In the shadow of Henry Ford Health's massive expansion, NW Goldberg sees resurgence
Long article, but good read...
In the shadow of Henry Ford Health's massive expansion, a blighted neighborhood sees resurgence
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Quote:
While acknowledging Henry Ford's large presence within the neighborhood and on the immediate periphery, the goal is not to be a neighborhood real estate developer and the hospital has been disposing of properties within NW Goldberg for years, Habitz said.
Henry Ford Health came to own land in the area over the years through myriad circumstances, he said.
Now it plans to continue engaging with a number of stakeholders in the area — ranging from small businesses such as Marble Bar to the Motown Museum to Washington's group — to help at the neighborhood level. "I think we can work together to do more streetscape enhancements than what would have happened if not for the campus coming in," Habitz said. "And it means that we're able to save and protect and rehab all the rehab-able buildings that are along that corridor. And we've got enough site control to kind of dictate that the neighborhood can come back to what it once was and redensify according to its historic layout."
Henry Ford officials provided Crain's with a lengthy list of neighborhood-level initiatives in and around its main hospital campus, which includes commercial façade grants to six legacy businesses on West Grand Boulevard, selling vacant homes it owns to investors and residents and developing a vacant lot near its cancer center into a pocket park with chess and ping pong tables for free community use. To Washington's point about depressed real estate values, a Crain's analysis of real estate listings shows that the handful of sales in the NW Goldberg neighborhood in recent months have been in the $30,000 range, largely homes that appear in need of substantial renovations.
But that tide appears to be shifting. For example, Washington and his nonprofit have renovated two neighborhood homes and each have pending sales at prices of $250,000 and $280,000, respectively, according to the listings. The latter is Washington's personal home, while the former is owned by the nonprofit.
Additionally, entrepreneur and developer Carlo Liburdi told Crain's he's acquired more than a dozen homes in the NW Goldberg neighborhood, a mix of single and multi-family properties.
Liburdi, the co-owner of The Kiesling cocktail bar in the nearby Milwaukee Junction neighborhood and an architect by trade, declined to give an overall development cost for his efforts in NW Goldberg. A Crain's analysis of property records in the area, however, show at least four properties tied to Liburdi, largely bought in recent months for between $20,000 and $65,000 each.
One home on Hecla Street, a three-bedroom, 1.5 bathroom property, has been fully renovated and is listed for sale for $212,000.
Hecla, Avery and Commonwealth streets are Liburdi's area of focus, and the investor told Crain's that the recently announced Henry Ford Health expansion to the north served as a partial impetus for his business interests in the neighborhood. But he pointed to other factors as well.
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...d-neighborhood
