What is going on at Red Wings arena site?

[emu steve]

Guys, but were the Crosswind units there 25 or 50 years ago? [[of course, not).

Nothing worst than walking out of your unit and seeing a behemoth building like MSG.

[southen]

Guys, but were the Crosswind units there 25 or 50 years ago? [[of course, not).

Nothing worst than walking out of your unit and seeing a behemoth building like MSG.

It is Woodward Avenue, not some two lane road were talking about. There is plenty of space between those units and whatever is built on the other side.

[ndavies]

The Red Wings arena had been rumored to sit on that site for at least 15 years.

The people who bought the Crosswind's units were hoping a development like this to happen. You don't buy a place two blocks for the ballparks expecting it to be quiet.

The new arena has strengthened the prices for those condos.

[1953]

I am also in favor of height. I do think they are wise to keep the arena as low as possible, since it'll probably have some dead walls on it, despite their assurances otherwise. The bigger the dead wall, the more imposing it is. For everything else, I think 8-12 stories is an appropriate approach to downtown.

[SpartanDawg]

incredible progress being made

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

incredible progress being made

Its so nice to see construction cranes in Detroit.

[DetroitBoy]

incredible progress being made

Yes but that abandoned derelict Eddystone Hotel ruins the view of the nice new stadium. It already looks terribly misplaced and will be a continuing eyesore after the stadium is built.

[MSUguy]

Yes but that abandoned derelict Eddystone Hotel ruins the view of the nice new stadium. It already looks terribly misplaced and will be a continuing eyesore after the stadium is built.

The Eddystone is being turned into residential.

[southen]

Yes but that abandoned derelict Eddystone Hotel ruins the view of the nice new stadium. It already looks terribly misplaced and will be a continuing eyesore after the stadium is built.

Being facetious?

[mtburb]

Yes but that abandoned derelict Eddystone Hotel ruins the view of the nice new stadium. It already looks terribly misplaced and will be a continuing eyesore after the stadium is built.

No. It won't be an eyesore any more by the time the arena opens.

[emu steve]

So far the arena seems to be a big success with those plunking down big, big bucks for expensive suites.

Here is an interesting sentence, though, on development:

"Wilson said investors from both coasts, and as far as China, have shown interest in developing the district around the arena."

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/spo...sell/76075242/

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

So far the arena seems to be a big success with those plunking down big, big bucks for expensive suites.

Here is an interesting sentence, though, on development:

"Wilson said investors from both coasts, and as far as China, have shown interest in developing the district around the arena."

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/spo...sell/76075242/

Heaven help us if its the same Chinese "developers" of the Stott and Free Press buildings.

[royce]

What once wasAttachment 28618
Wow, I just realized that was almost 10 years ago.

Too bad the Donovan Building could not be saved. I remember as a kid passing it along the Fisher and seeing the Motown signage. I admired its simplicity in appearance and loved how it came right up to the sidewalk. It had a good height as well. Perhaps it could have been converted into the hotel that is planned for that very cite [[think David Whitney Building/Aloft Hotel). As they say, "Hindsight is 20/20."

[mikeg19]

Too bad the Donovan Building could not be saved. I remember as a kid passing it along the Fisher and seeing the Motown signage. I admired its simplicity in appearance and loved how it came right up to the sidewalk. It had a good height as well. Perhaps it could have been converted into the hotel that is planned for that very cite [[think David Whitney Building/Aloft Hotel). As they say, "Hindsight is 20/20."

I was thinking the same thing. It really sucks that Kwame needed that building to go.

A lot of people think the SuperBowl was such a great thing for this city, and in some regards it was. But thinking of what we lost so the city would "look better" cost us the Statler, Donovan, and Madison-Lenox. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but I don't think there would be too many people saying in today's market, those buildings wouldn't be redeveloped. Throw in the Lafayette building a few years later, and it almost is disgusting to think what has happened down there amid all the positive developments. To think what could have been pisses me off.

[corrybt]

incredible progress being made

It looks like they are building the areas around the seating bowl first, then building the bowl? Usually they build the bowl first and then the structure around it. Is there a reason for this with this arena? I don't even see any raker beams yet, usually the columns and raker beams are the first to go up. It appears as if the entire arena shell is going to be made of steel beams. How is that different than precast concrete? New stadiums in Minnesota and Atlanta seem to have all concrete shells.

[Mackinaw]

I was thinking the same thing. It really sucks that Kwame needed that building to go.

A lot of people think the SuperBowl was such a great thing for this city, and in some regards it was. But thinking of what we lost so the city would "look better" cost us the Statler, Donovan, and Madison-Lenox. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but I don't think there would be too many people saying in today's market, those buildings wouldn't be redeveloped. Throw in the Lafayette building a few years later, and it almost is disgusting to think what has happened down there amid all the positive developments. To think what could have been pisses me off.

