Lofty Ambitions

[dnast]

Lofty ambitions

Apartment development aims at making downtown place to stay and play

FLINT

THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION

Sunday, January 23, 2005

By Marlon Vaughn

[email protected]

[Allan]

It's great to see that this project has finally gotten underway. This is many years in the making, with countless holdups along the way. If this project is a success, it will encourage developers to look at redveloping other vacant downtown buildings. If only the Durant Hotel could get renovated....

I checked out Uptown's website, which is quite unfinished.

Are they still planning on restoring the building to its original appearance?

Look! Pedestrians in downtown Flint!

I'd live here. Notice the Capitol Theater and Dryden Building in the windows.

[dnast]

I think restoring the building to its original design was a requirement for getting a historic tax credit, so hopefully that's still the plan.

Yeah, I noticed the Capitol and Dryden, too. I didn't expect them to put that much thought into a rendering of the interior. I don't think it'd be hard to get these leased out.

That second rendering is pretty old, now. It's funny that already some of those other buildings on that block have or are in the process of being refurbished and won't look much like the rendering at all. I wouldn't mind if the two little buildings between the former Hughes and Hatcher and former Atwood buildings looked like they do in the rendering.

I'm surprised they let their web address be put in print, with it being so unfinished. I thought I might find some actual information there

[Allan]

Yeah, went there hoping to find more details on the project. I did find the two renderings, one of which I'd see before, and a historic photograph, which I'd also seen before. Haha.

I'm just glad they will be restoring the entrance to its original appearance.

[Pachuco]

Here is a,I think a great picture of the Complex which will house Rowe.inc,a number of restaurants,and finally loft apartments.

[Allan]

The new design looks so much better than what's there now. It will really add a lot to Saginaw Street.

[dnast]

Okay, I guess I'm being picky but:

Looking at the drawing, I'm wondering if they really can have the roof slant out like that considering there are buildings connected to both sides. Yeah, they're shorter, but isn't that crossing property lines and preventing the adjacent lots from going taller?

[Allan]

I would imagine that the cornice will not go all the way around the roof. It will probably just go along the front, wrap around the corner, and then stop.

Is this against zoning codes? I have no idea. Generally you cannot build anything over the property line, but this downtown, so the codes for that might be different.

Whether it is allowed or not, it doesn't really matter, since it would be very easy to remove the wrap-around portion of the cornice if a new tall building went up next door.

[Pachuco]

How many lofts are exactly being developed in Downtown Flint ?

[Allan]

If I remember, the old Republic Bank Building will have 16 loft apartments. That will only add about 24 downtown residents, but it's 24 more than there is now, so I'm not complaining. I'm not sure how many lofts the entertainment block project will have. If you include all the proposed Daystar development projects there would be a lot more, but all Daystar ever does is propose new developments...they never actually build them. Maybe someone else has a better idea of how many are being developed.

[VeeFan]

I just have a question about the design of the complex. I thought that an original rendering showed the center glass as having a rounded top, a la Lloyd's of London?

[dnast]

I don't remember if the central atrium had a rounded top or not. And I think I threw away the paper with the sketch. Flint City T-Shirts keeps an archive of the Uncommon Sense, so maybe I'll go up there one day and see if they still have that issue with the drawings.

[Pachuco]

So any news on Rosewood Manor ? It's suppose to be 80 units.

[dnast]

Rosewood Manor is the north side development I was talking about. There is a row of buildings that is being topped out now, and another perpendicular row of buildings that have the first floor of wood frame finished (at least it looks like it is). I only noticed that second row of buildings today.

This project is nowhere near downtown, though. It's northwest of Pierson Rd. and M.L. King, but it's coming along nicely and is definitely needed for that neighborhood. Most of the housing stock in that neighborhood is deteriorating and probably wouldn't be worth much even if there was a better demographic in the neighborhood.

[dnast]

How many lofts are exactly being developed in Downtown Flint ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's really hard to tell. I'll just give my best guess.

Here's what's definitely coming:

First Street Lofts: 16 units

Economy Building: 1-2 units?

352 Building: 16 units

Entertainment complex: 2-4 units?

TOTAL: approx. 35-38 units

Proposed:

Manhattan Place: 22 units

Dryden Building: Who knows? 8-16?

J. London's: 2-4?

TOTAL: approx. 32-42 units

No time soon:

Dryden building: I have no idea, but it could probably hold more units than all the aforementioned lofts put together.

I probably missed a few of the smaller buildings, but those wouldn't change the number by much. Downtown will see to see a few hundred more lofts proposed before residential takes off.

[VeeFan]

Is Manhattan Place set to do an expansion then?

[dnast]

There are supposed to be 2 phases - both with 11 units. I got that info from whatsupdowntown.com. Honestly, I don't know if that project will ever be completed. It seems like the developer just moved in himself and said f**k it (there's one furnished loft there and the lights are usually on at night)

The Don is on him about the project because he got a loan from the city for it. He might be paying the money back soon instead of finishing this project.

[Pachuco]

It's really hard to tell. I'll just give my best guess.

Here's what's definitely coming:

First Street Lofts: 16 units

Economy Building: 1-2 units?

352 Building: 16 units

Entertainment complex: 2-4 units?

TOTAL: approx. 35-38 units

Proposed:

Manhattan Place: 22 units

Dryden Building: Who knows? 8-16?

J. London's: 2-4?

TOTAL: approx. 32-42 units

No time soon:

Dryden building: I have no idea, but it could probably hold more units than all the aforementioned lofts put together.

I probably missed a few of the smaller buildings, but those wouldn't change the number by much. Downtown will see to see a few hundred more lofts proposed before residential takes off.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow there is way more housing going on in Downtown Flint than I thought !

[Allan]

When did they announce that the 352 Building was being developed into lofts? I remember the redevelopment announcement, but don't remember anything about lofts in that article.

[VeeFan]

Where's the 352 building? Is it the one on the corner of Saginaw and Kearsley?

[Allan]

The 352 Building is the tall one on the corner just south of Churchill's. I can't find a photo right now. I'll have to look later when I get back to my apartment.

[VeeFan]

I know which building it is now. I remembered that it was known only by its address, but I couldn't remember the numbers.

[Allan]

I seem to have lost my Flint photos, so I definately won't be posting a photo of the building anytime soon. I could've sworn I brought them down to Southfield after Christmas but I certainly can't find them! Then again, I still have unopened boxes of things from when I moved into here in August. LOL. I guess it'll just have to wait until I go back to GB for spring break...unless dnast can find the link to the website I made two years ago. I lost the URL about two weeks after I created the site.

[Allan]

Wow. I am amazed...I found the link! It turns out I was smart enough to save the URL to my favorites on my laptop. These photos are old (September 13, 2003), but things really haven't changed all that much. The only thing is that now I actually know how to take photos. Longtime forumers may remember these - this was my first photo thread (back when the site had maybe 80 members, lol).

352 Building

[dnast]

You found it! LOL. What's the URL?

The 352 was formerly the Genesee Bank building, and the lofts were mentioned in the "Downtown's Big Plans" article that VeeFan pointed me to (I made a thread for a couple of days ago). Mott Foundation gave them a grant - otherwise I don't know how long it would've taken Daystar/Al Kloss to get anywhere with it.