Woodward Avenue Updates

[Allan]

The six story brick building at the corner of Woodward & Grand River is being renovated into 16 luxury condos, with ground floor retail space. Construction is expected to begin this fall, and will take two years to complete.

Farther north on Woodward, former Detroit Lion Robert Porcher is partnering with resturanteur Frank Taylor to open The Detroit Breakfast House & Grill. The restaurant will be located in one of the retail spaces at the Lofts of Merchants Row, and will be open by July.

Also opening in the Lofts of Merchants Row will be a home furnishing store, Mark England Collections, and a men's clothing store, Leading Man.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0504/01/D01-136049.htm

[SNWEB]

Wow Woodard will become a full occupied street at the rate we're going at.

The red brick building was the Kresge 1 cent to 1 dollar building.

[baldy]

Good news! I was wondering what retail would be going into LoMR.

I can't believe how much Porcher is investing in the city! I know they are "business" oportunities, but he is stepping up and taking risk now.

[rbdetsport]

How much will the "Luxury" condos cost?

[wolverine]

Several of my friends and I were talking about how cool if would be to have a loft on the top floor with those arched windows. I'd bet it would be expensive though.

[rbdetsport]

All of these things going on around Woodward. It's awesome. We're growing fast and smoothly. Great news for our city.

[Allan]

@ SNWeb - actually the building was the $.25-$1.00 store. The sign on the back is still clearly visible.

@ Wolverine - I've always wanted to have a loft on the top floor of that building too. It's ideal for loft conversion, although I don't see how they will be fitting 16 lofts into five floors. Two lofts per floor seems about right, unless they did three really small lofts per floor.

I forgot to mention that Greg Grego, co-owner of Como's in Ferndale, owns the Albert-Kahn-designed Woodward Building at Woodward & Clifford, and intends to open a Como's in December. For those of you who don't know, this is the building with the Tall-Ezz shoe store.

[rbdetsport]

Tall-Ezz shoe store.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is that still there?

[Allan]

Opps, I had the wrong Tall-Ezz shoes. The Tall-Ezz that Grego owns is at 1550 Woodward, just south of Broderick Tower, between the Chicken Shack & Club Bleu.

[wolverine]

If I'm not mistaken Allan, they moved out of that locatoin between Bleu and the Broderick. Not to mention, their windows were all shot up with bullet holes.

[Allan]

Yeah, Tall Ezz moved down the street several years ago. Some moron decided to try & smash all the windows, so it looks like crap.

[SNWEB]

Yeah I think it was last year when someone went around with their homemade slingshot and shoot out windows.

[rbdetsport]

Those are the kind of people who ruin the city.

[atperry]

That Tall-Ezz store, along with several other building on that side of Woodward, need to be demolished. They all look like they were part of a 60's renewal attempt gone wrong

[Allan]

According to the Detroit property tax database, 1550 Woodward (Tall-Ezz) was built in 1963 & 1556 Woodward (the Chicken Shack) was built in 1950. Club Bleu next door to Tall Ezz is actually the old Telenews Theater.

[wolverine]

I agree that the store needs to be demolished, it's ugly as hell.

[kgourlay]

How much will the "Luxury" condos cost?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would imagine they will use a similar pricing structure for all these "lofts of merchant row." With that assumption, they'll start out renting them for a few years before they sell them as condos. Right now the prices start at just over a dollar a square foot. Presumably the top floor luxury ones would be a bit more... For a 2-3 bedroom place that's probably around $3000/mo rent, higher for nicer/larger spaces. Following the math, but not accounting for inflation or property value increases over the next few years, I would guess that as a condo the place would sell for at least $250,000. I would also expect to pay a substantial association fee to cover things like your automobile elevator, security dude, and other amenities.

http://www.loftsofmerchantsrow.com/thelofts_pricing.asp

-- Ken

[Allan]

Whether the lofts are for lease or for sale depends on if historic tax credits are used for the renovation. If historic tax credits are used, the units must be rented out for a period of five years before they can be sold. If the project does not use them, the units can be sold immediately. I'm not sure what types of fianancing the owner is looking at. This project should be easy to finance in comparison to other downtown projects. The building still seems to be in very good condition, so that also helps.

[bobliocatt]

Sounds great. Its nice to see so many renovations taking place along Woodward. BTW, are most of the retail spaces in the orginal Merchant's Row project leased?

[Allan]

I'm assuming that you're talking about the Lofts at Woodward. So far the only tenants to open are the shoe store & Oslo. I'm not sure what the status on the remaining retail spaces is.

[bobliocatt]

Yes, that's the project I meant. Whatever happened to House of Blues and P. Diddy's plans to open a Justin's restuarants in downtown?

[Allan]

I'm not sure about either of those. The House of Blues website just says that the Detroit location is "Coming Soon". It does not give a location or an opening date. My guess would be that it's going to be a while yet.

The same goes for Justin's. I have not heard anything about those plans in a long time.

[RustTown]

I think they said over at the Fab Ruins site that the House of Blues is still on and will come start construction or move-in late summer-early fall. It has been rumored for years to be going into Ford Field instead of building new. The old Hudson's wharehouse incorporated into the stadium is still not full (still trying to get the hotel deal done, as well).

[rbdetsport]

Didn't the hotel thing fall through? They really messed up the facade of that building.

[Chow]

I'm assuming that you're talking about the Lofts at Woodward.  So far the only tenants to open are the shoe store & Oslo.  I'm not sure what the status on the remaining retail spaces is.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Technically, the building that house's Olso isn't part of Lofts @ Woodward. They haven't had a lot of look with their retail spaces. Hopefully that changes as Merchant's Row fills up.