eateries like around Campus Martius.

[LMich]

Food would have to come later when they can figure out how to attract people a redone plaza during off-event days. As it is, the mobile food stands and such work just fine. An all-weekday, year-round concession stand would not work, right now. If you just need something to eat, the RenCen is right down the street or promenade.

I honestly don't think it needs a major reworking, or that such a thing would change it's function given it's location. It's an events space, and a pass-through or lunc-spot when it's not. I'm not really sure it can (or should) be anything else. Maybe a little rearranging, a bit more grass, but that's about it as far as I'm concerned. Unless they are going to build some housing on the old Ford Auditorium site, or expect this to be a hang-out for all of the new housing/hotel space they hope to have at the Joe site, there is no amount of rearranging chairs that's going to change what it is.