Preservationists seem to finally be cool, or at least listened to. The appreciation is finally there. But it wasn't 6-15 years ago when we really needed it to save so many buildings. My observation is that once we finally took the plunge on bankruptcy and the regional economy simultaneously began to improve, there was, as we all have observed, a large increase in morale and civic pride again. But during the 2000-2009 period where a much lesser percentage "believed," and where many who believed predicated their view on the notion that we needed to demolish-and-rebuild to succeed, so much damage was done.

I am proud of the city and region for having a major attitude adjustment and improved focus and appreciation of Detroit's assets since 2009/2010, but prior to that I firmly believe that negativity cost us dearly and set us back even further than the economic crisis did.

[Gistok]

At the 90th Anniversary of the State/Fillmore last week, one fellow told me that George Jackson [[back in 2003) said privately that the "ruin" now known as the Westin Book Cadillac would have been torn down long ago if it wasn't for those "annoying" preservationists!!

[emu steve]

Preservationists seem to finally be cool, or at least listened to. The appreciation is finally there. But it wasn't 6-15 years ago when we really needed it to save so many buildings. My observation is that once we finally took the plunge on bankruptcy and the regional economy simultaneously began to improve, there was, as we all have observed, a large increase in morale and civic pride again. But during the 2000-2009 period where a much lesser percentage "believed," and where many who believed predicated their view on the notion that we needed to demolish-and-rebuild to succeed, so much damage was done.

I am proud of the city and region for having a major attitude adjustment and improved focus and appreciation of Detroit's assets since 2009/2010, but prior to that I firmly believe that negativity cost us dearly and set us back even further than the economic crisis did.

I agree with what you are saying.

Some folks here, late 2015, are pretending that today existed 10 years ago or 7 years ago.

What makes sense today did NOT make sense back then. Matter of fact, NOTHING made sense in 2008.

What we are seeing across Detroit, esp. along Woodward is something which could not have been dreamt in 2008 when the country and esp. places like Detroit were in serious, serious trouble.

The national economy, the Detroit economy and finances, etc. are much, much better today than 7 years ago.

It makes sense now to renovate, re-repurpose, build, etc. whereas it didn't 7 years ago.

I was NOT on this forum in 2008 or during the darkest days, but I'd guess the let's save and redevelop this building or that would have laughed at by folks who needed 25 - 50M to do what folks wanted them do and the owners found money more scarce than water in a desert.

There is an old saying about 'timing' [[and location, location, location). Some buildings were the victims of unfortunate timing. Buildings which are being saved today would not have been saved 7 years ago.

[401don]

Any news on the apartments around Comerica Park? I thought they were supposed to start construction right after the baseball season.

[Zads07]

New video up on DistrictDetroit.com.

http://www.districtdetroit.com/news/...-detroit-arena

Some intriguing notes from the video: You can clearly see a structure on the Old Cass Tech High School site, there's no more hotel between I-75 and the arena [[:30-:34 seconds). Pfeiffer Brewing adorns the arena [[:36 seconds), obviously an old extinct brewery in Detroit.

If I missed anything, feel free to add.

[tkelly1986]

There also seems to be a tower where the empty parking lots are in back of the Fox. I'm sure that's just a filler....but just pointing something else out in the new vid

[emu steve]

New video up on DistrictDetroit.com.

http://www.districtdetroit.com/news/...-detroit-arena

Some intriguing notes from the video: You can clearly see a structure on the Old Cass Tech High School site, there's no more hotel between I-75 and the arena [[:30-:34 seconds). Pfeiffer Brewing adorns the arena [[:36 seconds), obviously an old extinct brewery in Detroit.

If I missed anything, feel free to add.

I see what you are referring re: the hotel at Woodward/I-75.

I wonder if they didn't want to show something which Olympia Entertainment is not building itself... and maybe just used a 'dummy' building to fill the space.

[ptero]

Interesting to note that they must be moving Masonic Temple, too! At least it is shown on the wrong block on every single map on the District Detroit website. I sent a note. Hopefully it gets fixed soon.

[mikeg19]

I'd imaging you are correct in reference to the filler building, if it's not Illitch designed. But looking at that video, if that comes to fruition, coupled with all of DG's ongoing investments and Riverfront actions going on, downtown/midtown/corktown is going to be so vastly different in a good way. I know everyone is going to bitch about these areas as the focus of all the attention, but it's going to spread to the outer areas and neighborhoods. Downtown is going to become very dense, hell, it might even not have a sea of parking lots by 2020.

[southen]

It would be nice if they added some sort of pedestrian bridge at Park Avenue.