Plan B for Globe Trading Company Complex

William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor has received a $25,000 grant from Coca-Cola, the American Parks Foundation and the National Park Foundation. The money will be used to turn the Globe Trading Company building into a 17,000 square-foot play area.

Instead of converting the space into market-rate condominiums and retail space, the building will contain a rock climbing wall, playscape, obstacle course and a state-of-the-art archery range.

It remains to be seen where the additional funds needed to complete this project will come from.

*UPDATE*

It turns out that the plan only calls for a portion of the building to be used for the playscape. A private developer will develope the rest. M-Bike.org has posted a few renderings of the  building developed by the DNRE.

A New View for a New Day (HDR VERSION)

HDR Friday

Spaulding Court Revival

You may remember last fall that Faded Detroit pointed out the clean-up work going on at the neglected Spaulding Court apartment complex in Corktown. In August crews began doing renovation work at the site. They plan on rehabilitating two apartments at a time.

All that Remains

The Lafayette Building is no more.  Welcome to your new pocket park to be named later.

Dumping Ground

Now it can be revealed. The real reason the Statler Hotel was demolished was to provide a staging area for big budgeted Hollywood films. As was the case with Red Dawn, the Statler site is being used to store movie props and fake debris for Transformers 3.  It's a same they could not have used one of the Macedonian parking cartels fenced in lots instead.

Street Fighting Man-Kickstarter Project

Downtown

HDR Friday

A Look at 71 Garfield from Model TV

Joe Louis Arena Garage Complex

Inward Towards Infinity

Theft?

Following upon the presumed theft of  the bronze Edwin Denby plaque from the Brodhead Armory, scrappers might be at it again.  Today I noticed that the Dedication Plaque to the "Gateway to Freedom" sculpture at Hart Plaza is missing.  The sculpture is a memorial to the Underground Railroad and has a companion piece entitled "Tower of Freedom" which is located in Windsor.

Maybe, the plaque is being repaired or replaced and was not scrapped.  However, things being what they are right now, I am not all that hopeful.

After Hours

Texas de Brazil Coming to Compuware

The Brazilian churrascaria-style steak house chain is slated to open April May, 2011 in the former Borders Books location inside of the Compuware Building.  Texas de Brazil provides fixed-price dinners for a 50  to 60 item bar of salads and appetizers, plus all-you-can-eat roasted meats, continuously carved off long skewers onto guests’ plates by servers.

Another Bad Day for the Troll Under the Bridge

The billionaire and the bait shop

Plan To Turn Free Press Building Into Condos Revived

It looks like Detroit Paper Place 2.0. is finally, slowly, moving forward.  The Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority approved incentive financing on a $70 million plan to turn the vacant Free Press building into residential apartments, office and retail space, as well as a health club on the upper floor.

The project still needs to find market rate financing, but the developers are hopeful.  They believe that construction will begin in 2011.

65 Edmund Place

Another Loss in Rivertown

You had to see this one coming. The back of this building at Franklin and St. Aubin collapsed prior to March of 2009. The city finally got around to demolishing it this past May. All that remains is a hole in the ground.

Detroit Photo Heat Map

Locals and Tourists #82 (GTWA #134): Detroit, originally uploaded by Eric Fischer.

Monica Conyers Wants More Time

Monica Conyers wants to delay the start of her federal prison sentence by three months. In a court filing Conyers declared that she wants to help a close family member who's having surgery in late July.

Conyers' appeal of her sentence is still pending in federal court.

Dequindre Cut 2010

2010 Windsor Red Bull Air Race

Graffiti artist Banksy leaves mark on Detroit and ignites firestorm | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Graffiti artist Banksy leaves mark on Detroit and ignites firestorm | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

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Ernie Harwell Tribute - Tigers vs Yankees 2010

Oneida Jackson: Free Press Copy Editor, Vandal!

Vandals mar new bridge in Detroit

Tom Greenwood / The Detroit News

Less than a day after it opened, the Mexicantown Bagley Avenue Pedestrian Bridge was vandalized, Michigan Department of Transportation officials said....

In fact, MDOT video cameras caught one woman as she used a colored pen to scrawl on a bench in the middle of the 400-foot-long bridge.

"Yes, it was me," said Oneida Jackson, a copy editor at the Detroit Free Press and author of the Sunday's "O Street" blog.

"I did it. If you see a person with a green pen ... dressed in black slacks and a red top, that's me. I was excited about the event and wanted to put my name on it."
Jackson eventually put away the marker and said "Oh, I guess I shouldn't be doing this," the tape showed. As a blogger, she has written about her efforts as a mom to raise her 16-year-old son and encourage citizens to be more patient and civil.

From The Detroit News

Building the Downtown Y

Faces of Matty

Joel Thurtell scorches Matty Moroun once more.

Faces of Matty from Joel On The Road.

It turns out that Mr. Moroun have given a gift to Windsor as well.

You can view some of the construction of Mr. Moroun's WINDSOR ramp to nowhere here.

Madison-Lenox Hotel Demolition

Please check out the new sideshow covering the demolition of the Madison-Lenox Hotel that has been posted in the archives.

Matty Moroun and his big slice of Detroit

BY JOHN GALLAGHER/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Whether battling to keep control of Detroit's only bridge to Canada or sparring with neighbors over his blighted Michigan Central Station, businessman Manuel (Matty) Moroun faces a wealth of controversy.

It doesn't help his public image that he's rich, reclusive and he's suing the City of Detroit, the State of Michigan and the government of Canada, among others.

But when it comes to owning big chunks of real estate in Detroit's most depressed districts, Moroun sees no controversy. He is unabashedly proud of his record -- and thinks Detroiters should be, too....

Tiger Stadium Tribute

Presenting all of my Tiger Stadium demolition photos in one spot.

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Packard Proving Grounds

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Henry Ford plans $500M hospital expansion, redevelopment in Detroit

Christina Rogers / The Detroit News

Henry Ford Health System is finalizing plans to make a $500 million investment in its flagship hospital in Detroit and expand the medical center's footprint across West Grand Boulevard, building a south campus with doctors' offices, research facilities and an education center....

The seven-hospital system also plans to lead a collaborative effort aimed at redeveloping a larger 300-acre section of Detroit's New Center neighborhood, turning it into a "Community Health Park." Henry Ford says it intends to work with developers to transform blighted land directly south of its hospital into a hub for mixed-use housing, retail and other commercial activity. It hopes these efforts will attract another $500 million in investment by outside residential and commercial developers.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100405/BIZ/4050386/Henry-Ford-plans-$500M-hospital-expansion--redevelopment-in-Detroit#ixzz0kFwvgH3M

Dequindre Cut Trail Extension