Sunday, February 26, 2012

Cobo Arena Blowout

The gutting of Cobo Arena is well underway. The space is being converted into a 40,000 square foot ballroom capable of seating 2,600 people for dining and 5,000 for general sessions.





Monday, February 20, 2012

Comerica Park Scoreboard Exposed

The scoreboard at Comerica Park made news last week as the Detroit Tigers released an artist's rendering and specs for the rehabbed board, along with other improvements being made at the park this off-season

Saturday, February 18, 2012

30 Clifford Street

You may remember 30 Clifford Street from such films as 8 Mile (where it stood in for the Shelter), Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Red Dawn.

It has received a significant face-lift since then and the owners of Louie's Ham & Corned Beef in Eastern Market have been working on turning the location into Bar/Eatery.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Buffalo Wild Wings Set to Fly into Detroit


Diversified Restaurant Holdings of Southfield have announced that they will be bringing a Buffalo Wild Wings franchise to downtown Detroit. The 12,000-square-foot restaurant will occupy three floors of the Temple of Odd Fellows Building at the corner of Randolph and Monroe. The building was built in 1874. Reconstruction will begin in April for a projected November opening.

You may recall that the City tried to have the building demolished in 2008 after high winds caused the back of the building to collapse in April of that year. The City later relented.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Little House on the Urban Prairie

I spotted this house under construction in 2008. It was built just east of Eastern Market by two graduates of the master's program at the Cranbook Academy of Art as part of their thesis project on affordable single family housing. The 900 Square foot home had a budget of $60,000 and was constructed using cinder blocks and a rubber-coated roof.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

It's Official!

There will be no Shield's Pizza franchise in the Kales Building.

 Detroit pizza plan in default
Louis Aguilar-The Detroit News

The attempt to bring a Shield's pizza restaurant back to Detroit has ended up in a large pile of dough owed to the bank.

The Troy-based chain left Detroit, where it started, in the mid-1980s and focused on suburban growth. In 2007, the chain announced plans for a franchise to open a street-level eatery at the Kales Building Lofts at downtown's Grand Circus Park.

The plan never came to fruition. Earlier this week, the lenders of an $819,000 loan filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court charging the investors behind the downtown plan defaulted on the loan signed in 2008. The outstanding balance is $798,777, according to the suit.

Shield's Pizza to Abandon Detroit Again?

Four Years Gone.