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Downtown Flint construction,projects & Photo post


Pachuco

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There really hasn't been anything to update with pictures for awhile, so it's not like your camera wasn't being put to use. ;) But at last there is more activity going on. :)

Now if this could just spur the Land Bank to make a decision about the Durant a little quicker...

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Like I promised, I have pictures of the windows in the Alley sideof Madhatter. Took these this morning about 7:30.

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Here is a better pic of the First St. Lofts.

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Here is a view with the windows on the first floor. They finished putting the windows in while I was in class today but I left my camera in my car. I will post the completed project tomorrow.

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I am glad I can contribute to the revival of this thread. I just like having other people to talk to who are actually interested in Flint. Hopefully I will be able to put up the website I designed about Flint and its neighborhoods someday. Lack of cash (poor college student working for free at an internship) and I hate the ads that free servers make you have which end up screwing up the design of the page.

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Thanks for the photos!

Dtown, I still lurk around these parts, but I'm in Detroit for school, so I have no idea what's going on back in Flint. I rely on people like you to tell me what's happening, haha.

well, unfortunatly i dont have that great of an idea of whats goin on either :blush: lol

definitly take some pics dnast, the weather will be perfect

and im lovin thooses pics Bob!!! :thumbsup:

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The first street lofts are looking nice, I hope Flint can continue to get better.

Has there been any new info on Genessee Towers? I heard awhile back they were considering tearing them down.

I am not sure what is going on with the Genesee Towers. The sidewalk is closed off and they did some half assed repairs to the facade. Periodically I see lights on and once i saw a guy in a window of the upper floors and sometimes there are trucks blocking the entrance to the garage. Thats about the extent of the stuff I have seen.

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Who knows if Vemulapalli is ever going to do any serious repairs with Genesee Towers, constantly talks about how the city is preventing him from doing anything major, but he doesn't do himself any favors by getting into legal disputes to begin with.

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There was an article the other day where Vemulapalli says he's considering selling the building for $3.5 million.

I truly hope he sells it and the new owner actually has plans for the building (other than demolition).

Man I hope he does sell it. Even though I dislike the building I hope it gets fixed up because lord knows we don't need another flat parking lot.

Perhaps they could strip the facade off and replace it with something new like they did with the Land Bank building only on a lot bigger scale.

Here is a link to the emporis website about Genesee Towers. The first picture on there is the one I took.

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There's a cool drawing of a reclad Genesee Towers made by wolverine in this thread. Something similar to that would almost seem like a miracle.

Here is a link to the emporis website about Genesee Towers. The first picture on there is the one I took.

Ha, what a coincidence - the second one's mine.

Edited by dnast
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He better sell it, get it into the hands of someone who is actually competent. However, I get the feeling that if someone does buy it, the relations with the city won't be much better. I'm still trying to find the article on ABC12, but there was a story tonight about a developer who spent $3 million renovating the interiors of homes along 3rd Ave. and when he asked the city for grant money to fix up the exteriors they denied him the money. It sounded like the city was trying to compare him to a slumlord, but I think I heard him say that he was planning on moving into one of the homes himself.

Edited by VeeFan
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I think the developer's name is Ray Trent, and his long-term plan was to turn that section of 3rd Ave. into a gated community. They showed some of the homes that he renovated the interiors and they looked really good, very classic designs. So it wasn't that he was like Vemulapalli and might get around to doing something, he's already done the work on the insides, but just needed help from the city to the exteriors.

I'm really hoping they'll have the story up on the website in a few hours, but I couldn't catch whether he had spent his own money in the interiors.

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I don't know why I didn't provide a link. Here you go.

All I can tell is that they're on Stone St. I really should resubscribe to the Flint Journal because there's a good chance there's a map included with the print version. Maybe one day Mlive will actually include pictures with the articles.

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We get the Journal and I didn't even see the article yesterday or today.

Windows on the Mad Hatter are finished now, but it looks like they may be re-doing the entrance now. And I hope they're getting new signage as well because they need it.

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I don't know why I didn't provide a link. Here you go.

All I can tell is that they're on Stone St. I really should resubscribe to the Flint Journal because there's a good chance there's a map included with the print version. Maybe one day Mlive will actually include pictures with the articles.

sounds good to me :thumbsup:

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hello forum , I have been lurking for about a year and suddenly this new energy on the forum has excited me. I bought a house in downtown flint a while back and i really love it. My house, the location everything. Although it has been a rocky road emotionally. One minute i have been excited about the potential of downtown and my property thinking i made a good investment, and the next i feel depressed down and stupid for doing it....when i bought i had a gut feeling about downtown and i sincerely hope it rings true. It seems that there are more things happening in real time then just "planning" lately and this excites me very much. I am tired of hearing all the naysayers and on and on and on. Its nice to see other people have an interest and admiration for downtown flint as I do. I am hoping for the best and doing what i can to add to and improve this community.

I am disturbed about something, and maybe i am just being impatient or pretentious. Does it seem like the land bank center renovation and the mad hatter "facade improvements" are sort of bland, and somewhat cheap? I mean look at the sconces and the "brick panels" that were used on that land bank. The mad hatter looks somewhat better w/ the new windows, but THat sign is just aaawwwful. Can someone tell me if there is a downtown development authority placing restrictions on signeage sizes and a formal approval process for colors and material useage, especially on historic buildings? They are spending all this money, but their products dont seem to have the right feeling to me. I think it has to have more flavor, look at ann arbor and royal oak, notice the lighting used and the type of backlit chanel lighting in their signeage, notice the fabric awnings, the topiaries, and the upscale , large in scale lighting sconces placed on their buildings... you get my picture? Dont get me wrong, I am not knocking it completely, I am just saying that for all of this money being spent and all of this time flint has waited for these types of improvements, why not give them some more appeal than just a new brick face on a historic building? Brown sugar is another area of concern..it just doesnt have the feeling of "fabulous" in there...there is no art on the walls and everything is too understated. She should be partnering w/ red ink or some other artists and displaying large scale artwork on those walls for sale and changing them every month to display new artists....Sorry to rant..just had to get all of this out>> wondering if anyone else had similar concerns?????

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I haven't really thought about it that way but you may have a point. I think most of us are looking at how downtown looked five years ago, which makes some of these improvements seems a lot better than they actually are.

I think the Land Bank Center gets the most leeway. It's a county owned building, it looks so much better than how the Hughes & Hatcher looked before renovations that it's hard not to possibly see things with rose colored glasses. Most government owned buildings don't even compares, and this being something from Genesee County county makes it seems even better.

I think Flint hasn't reached the point where we can scrutinize to the point of comparing new and renovated structures to ones in more well-to-do communities - even in Michigan. It's good to hear your point of view, though. This phase should only last so long until we take it a step further.

I'm thinking the 500 block project should be a very high quality one and push downtown Flint in the right direction.

By the way, how do you feel about the First St. Lofts? Even though there's still a lot of work to be done on the exterior I have to say it's lookin mighty fine so far.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! I'm looking forward to more feedback from you (and I'm sure others are as well).

Edited by dnast
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