Broderick Tower to be Renovated?

[Allan]

Thanks. I have built up a good number of connections that get me into some places. I might be able to work something out if we have a forum meet next week, but I can't offer any guarantees.

Most of my roof level shots will probably never be seen on this forum for the simple fact that I only post photos that I have taken legally. Going into abandoned buildings isn't exactly the most legal thing in the world. Trespassing is a pretty sketchy legal term, however. There are ways around a lot of the consequences. I'm not going to go into details, but I will say that for me, urban exploration is worth the risks.

[wolverine]

LOL, I took a photo of that sign on teh other page, but then ended up deleting it figuring one of the forumers would have beat me to it. I'm suprised we didn't cross paths at all.

Did any of you stay around to watch that band play at Campus Martius, see and get autographs from Cecil Fielder, and then watch the "Field of Dreams" which was unfortunately dark on the screen?

[Allan]

I saw part of the band thing. I didn't see you there though. Then again I wasn't really looking for people I knew....

[wolverine]

Speaking of going up in the Broderick, I just realized I won't be able to do that anymore. Such a shame, cause I got a new camera. I'm glad it's getting renovated though. If I moved in after it was renovated, would I get hot water? Maybe electricity?

There's always Lee Plaza to explore and get skyline shots though! Unfortunately it's only half the floors, thus half the fun. Not to mention it's messy where the Broderick was at least somewhat clean.

[Allan]

Will you get water? Yes. Will you get hot water? Not with Mike's track record on maintaining hot water heaters.

Will you get electricity? I'd hope so. No electricity means no elevator...no elevator means that you'll get an intense physical workout in the dark everytime you want to leave your apartment on the 27th floor.

[wolverine]

Meh, I've gotten used to the lack of functioning elevators.

[Allan]

Imagine how much fun it would be to have your guests climb up all those stairs with maglites in the dark. Just be sure to keep lots of D-cell batteries on hand.

What would be even more fun is having to carry the groceries home with a maglite in one hand and the groceries in the other.

Just as long as you don't plan on having any large furniture in your apartment you should be ok. With no freight elevator, you'll be stuck with whatever you can fit up the stairs.

Of course since the Broderick is haunted, maybe the spirits will help you out some.

[wolverine]

Of course since the Broderick is haunted, maybe the spirits will help you out some.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Doubt this ghost would be of any help. Rather transparent if you ask me.

I wouldn't worry about the darkness in the stairwell. That's what the fire escape is for.

[Allan]

The spirits are only good for making the doors open and close at random.

The fire escapes aren't really all that light either, especially at night. Sure, they've got a window on each floor, but a window only does so much at 1:30am.

[Jonzo]

You know, I noticed the sign about the lofts yesterday at the homerun derby. Is it for real or was it just put there so tourists wouldn't be offended?

[Allan]

JC Beal is currently doing work in the building. So far it's been mostly cleanup work. They've got 80 years worth of junk to clean out of the building.

I've been at the building when they've been working. They have a 40 man crew there on days when they work. For whatever reason they only work on selected days. You'd think they'd be working Monday-Friday, 9:00-5:00, but I guess not....

[RustTown]

BTW, do you know what the facade material is for the Broderick Tower? I got in contact with the renovation architects through email, but they only sent me the height of the building. I figure it's made of either limestone or sandstone, but don't know. Finally, are there any specs up on this building yet, like how many apartments are going into the building, or is everything being kept on the down-low at the moment?

[Allan]

The facade material is limestone. Sandstone weathers very easily, so it is not typically used in exterior construction.

From what I have been told, they have settled on a number, but it's being kept under wraps for now. Or at least it was as of about a month ago. It is around 110 units, I believe. Unless something has changed, they are having 4 small units per floor on the lower floors and three units per floor on the upper floors.

The schematic planning for this renovation actually occured in late 2002. Detroit Renaissance issued Mike a $60,000 loan for preliminary architectural services and feasibility analyses through the Downtown Loft District Fund in Spring 2003. At the time Mike received the loan, the renovation cost was estimated to be $8.2 million. Since that time, vandals and the elements have taken their toll. I'm not sure what the renovation will cost now, but I remember hearing somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million not long ago.

[rbdetsport]

Has anyone emailed JC Beal, if so, what did they say?

[RustTown]

Thanks, Allan.

Also, is there any news on what the first four floors will become? I can't imagine it not being office/retail space with those floor to floor glass panes. I hope they plan to add some quality retail to this project, or at least make these bottom floors into anemities such a workout room/spar, whatever, to serve the residents.

