Plans scrapped for office building at old brass factory in Corktown

Plans scrapped for office building at old brass factory in Corktown

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Mixed-use is the name of the game now for a large Corktown development site owned by an affiliate of Ford Motor Co.’s real estate arm.
Originally slated for a large new building geared toward office and research space, the site of a now-demolished former brass factory in the shadow of Michigan Central Station is now in the early phases of being reimagined. That’s according to Josh Sirefman, CEO of Michigan Central, the district anchored by Michigan Central Station, which opens in less than two months after years of construction.“We’d love to see over time, if there is an opportunity for additional commercial, but also opportunities for residential, whether that’s mixed income or whatever that may be,” Sirefman said in a meeting with Crain’s reporters and editors last month.



“It’s a great opportunity for that. We’re very early and we’ve got our hands full, so we’re just now turning our attention to what would be subsequent phases [[of Michigan Central) and start to really understand what that mix of uses might look like,” Sirefman said.

Dan Austin, director of communications for Michigan Central, said they are "actively studying mixed-use possibilities on the site and look forward to having conversations with the community about the future of the property."

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https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...ctory-corktown

No investors no project. Don't rush into a project unless you're being creative in your language that your project can woo your investors.

I much prefer residential for this location. Corktown doesn't need any more commercial/ light industrial creep into the residential neighborhood. There is plenty of empty or greatly underutilized space closer to the river that you could build a new office building or something similar. This is a good move for Corktown as a whole.

I thought this had been scrapped long ago, to be honest. The site was not even mentioned in Ford's 2020 master plan announcement for Michigan Central.

https://michigancentral.com/ford-unv...oits-corktown/

I wonder if the "west" office building is still planned for the old railyard area.

Agreed, commercial in this area shouldn't be done. Would love to see pure residential in this spot. Mixed use, sure, but I feel it'd always be up for lease.

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Originally Posted by K-slice

I much prefer residential for this location. Corktown doesn't need any more commercial/ light industrial creep into the residential neighborhood. There is plenty of empty or greatly underutilized space closer to the river that you could build a new office building or something similar. This is a good move for Corktown as a whole.

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This is disappointing because it signals that Corktown won't be a major employment center as originally envisioned by Ford.

Detroit needs jobs, and high-paying ones. That is how we get more residents and tax revenues.

Commercial at that site wouldn't be 'creep' because what existed before at that site was industrial/office. Rosa Parks is not a neighborhood street, so hopefully mixed-use residential/retail will be built there.

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

This is disappointing because it signals that Corktown won't be a major employment center as originally envisioned by Ford.

Detroit needs jobs, and high-paying ones. That is how we get more residents and tax revenues.

Commercial at that site wouldn't be 'creep' because what existed before at that site was industrial/office. Rosa Parks is not a neighborhood street, so hopefully mixed-use residential/retail will be built there.

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Of course pretty much everything built in Detroit is subsidized one way or another, but it's going to be very difficult to finance anything with interest rates where they are. Many projects that seemed feasible in 2020/2021 simply don't make any sense now. At some point in the future [[maybe soon, maybe not) rates will be at least somewhat lower and sites like this will be easier to develop.