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Illitches plan to build on surface lots on Woodward


resourcefulidiot

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Well correct me if im wrong but didnt Wal-Mart want a suburban style center with a sea of parking? That may be a blessing in disguise. I thought a major retailer was looking to put an urban style retail store off Woodward. Perhaps im building up how big of a retailer that is actually looking at the Illitch's property.

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What ever gets built better not be suburban style. i want right up to the sidewalk, no parking lot(exept any of the reamaining comerica lots) and no crappy walmart style facade!

Edit: we are talking about these lots, right?(lower left corner?)

203664837_d2f49fc86e.jpg

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No. That lot in the lower left is owned by the church which has its own future plans. We are actually talking about the two Comerica lots that are opposite the Fox and State theaters on Woodward. I believe the article mentioned putting a building up right next to the State theater where that parking is as well.

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I've always thought a downtown cinema would be great, but wouldn't it kill Riverfront 4? I guess they could always turn Riverfront 4 into theater that shows more independent films.

I've tried on a couple of occasions to find Riverfront 4. I know it's in the Ren Cen, isnt it tower 4 level 2?

All I want to know are the gosh darn showtimes.

Also, I wonder of something like the Playdium in Toronto would fly. It's a regional attraction with thousands of square feet of games. Kids and adults enjoy literally hours of interactive high tech games at a reasonable price. I believe the Playdium in Toronto is like 7 floors with 30,000 square feet of game space.

www.playdium.com

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A game place downtown somewhere would be cool but I doubt it would succeed considering there are Dave & Busters and Gameworks in the suburbs that are already very very popular.

I'm positive if it was something like "Playdium" it would draw the majority of the market. It's not just a typical arcade. I cant really explain how it works, and I wonder if anyone else on here who has been there could explain what the appeal is. I know a business associate of mine who lives in Toronto, at 26 years old travels about 30 minutes every couple weeks or so to spend time at this place with his family and they all partake in the fun. It really is a regional destination.

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No one knows.

BTW, downtown could most certainly support a unique entertainment center like and ESPN Zone or something similar, regardless of what's in the suburbs. Detroit is a metro of 5 million person + with a grossly underserved center. It would be different in there was a concentrated center in the suburbs that had become all of what downtown Detroit is and could be, but there isn't. There is plenty of room for a real big-city downtown in Metro Detroit. In fact, it's the only thing that will keep the entire metro area from stagnanting and perhaps declining in the future. Lest we forget, Metro Detroit (at least the three inner counties) is one of the slowest growing of any "big city" in the nation.

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^Correct (@LMich). There is only ONE location for an urban product in all of Southeast Michigan. If any of these 5 million people want that kind of lifestyle, there's only one place to go to get it. Detroit needs to market its untapped product that offers tremendous potential.

At the same time, the rest of the community needs to embrace this as well. Think transportation and other regional bridgings. You can have your Royal Oaks and your Ferndales, Mt. Clemens and Pontiacs, but that's about as close to "Detroit" as you'll get in this area. The difference here is the center of the region and state in everything that is important on a global scale. As long as Detroiters continue to deny the city, we'll stand little-to-no chance against the globalization of the world. Instead we'll enjoy our home, our car, our big box, our 10-acre back yard...as well as our crumbling freeways, crime-stricken neighborhoods, failing schools, and suffering services.

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"Out-Wayne" as it's called, is killing itself off, despite the decline of the whole county. Detroit suffers and bleeds, as does everyone else. I'm doing a project in Allen Park for one of my classes and almost instantly the overpowering lesson learned is that "the county has no money...for x, y, and z..."

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Macomb is booming (with population), Oakland County is growing relatively slowly, and Wayne is shrinking (nearly 4% since 2000). That's hardly the defintion of a healthy Tri-County metro. Southeast Michigan, as a whole according to SEMCOG (best we've got), which is defined by the 7 county area is growing even more slowly at 1.4% since 2000. Sorry, but I don't consider that steady growth, especially for a metro sprawling itself to hell.

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Wayne County's decline is due nearly entirely to Detroit's population loss. While much of the inner-ring population continues to stagnate (which isn't necessarily a bad thing!) the outerring is growing steadily. In anycase, Wayne County sans Detroit has seen a population increase since 2000. Also, I'd rather have the region see a 1% increase in population over a 30% increase. I don't understand why a metro needs to add 250,000+ people for it to be considered "healthy". Nobody would say Bombay is healthier than London despite having a much higher growth rate. The suburban Tri-County area has added about 65,000 people since 2000, and while it is true that sprawl has continued unchecked, it has significantly slowed in recent years. There are still hotspots in the metro, but for the most part the region isn't sprawling as rapidly as it was in the late 90's.

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  • 2 months later...

I just spoke with someone at Ilitch Holdings the other day. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anything out of her about that. We all know how the Ilitches are, though. One day they'll just start tearing up the parking lots to put up new buildings...no announcement or anything.

My guess is that we'll see something after Detroit Life is completed, and after the new stadium announcement.

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