I forgot to ask, is this going to be apartments and condos, or just apartments?

[Allan]

When the building was last used, only the first three floors were used as retail. The 2nd and 3rd floors have showcase windows for stores still in place. If I remember correctly, the 4th floor is almost completely gutted and is essentially just one open room. It would make sense to have the first through fourth floors used as retail, or at least 1 & 2 at the very least. If there are multiple stories of retail, there will need to be space somewhere in the building to put a residential lobby for the apartments. That way visitors to the retail establishments can't go up & bother people in the apartments. The same will need to happen if they do a restaurant at the top like they had been talking about several months ago.

I have always heard this project refered to as the Broderick Tower apartments. I've never heard anyone say anything about condos. I could be wrong, but it sounds like it will be all apartments.

[Zissou]

It sounds like something is happening. I know everyone is still skeptical but more and more info is coming out about this project. Im getting excited about it.

[Allan]

Yeah. Everyone has a right to be skeptical though. This is Detroit, and we're dealing with Mike Higgins here.

I'm not usually a defender of Mike, but I will say that a lot of the mess with the Broderick was bad timing on his part. Mike got the building after David Broderick died in 1984. The mid 1980s were a time when entire skyscrapers were going vacant. Hudsons, the Tuller Hotel, the Book-Cadillac, the Metropolitan, and several others went vacant around that time. Others still, like the Dime Building & Book Tower had dangerously low occupancy rates. Mike intended to refurbish the Broderick's office space & then rent it out to tenants, but he found it very hard to attract tenants in the economic climate downtown at the time.

That's about where my sympathy for Mike ends though. Instead of trying to find other uses for the building, he sat on it and just hoped that things would improve to the point that he could rent the space out again. Instead of agressively trying to find a suitable use for the building, he didn't do much at all. He lived in the penthouse, but didn't do much of anything to make the building suitable for occupancy, or even keep the building properly mothballed. Almost all the asbestos was removed in the mid 1990s, but that's about the only work that was done to the building since 1984. By 1998, he decided that the Broderick would have to become residential space, because office space in older buildings just wasn't working out for the other buildings downtown. He spent the next 8 years trying to figure out a renovation plan, which brings us to today.

[wolverine]

And the fact that the building wasn't protected well was upsetting. The steel gates on the second floor up into the tower were always unlocked and the security system only half worked. Part of that problem being that people who went up in the tower, forgot to close all the doors when they left, which meant the security system could not be set.

[Allan]

There were three doors that needed to be closed. One was the gate on the second floor, the other was the door from the stairwell to the lobby, and the third was the door to the basement stairwell. All they had to do was keep those three doors closed & locked and cover the hole that was allowing vandals to get in. Problem solved! It took them long enough to figure that out....

[wolverine]

There were also security alarms which looked brand new installed on nearly every floor of the tower. The doors to all of these were left open. It sad it was never used. Maybe this is because the upper floors didn't have electricty.

Does the roof actaully have electricity though? I know someone tried to pull a stunt with Christmas lights up there once. When I took a group of people up, one of them had a rechargable flashlight that plugs in to a wall socket. We tested an outlet on the roof and the flashlight LED turned on for charging!

[statedude3]

I dont know about electricity on the roof, but I did observe a few people on the roof during the All Star Game last night. I could not tell if it was police snipers or observers looking for a cheap view of the game. I can only imagine the awesome view from there!

[Zissou]

Check out some of Allan's pictures from the roof. That will give you a taste of it and make you extremely jealous that you cant get up there. At least thats how it went for me.

[Allan]

Wolverine, when were you last upstairs? I went to the Broderick in early June, and the only evidence I saw of a security system was on the first floor, and it was obviously broken. It looked to have been ripped off the wall and then reattached. Of course this was about a month after the last incident with the vandals...they could've easily destroyed the whole security system. They did a really god job of destroying whatever they could get their hands on....they were up there for 5 or 6 hours.

Frank does security duty when the tavern is open. There were police stationed on the roofs of many downtown buildings last night for the game, so that is likely what you all saw last night. There is no way for normal people to get up to the roof anymore. Your only hope is to catch JC Beal working upstairs and bribe them to take you to the top. Haha.

As for electricity on the roof, it is not supposed to be up there. The wire in the stairwell that led from the 4th floor to the roof was put up for the Christmas light thing. Of course it was disconnected as soon as they found out about it. At one point someone installed a second wire leading to the roof. They discovered it during the cleanup. It was a hot wire, although I'm not sure what they were trying to power with it.

[Allan]

This is for Statedude....