Brewster-Douglass Projects Demolition Proceeds

**begingri** · November-14-12, 08:32 PM

Update Pictures May 2014

DETROIT [[AP) — Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has scheduled an announcement Thursday on the future of a now-vacant housing project where singers Diana Ross and the Supremes lived before becoming Motown superstars.

A news conference is set for 10 a.m. EST at the 14-acre site of the Brewster-Douglass Homes.

Known to most Detroiters as the Brewster projects, the decades-old complex has been vacant since the last families were relocated in 2008 due to safety concerns. It consists of brick condo-like units, six-story buildings and four 14-story towers.

Bing said in his State of the City address in March that the complex would be demolished by year's end to make way for redevelopment.

The Detroit Housing Commission had been seeking developers, but demolition costs at one time were estimated at $6 million or more.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/A...#ixzz2CFbM9AGk

**syrett4** · November-14-12, 08:56 PM

Good news. More progress.

**p69rrh51** · November-14-12, 09:19 PM

Very good news but I wish there was some way to save the old Ginsburg Library.

JVB · November-14-12, 09:39 PM

The right development here would be huge. Something that ties together Eastern Market with the entertainment district and [[sort of) the medical area. I'm pretty sure the powers that be in Detroit will find a way to screw this up though. I'm looking at you city council...

**DetroitPlanner** · November-14-12, 09:39 PM

I can't find library in the story. How do you know that it is going? HUD and the Housing Commission don't run libraries.

**mikefmich** · November-14-12, 09:45 PM

Old memories from Brewster.....good ones. Used to tutor grade school kids there in the mid-1960's. Love to know what became of "my boys".

Love to see someone do something....anything...and keep the rec center standing.

**p69rrh51** · November-14-12, 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

I can't find library in the story. How do you know that it is going? HUD and the Housing Commission don't run libraries.

The Library building was part of the Brewster Wheeler Recreation center. The Library itself had not been part of the DPL for decades. There are only a few Mildner & Eisen designs standing in the city. There is probably nothing that can be done I was just wondering out loud.

**DetroitPlanner** · November-14-12, 10:04 PM

The rec department is a different arm of the City than Housing. The building does have historic significance, it may serve the new plans for the area in the future.

**Bham1982** · November-14-12, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by JVB

The right development here would be huge. Something that ties together Eastern Market with the entertainment district and [[sort of) the medical area. I'm pretty sure the powers that be in Detroit will find a way to screw this up though. I'm looking at you city council...

The city will have little role on whatever happens here.

Brewster-Douglass is a federally owned HUD property. HUD decides what happens on this site.

Whatever happens, there will be an affordable housing component. I'm skeptical anything will be built in the near-term, but almost all HUD redevelopments are mixed-income housing complexes.

**Hypestyles** · November-14-12, 10:29 PM

I predict more controversy and protest. But, we'll see....

**5speedz34** · November-14-12, 11:36 PM

I was just thinking the other day, "Didn't Bing say he was going to demolish these by the end of the year?" "I bet that will never happen."

Good to hear that these are finally coming down, such an eyesore coming south into the CBD off of the Chrysler.

**detroitsgwenivere** · November-14-12, 11:39 PM

Although the demo is positive and necessary, I will miss the looming presence of the Brewsters. Used to walk through them on my way to and from work, and everytime something interesting would catch my attention. Like when I spotted the red-tailed hawks flying in and out making their nest, and the time I found the sandwich bag full of dimebags. Or when some crazy guy threw onions at me as I walked by, from one of the high rises while he was laughing hysterically. Ah memories.

That corner of I -75 will look bare indeed.

**5speedz34** · November-14-12, 11:54 PM

I'll take bare over 4 hulking skeletons of architecturally insignificant former public housing projects!

**Gannon** · November-15-12, 12:39 AM

I will miss these old pile o' bricks.

I've got history at that Wheeler Center, from the early 70s. Even got my picture in the paper...think it was the News...to prove it! Model Sailboat regatta, summer of 1972, Kennedy Square fountain. I won the junior division, and my across-the-street friend Chris Hawkins won the senior.

