DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[The North One]

I don't understand why they didn't include the pre-sold units at the Ashton into a mixed use hotel project.

Looks like this failed due to a combination of developer incompetence and lenders having ridiculous standards.

[animatedmartian]

What's odd to me is that Cambria is smaller than the hotel proposed at Mid. I can see the reasoning that the Mid is bigger because it's along the QLine and on a bigger lot but Cambria is only a few blocks from Cobo. It would make absolute sense for Cambria to be bigger.

[DetroitSky]

Honestly I’m alright with Cambria’s height. There’s so many parking lots downtown to build on and these medium density projects are still nice infill.

It would have been nice if they added a couple floors for the condominiums they did sell, though.

[rlw777]

The Mid and the boutique hotel by the Bonstelle theater has got me wondering if anyone knows what happened to the SOMA project?

[Jasoncw]

At the time I was surprised by the Ashton. With the building and the location and the price, if I had enough money to live there, there would be many other places I'd rather live first. So I wouldn't blame skepticism and high requirements from lenders.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by rlw777

The Mid and the boutique hotel by the Bonstelle theater has got me wondering if anyone knows what happened to the SOMA project?

The first phase, a parking garage with ground floor retail, was approved late last year. Not sure if there’s ever been a timeline released though for construction.

[DetroitSky]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

The first phase, a parking garage with ground floor retail, was approved late last year. Not sure if there’s ever been a timeline released though for construction.

The city is also weighing a large lease on the two existing ex-Red Cross office buildings on the site. If you google the project there’s links leading office space and retail space for the two garages and the tower.

[subterranean]

Despite flurry of projects, large-scale hotel eludes Detroit
Mar 23, 2019 at 5:05 PM by Kirk Pinho

The slew of new hotel rooms proposed for greater downtown Detroit last week is another positive sign for a rebounding hospitality and tourism industry in a city that was bankrupt just five years ago and whose hotel rooms were less than 50 percent occupied on any given night a decade ago.

Source: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...eludes-detroit

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by subterranean

Source: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...eludes-detroit

TL;DR version: Basically Detroit's hotel market is not actually expensive enough to justify building higher-end hotels, at least not yet. This is where the residential and office market is kind of at where prices are rising but not yet at the level to see a cascade of new high rise condos or office buildings, not at least without some sort of subsidy.

For the time being, we'll continue to see boutique hotels filling in gaps, niche spaces and odd corners. Probably good for tourists but won't do much to attract big businesses and conventions to the city which are more lucrative per development.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

TL;DR version: Basically Detroit's hotel market is not actually expensive enough to justify building higher-end hotels, at least not yet. This is where the residential and office market is kind of at where prices are rising but not yet at the level to see a cascade of new high rise condos or office buildings, not at least without some sort of subsidy.

For the time being, we'll continue to see boutique hotels filling in gaps, niche spaces and odd corners. Probably good for tourists but won't do much to attract big businesses and conventions to the city which are more lucrative per development.

Moving the Auto Show to June might help attract higher-end brands if they are able to expand the show.

I was in Austin a couple weeks ago for SXSW and it's amazing how that has evolved from being a music festival into a music, media, and startup festival. Detroit could do that with either the Auto Show or the Movement Festival.

[hybrydy]

Ex-Detroit Lion Ron Bartell plans new development with $4.6 million investment in ‘Avenue of Fashion'

The new development, planned for 19338 Livernois Ave., will be tied into a neighboring 3,000-square-foot building, which is vacant and part of the old Hunter's Supper Club property, Bartell said. Once complete, the 10,000-square-foot, three-story development would include three ground-floor retail spaces totaling 7,000 square feet and five apartment units.

[DetroitSportsFan]

[url]https://www.crainsdetroit.com/voices-kirk-pinho/real-estate-insider-new-cadillac-tower-owner-puts

Will be interesting to see if he just sits on it. Cadillac Tower is so underutilized for it’s location. A hotel would be a great use for it, especially if it could fit a larger one.

