GAR Building For Sale

[Allan]

The city has finally offered the GAR Building up for sale now that the court case is settled.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...NEWS99/60926008

[Zissou]

Would be cool for a bar/nightclub place.

[wolverine]

Completely agree.

I hope they find a developer soon.

[resourcefulidiot]

and a bar might address the huge "parking" issue that DY is franticaly talking about

[Jasoncw]

It personally looks like a frat house to me.

If it was a bar it would have to be a small one. There doesn't look like there's a lot of space in there for a lot of seating or a stage or anything like that.

idk

[JimInGR]

It personally looks like a frat house to me.

If it was a bar it would have to be a small one. There doesn't look like there's a lot of space in there for a lot of seating or a stage or anything like that.

idk

If all three floors were to be incorporated into the bar there would easily be enough room.

[RustTown]

Yeah, this building is definitely suited for a modern entertainment use. It wouldn't work much as a residential building, and if it were an office building, it would have to be a boutique office building, and ask for very high rents because of the small size and mainting it. I definitely see it as a bar and restaurant, with maybe an a handful of pricey small offices.

[tapezord]

wig shop. lock it

[wolverine]

It personally looks like a frat house to me.

idk

Interesting you say that, because it kind of looks like the SAE fraternity house here in AA with that whole corner condition going on.

Wig shop, huh? I was thinking world's first multi-level liquor store. just playin...

[hudkina]

Detroit has like 20 multi-level liquor stores! Hell half of them have an attached wig shop.

[Ramcharger]

I think an appropriate use for the GAR building would be remodeling it into a new home for the Detroit Children

[hudkina]

It could also be a lesson in teaching the little kids how to properly cross a street!

[Allan]

Properly crossing a street? How about simply walking on the sidewalk? That seems to be challenging enough for a lot of people....

[Zissou]

Properly crossing a street? How about simply walking on the sidewalk? That seems to be challenging enough for a lot of people....

Hey, I have a condition.

[hudkina]

The building is isolated. It's completely surrounded by streets.

[statedude3]

The building is isolated. It's completely surrounded by streets.

I think that pretty much negates anything that is not bar/restauurant in form.

[hudkina]

Well at least we know it won't have an attached garage...

[RustTown]

You never know. They may vacate one of the streets to build a parking garage three times the building's size. This is Detroit we're talking about, afterall.

[detroitfan]

C'mon give the city some credit it'll be two times at most.

[Jin Kim]

So yesterday morning I saw a bunch of people (including a camera crew from Channel 4) at G.A.R. They removed plywood from the Grand River/Bagley corner entrance and folks were walking in, etc.

The plywood's back on and no sign that any had happened there this morning.

Anyone know what happened?

[Zissou]

They may have been showing it to potential customers....?

[Allan]

Yesterday was the walkthrough for the people who answered the RFP.

[resourcefulidiot]

Kraemer Design Group on DetroitYES said they and an unnamed group were thinking of taking "a run" at the building

[Ramcharger]

Six proposals for city's grand GAR Building range from nightclub to bed and breakfast.

Both the nightclub and the B & B proposals sound intriguing, but I suspect Olympia Development will get the nod.

[Allan]

Yeah, I'm sure the city has already made up its minds on that one.

I ran into the guy who is proposing the nightclub when I explored the building a year and a half ago. It's nice to see that he's made progress on the idea. As we were going through the building, he was explaining to me all these really cool ideas, but he was frustrated with the city's lack of cooperation.

I am intrigued by the proposal for 15 lofts. I have to wonder how they managed to cram 5 lofts per floor into that building. When I was in there it seemed way too small to put more than about 3 per floor, but I didn't spend much time in there on account of all the pigeon crap dust I was trying not to inhale. I always thought that it would be cool to renovate the entire building into one residential unit. "Yeah, I live in the building that looks like a castle."