Cass Tech updates

[iheartthed]

This irritates me more than anything. Yes, I understand it has sat vacant for a few years and is in declining shape, but why the urgency to tear this beauty down? Why are we spending so much on demolition of these schools? This building is not the biggest threat to safety; there are thousands of homes throughout Detroit that are worse.

What’s the motivation? It always seems Detroit is quick to tear these gems down with no plan. Why not mothball it better and hope for something in the future [[loft development if the market turns around).

Free federal money. Hungry demolition contractors who coincidentally happen to be large political donors.

[esp1986]

Robert Bobb came out a couple months ago and said that Cass Tech along with a few other buildings would come down for safety reasons. Abandoned buildings are a huge liability, and considering the district is just about bankrupt, they can't afford the liability. If there was a chance that the building could be reused, they may have tried to better seal it up, but they are a school district, not real estate 'speculators' like every other property owner downtown, and since the probability of reuse of such a huge building is currently almost nil, they decided to tear it down.

Given all of the land being bought up in the area, I wouldn't be shocked to hear they already have a deal in place to sell the land once it is cleared.

This irritates me more than anything. Yes, I understand it has sat vacant for a few years and is in declining shape, but why the urgency to tear this beauty down? Why are we spending so much on demolition of these schools? This building is not the biggest threat to safety; there are thousands of homes throughout Detroit that are worse.

What’s the motivation? It always seems Detroit is quick to tear these gems down with no plan. Why not mothball it better and hope for something in the future [[loft development if the market turns around).

The difference between Cass Tech coming down and houses coming down is that the district doesn't own the houses, at least as far as we know.

The reason they don't mothball it, is that they are not real estate 'speculators,' they are a school district, they aren't going to hold onto it to hope that it can be redeveloped as something else. It is ashame that they didn't just renovate and expand it a few years back, but what's done is done.

As I said, someone who is buying up land in the area has probably offered them quite a bit for the empty land, so it is a way to rid themselves of a massive liability and mediate their costs, as it makes no business sense for them to sit on it.

Free federal money. Hungry demolition contractors who coincidentally happen to be large political donors.

The money paying for this demolition isn't federal money, it is coming from the recently approved $500M bond issue, as well as a little bit that was left from the $1B bond issue from the last decade.

[iheartthed]

The money paying for this demolition isn't federal money, it is coming from the recently approved $500M bond issue, as well as a little bit that was left from the $1B bond issue from the last decade.

Oh okay. Different source. Same idea.

ETA: The funding source also begs the question of whether the funds are being used as intended by the voters.

[esp1986]

Oh okay. Different source. Same idea.

ETA: The funding source also begs the question of whether the funds are being used as intended by the voters.

I can't say for sure, but most of the demos were coming from the original $1B bond issue, at least that was the goal. I am in no way defending them here, but part of building anew is taking care of the old when they leave, and I believe that's what they are doing here, a bit overdue. They are building a bunch of new buildings, and part of that is selling, tearing down, etc. of the old properties, and I think the idea behind the bond was with infrastructure shuffling in mind. Again, not defending anyone here, but I think this is the ultimate goal, and everything being done facility wise is strengthening the district, and that's as far as I'll go.