Capitol Park Housing
There is so much going on lately in the Central Business District. The ‘Ponch on Larned and Washington will complete their renovation and hang the Sheraton sign up somettime in April. The Book Caddilac is on schedule for a 2008 grand opening which will include some 67 luxury condo’s on the top floors. Ticketstub has taken the second floor of the Madison Theater on Park and Woodward. The G.A.R. “Castle” was sold to Olympia Entertainment. Who better to restore it but the Illitche’s. They ponied up $14 million to renovate the Fox.
This brings me to another bright note in the re-development of downtown. Roxbury Group LLC will begin construction on new condos priced in the mid $220K range at 150 Michigan in Capitol Park. That is the Commerce Building and it will be razed in the near future. Capitol Park? Now that is good news.
The upscale condo’s will be on top of what will be a new parking structure. That answered my question of where were all the Book Caddilac residents going to park. Ask and you shall recieve. These investors are inovators in the D’. Geez, I wish I had thought of that. The parking structure will begin construction in the Spring of 07′.
I don’t mind it when people fête downtown development. The most recent Cobo plan comes to mind as praiseworthy. But I think it’s a mistake to think that downtown development will naturally lead to development elsewhere in the city.
If half of the investment in downtown was redirected to non-downtown, non-Woodward corridor, non-East riverfront development, that would signal to Detroiters and others, a sincere attempt at rebuilding the city, as opposed to a distraction from blight via creating a haven for tourists, slumming suburbanites, and upper middle class professionals/hipsters.
“If half of the investment in downtown was redirected to non-downtown, non-Woodward corridor, non-East riverfront development, that would signal to Detroiters and others, a sincere attempt at rebuilding the city, as opposed to a distraction from blight via creating a haven for tourists, slumming suburbanites, and upper middle class professionals/hipsters.”
Time to drive around a bit –
-Facade improvements up and down West Vernor, including two substantial full renovations
-New median and facade improvement grants along Livernois in University Commons
-Jefferson East Business Association facade improvements
-New streetscapes along Grand River Ave. in Grandmont-Rosedale
-Facade improvements in Grandmont/Rosedale
-Substantial residential developments in Woodbridge; i.e. Woodbridge Estates, townhomes, etc
-Jefferson Village development on East Jefferson
-Marlborough Estates on East side
-Mack-Alter Plaza on East side
-NEZ tax credits for historic neighborhoods
-Numerous park and playground renovations across city
-Substantially renovated Northwest Activities Center
-New public safety plaza in SW Detroit
And this is just off the top of my head. Is attention is being focused on the neighborhoods? Yes. Is it the neo-urbanists cutesie vision of lofts and density? Probably not. Is that bad? No. The market is different. These neighborhoods cannot support the density of the projects being built in the greater downtown area. Heck, downtown can barely support it. But the effort is being made. The investment is being made.
Is Michigan Ave. really considered Capitol Park? Two blocks north (where the bus stops and drugs dealers are, just south of Grand River) in my mind is Capitol Park. The city really needs to clean that area up before anything positive can happen in that vicinity. I absolutely hate walking through that part of downtown – I feel very unsafe there and avoid it whenever possible.
It is not a mistake to believe that downtown development will naturally lead to development elsewhere in the city. You are right in that it will not spontaneously create pockets of improvements, which CKM was so great to list. These pockets have been improved thanks to the efforts of ambitious individuals who found unique offerings in these neighborhoods. What development in any given area, including downtown, will do is attract people to a point where it will grow from the origin. No one knows which way the development will spread, but if you have something unique and coveted enough, eventually demand will outweigh supply and people will have to live/consume adjacent to what attracted them in the first place.