[DetroitSky]

DTE to begin tearing down Conners Creek plant this fall as part of swap needed for FCA plant

DTE Energy Co. plans to swap land at its former Conners Creek facility with the city of Detroit and begin tearing down the old coal power plant and other buildings at the riverfront site this fall, the company said Tuesday.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan needs the majority of DTE's land between Jefferson Avenue and the Detroit River as part of a 200-acre footprint he's assembling for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' planned conversion of two engine plants on Mack Avenue into an assembly plant for three-row Jeep SUVs and next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokees.

Colleen Rosso, a spokeswoman for the Detroit-based utility, said the company is on track to sign a memorandum of understanding by Friday with the Duggan administration to swap up to 30 acres at the Conners Creek for other city-owned parcels.

About 40 acres of the 75-acre site is developable and DTE intends to retain 10 acres of riverfront land, Rosso said.

$22.5 million Villages development moves forward with state loan

Developers planning a $22.5 million, four-story building in the Villages area on Detroit's east side will receive $3.5 million through a state program designed to hasten community revitalization in areas of disinvestment.

The project led by Detroit-based Roxbury Group and funding organization Invest Detroit would have 92 residential units, half of which are planned as affordable, and around 6,200 square feet of retail and restaurant space, according to a memo from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Roxbury executive vice president James Van Dyke.

The Michigan Strategic Fund board on Tuesday approved the loan to IDRE3 LLC and Kercheval Associates LLC, both linked to Invest Detroit, through the Michigan Community Revitalization Program to help get the mixed-use development now called the Parker Durand off the ground. MEDC staff argued in a memo that the project needed financial assistance to fill a gap because it's trying to build less expensive housing in an "emerging" area of the city.

Visible work hasn't started yet at the northeast corner of Kercheval Avenue and Van Dyke Street — the northern edge of the West Village neighborhood that's recently drawn more commercial tenants and real estate investment. The city has targeted that Kercheval corridor for investment in walkability and a series of mixed-use projects. This would likely be the first.

Apartments, retail planned in $16 million development near Michigan Central Station

Sixty apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail are planned to rise in a four-story development near Michigan Central Station.

The project being lead by Detroit-based developer Woodborn Partners LLC is expected to cost $16 million, with construction beginning later this year and finishing in late 2020, according to a news release from Mayor Mike Duggan's office Tuesday morning. It's also expected to include 40 parking spaces.

In June, the city released a request for proposals to redevelop the vacant site at Bagley Avenue and 16th Street with at least 20 residential units, 20 percent of which would have to be affordable to those making 80 percent or lower ($38,000) of the area median income.

Detroit-based DMC Strategies expands, rebrands to Compass Strategies

Detroit-based public affairs firm DMC Strategies has expanded and rebranded to Compass Strategies LLC.

The firm's new name reflects the company's ability to "serve as a compass" for people who are new to Detroit or those expanding their reach, according to Kim Trent, senior vice president, corporate and civic engagement.

Compass Strategies, formerly known as DMC Strategies, moved from the Ford Building into 4,000-square foot in the historic Murphy Telegraph Building in downtown Detroit's financial district last October, Trent said. The lease is for five years and total build-out costs were $75,000.

Park Avenue House sells; yet another hotel planned

The Park Avenue House downtown has a new Troy-based ownership group that plans to convert the 1925 building at 2305 Park Ave. at Montcalm Street into a hotel.

Troy-based L. Mason Capitani Inc. represented both the buyer, Downtown Hospitality Detroit LLC, and the previous owners, the Harrington family, according to a press release by the brokerage firm on Monday. The LLC is registered to Mike Abdulnoor.

The release says the Harringtons have operated the hotel since 1967. The listing price was $15 million, and a source familiar with the deal said the purchase price was $13.5 million, or $128.57 per square foot for the 105,000-square-foot building.

^We already knew everything mentioned in this article, but its good to see this project is potentially moving forward.

Neighborhood bar with international flair opens in West Village

After several years running the bar and working as a bartender at Downtown Louie’s Lounge, Petra Anthony now has a place to call her own.

Anthony has opened the neighborhood cocktail establishment Destination1905 Bar in Detroit's West Village neighborhood.