All thanks to his dad's best friend, Mr. Wilson, who ran the Wheeler Center...and helped protect THIS whitest-of-boys from getting his ass whooped by the kids from the Brewsters.

I'll come clean after all these years, though. I didn't build my own boat. Had an incident with the bandsaw, and they wouldn't let me back into the woodshop for the rest of that summer. I'm not bummed, though, I kept the thumb instead.

I punish my girlfriend by retelling the shorthand version of that story every time we pass the place, apparently. She reminded me again a few days ago, when I took my usual 'short-cut' across town.

Now that the windows are gone from the pool room, I can glimpse a hint of the high-dive platform...THE place where I discovered my fear of heights. Funny, the anxiety wants to well up even now.

Ah-h, memories.

Cheers!

**Honky Tonk** · November-15-12, 07:38 AM

I'll have to go with Kwame Kenyatta on this one. Tearing down the Brewsters needs to be done, but the necessity isn't immediate. There are thousands of abandoned structures in the City that DO pose an immediate danger to the populace, that IMO, should be addressed first. My question is why the Brewsters and why now? Another COD grandiose perfornance.

**Hypestyles** · November-15-12, 08:14 AM

the demolition bids must be a transparent process. no no-bid deals.. or is that hoping for too much?

**Gannon** · November-15-12, 08:23 AM

Oh, Bobby is busy at the moment.

**Danny** · November-15-12, 09:33 AM

Good riddance to that tower of blight! Make way for new housing that would attract young professionals.

**Hermod** · November-15-12, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

Good riddance to that tower of blight! Make way for new housing that would attract young professionals.

They are a monument to the triumph of Malthusian inevitability over progressive thought and optimism.

**BigChum** · November-15-12, 09:51 AM

Alright! Soon more empty space to be reclaimed as prairie. A place where the neglected and overgrown grass can hide tons of garbage and maybe even a body. This should fix all Detroit's problems.

**Honky Tonk** · November-15-12, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

Good riddance to that tower of blight! Make way for new housing that would attract young professionals.

Of course. "If we build it, they will come".

**WPitonya** · November-15-12, 10:11 AM

I hope that whatever development fills this space makes sure to return the street grid to this area. Alfred Street and Division Street should run all the way across to the I-75 service drive...NO MORE SUPERBLOCKS!

**p69rrh51** · November-15-12, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by BigChum

Alright! Soon more empty space to be reclaimed as prairie. A place where the neglected and overgrown grass can hide tons of garbage and maybe even a body. This should fix all Detroit's problems.

You should drive by there it already is overgrown and becoming prairie.

**cramerro** · November-15-12, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by Bham1982

The city will have little role on whatever happens here.

Brewster-Douglass is a federally owned HUD property. HUD decides what happens on this site.

Whatever happens, there will be an affordable housing component. I'm skeptical anything will be built in the near-term, but almost all HUD redevelopments are mixed-income housing complexes.

Just because it is a project funded by HUD does not mean it is federally controlled. As with most Federal funding sources, the funds and things that the money buys are managed locally under Fed oversight. Detroit's Housing Commission has been in the news many times in the last decade for not properly spending the HUD funds they are in charge of.

The question with this case centers around the idea of need for additional subsidized/low-income housing. They have been vacant for years, meaning that former residents have been relocated to other locations, which likely have had funds spent to increase or maintain the development.

The property is under City control... and therefore I think the City has a great opportunity to negotiate a developemnt that is required to have a mix of housing types and income levels. I'm not optimistic about excitement to develop this plot, given that there are literally blocks of development-ready lots directly adjacent in Brush Park [[that are arguably better location closer to the action as well).

**dmike76** · November-15-12, 10:30 AM

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...text|FRONTPAGE

I don't see this as being news, really. Bing said he wanted to do this anyway. The key word being 'said'. Does anyone think that the demo will actually take place? Bing, how about 'doing' it? He said it was supposed to be down by the end of the year. Well.....see how that turned out?