Quote Originally Posted by Gistok View Post
I'll likely be downtown, next door to the United Artists this upcoming week...

And I'll likely be allowed to take images from floors higher up.

But strangely enough... I feel a little guilty in peering over the "wall of secrecy" that the Ilitch's have put around the perimeter of the United Artists complex.

As much as I have been angry with the Ilitch's over the years over the demo of the Madison-Lenox, the Adams Auditorium, all the small buildings demoed in west Foxtown... I still remember the comments in a Free Press Op-Ed piece about the Ilitch family as being "flawed brilliance".

For all the small and midsized buildings that have fallen because of the Ilitch's, one has to balance that with the fact that they've saved 3 very large buildings... the Fox Theatre/Building, Masonic Temple [[paid the back due utilities which prevented certain closure, and taken over theatre booking), and now the UA complex. And maybe the Fine Arts facade on GCP will find a new life...

The United Artists complex is about as "far gone" as any downtown building and theatre. I believe that the Lafayette was in better shape than the UA Building, which is missing its' skin on its' SW side.... not to mention the bad shape of its' auditorium. The Detroit Opera House [[former Capitol/Grand Circus Theatre) was as "far gone and brought back to life" as any theatre in the country. But the United Artists Theatre is in even worse shape.

Economically it makes absolutely no sense to spend the money to bring the UA complex back to life, when empty buildings in better shape are available for sale for pennies on the dollar around downtown.

But every indication so far shows restoration/renovation....

Ya gotta love the intrigue... it makes for great speculation!
As much as I complain and dislike their parking deserts and urban prairies, the sidewalks and streets surrounding those lots are among the most clean and taken care of in Detroit.

Most vacant buildings don't make money anymore. You can't just sit on something hoping you can flip it in the near future. That being said, if their is a way to make money off any of these mentioned buildings, the Ilitch Family should have no problem figuring it out, since they have access to more data and information about the area than just about anyone else in Metro Detroit.