For managing partner Anthony, a Slovak immigrant that moved to Michigan more than a decade ago, the bar is a chance to tell a story as much as it is a place to serve drinks.

"The year 1905 is when a wave of immigrants began to move to West Village. And now I’m one of them, more than a hundred years later," Anthony says. "I’ve always wanted a destination bar."

[uaarkson]

Geez. Another day, another barrage of quality development.

[DetroitSky]

Livernois Avenue to lose median, more updates with the city’s streetscape project

In 2017, the city of Detroit announced the sale $125 million in bonds to fund corridor improvements, of which $80 million would be spent on infrastructure in key neighborhood thoroughfares.

With designs largely wrapped up, construction will begin in a matter of weeks in seven of those corridors, including Livernois Avenue, Bagley Street in Mexicantown, West Vernor Highway, Joseph Campau near the riverfront, and others.

Some of these projects include infrastructure “firsts” for Detroit.

On Livernois Avenue, for example, sidewalks will be expanded to not only accommodate more space for businesses and pedestrians, but also sidewalk-level bike lanes separated by landscaping.

The main thoroughfare for the “Avenue of Fashion,” Livernois will also have its median removed, which was installed in the mid-2000s to calm traffic, but had been controversial from the start. The end result will be parking on both sides of the street, two one-way lanes for cars, and a center turn lane.

Livernois


Bagley

Not sure how I feel about the sidewalks and street being at the same level on Bagley. How has this been working in other cities? Seems dangerous for pedestrians, especially with how a lot of people drive around here.

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by DetroitSky

Not sure how I feel about the sidewalks and street being at the same level on Bagley. How has this been working in other cities? Seems dangerous for pedestrians, especially with how a lot of people drive around here.

Bell Street Park in Seattle is probably what Bagley will likely resemble with this redesign.


Bell Street Park - sunny day street view by MIG SvR, on Flickr


IMG_4695 by Lydia Heard, on Flickr

I guess it's successful? Drivers aren't flying down it because of how it's designed, but then pedestrians aren't really using it any differently than a typical street with wider sidewalks, at least according to the Google reviews and news articles. It seems like most locals there would have rather'd just had cars on the street banned altogether since it functions more like a park than an actual thoroughfare. Either way, safety doesn't seem to be that big of an issue.

Also, I think the only part of Bagley getting the redesign of from Fisher Freewway service drive to 24th Street which isn't really a high traffic stretch anyway. One block over on Vernor Highway, now that's a different story. I could see there being a big concern if they tried to make Vernor a pedestrian shared street.

[DetroitSky]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Bell Street Park in Seattle is probably what Bagley will likely resemble with this redesign.


Bell Street Park - sunny day street view by MIG SvR, on Flickr


IMG_4695 by Lydia Heard, on Flickr

I guess it's successful? Drivers aren't flying down it because of how it's designed, but then pedestrians aren't really using it any differently than a typical street with wider sidewalks, at least according to the Google reviews and news articles. It seems like most locals there would have rather'd just had cars on the street banned altogether since it functions more like a park than an actual thoroughfare. Either way, safety doesn't seem to be that big of an issue.

Also, I think the only part of Bagley getting the redesign of from Fisher Freewway service drive to 24th Street which isn't really a high traffic stretch anyway. One block over on Vernor Highway, now that's a different story. I could see there being a big concern if they tried to make Vernor a pedestrian shared street.

That looks really nice! Different than what I thought based on the renderings. And very true, that stretch of Bagley has hardly any car traffic. I've always found the sidewalks too narrow for the amount of people that are out there on any given day, too.

[DetroitSky]

Detroit golf courses wrap up $2.5 million in improvements with league registration on upswing

Around this time last year, City Council had just scrambled to keep the courses from closing amid talks to cut losses and potentially sell them. A bitter split with previous operators, coupled with years of underinvestment, left the golf courses in less-than-stellar condition.

As spring commences, and the city finalizes $2.5 million worth of much-needed improvements at its three courses, officials are promising a new chapter. First, they need to remind people the courses are open for business.

"The resounding message that we've heard was, 'Oh, you guys are still open?'" said Karen Peek, director of operations for North Carolina-based Signet Golf Associates, which was contracted by the city last year to run its courses. "I said, you know, we are very much open. We look forward to outstanding course conditions this season."

Chandler Park fence replacement and vegetation cleanup


Rouge Park bridge replacements


New pavilion at Rouge Park

Detroit's controversial incinerator permanently shutting down today

Detroit — One of the nation's largest waste incinerators that for years generated complaints of foul odors and emission violations was permanently shut Wednesday by its private owner who said the trash-burning plant was too old and costly to keep open.

The Detroit Renewable Power facility on the city's east side near Interstates 94 and 75 ended its trash-burning operations Wednesday afternoon, said Todd Grzech CEO of Detroit Renewable Energy, the holding company for the waste-to-energy plant. The company bought the facility for $200 million two years ago and invested an estimated $23 million to upgrade it.

The closure impacts 150 workers at the facility, which is on property that is city owned.

^Usually I wouldn't call the loss of jobs a positive occurrence, but with this happening I can see the area around it see growth. With the new Wayne County courthouse and jail coming and the government and industrial jobs already in the area, I can see some of the abandoned warehouses around there turned into nice lofts and office space.

City of Detroit to secure 14 acres for Fiat Chrysler deal

The city of Detroit will acquire 14.45 acres of leased land from the Great Lakes Water Authority in its effort to deliver 200 acres to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV for its $2.5 billion plant expansion on the city’s east side.

According to a purchase agreement, the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority will purchase for $1 million the property at 11900 Freud and 11900 Jefferson. The agreement includes an easement for the regional water system to have access to operate the Conner Creek CSO Facility.

The authority's board approved an agreement Wednesday afternoon finalizing the purchase.

Due to a regional sewage disposal system lease agreement, GLWA has the right to sell and receive proceeds from the sale of the property if it is no longer needed.

Detroit’s Cushman & Wakefield Expands Detroit Valuation and Advisory Practice

Cushman & Wakefield, a Detroit-based real estate services firm, has expanded its valuation and advisory office in the city with the addition of seven appraisers who are experienced in commercial real estate valuation and consulting services.

“Detroit is a key Midwest market that is vibrant and growing, making this an ideal time to expand the V&A office with such a talented team,” says Bruce Daubner, senior managing director and regional leader of the firm’s Valuation & Advisory Group.

[DetroitSky]

One Campus Martius addition:


Photo by 48307 on DetroitYes

E-bike sales, rentals, tours promised at incoming Midtown shop

First came the e-scooters — now, the next rentable vehicle whizzing down bike lanes in Detroit this summer could be the electric bicycle.

Local bicycle and bike gear retailer American Cycle and Fitness plans to open an e-bike store in Midtown on Woodward Avenue, near Whole Foods Market and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It plans to sell, rent and offer tours on pedal-assist electric bikes — a style of motorized bicycle where a motor boosts the cyclist as he or she pedals, but the bike lacks a throttle like you'd see on a moped.

American Cycle and Fitness has seven other locations, all in Michigan, with its original in Walled Lake. It recently signed a lease for its eighth storefront on the ground floor of the Orchestra Place building, which Detroit-based Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services Inc. bought from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2017.

Flint’s Tenacity Brewing Has a Detroit Cafe and Taproom in the Works

Four year old Flint-based beer maker Tenacity Brewing is plotting a Detroit expansion. The brewery’s co-owner Jason Caya tells Crain’s that a coffee bar-taproom spinoff called Tenacity Craft is heading to a building at 8517 Second Ave. in the Virginia Park neighborhood just north of New Center.

The new 2,000-square-foot outpost will feature onsite coffee roasting and brewing. The bar will also have a menu of snacks including pastries and items like nachos and tacos. If Tenacity receives state licensing approvals, wine and cocktails will also be on the menu.

[DetroitSportsFan]

What are the odds that the Campus Martius expansion windows are finished before the little caesars hq opens? Lol.