Affordable apartments RIGHT downtown - do they still exist?

Hi DYESers...

I know the housing market in the CBD has become competitive in the past year especially...

And it seems that renovated "luxury" apartments downtown are now well over $1000/month for 1BR apartments...

I'm interested to know of buildings that may offer studios or 1BRs for significantly less....

These absolutely do not have to be gut-renos or "luxury" units - just not in buildings with bugs, vermin or gang activity.

The only building I found in the immediate CBD is the Cadillac Square Apartments [[offering studios/1BRs beginning at $550/$650) - but they have a 20-person waiting list to get in!

For the purposes of this thread, I'm primarily interested in downtown only or areas where I can WALK to downtown within 10 minutes [[no Corktown, Midtown, SW, etc.)

Thanks!

Apartments in Lafayette Park area start at around $600.The Mies buildings start around $660.

Snarky comment here: Contact Bham82 who seems to know of many vacancies downtown, where nobody wants to live.

Non-Snarky: If Lafayette Park is affordable, that does sound like a nice option, especially with the grocery there now.

I looked at a 1br apartment at the Casa de Habana building in the winter/spring - they were asking $700 and I believe that included parking. The place is right upstairs from a cigar bar, so the heavy smell of cigar smoke killed it for me.

Around the same time, Claridge House on Washington Blvd. was asking about $850, no parking.

Also keep an eye on the D:Hive Live Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/DhiveLIVE

Claridge House, Fyfe Building, New Cadillac Square Apts, Greektown Lofts would be a few options for < $1000. The better ones [[Fyfe, Claridge) are tough to get into though. I moved to Lafayette Towers and except for it being a bit chilly in the winter have no complaints. I pay < $800 for a large 1 br there. Midtown and Corktown also have plenty of affordable options that aren't too far out there.

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Originally Posted by Bham1982;41441
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Apartments in Lafayette Park area start at around $600.The Mies buildings start around $660.

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Lafayette Towers is reasonable with many issues. The heat had been barely coming out of the vents and others problems.

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Originally Posted by Bham1982

Apartments in Lafayette Park area start at around $600.The Mies buildings start around $660.

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The pavilion has studios from $663-829 and one bedrooms from $928-1116.

The towers are in the 600s for studios and 700s for one bedrooms. They're cheaper but it's because the management is worse. imo the towers should be more expensive than the pavilion because the units are a bit better and there's a parking garage. Otherwise the buildings are nearly identical and only 600 feet away from each other, so imo it really tells you something when one can command such a higher rent than the other. But hey maybe if you rent there you'll get lucky and it'll go into foreclosure again and you'll get better owners. :p

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Originally Posted by Jason

The pa
vilion has studios from $663-829 and one bedrooms from $928-1116.

The towers are in the 600s for studios and 700s for one bedrooms. They're cheaper but it's because the management is worse. imo the towers should be more expensive than the pavilion because the units are a bit better and there's a parking garage. Otherwise the buildings are nearly identical and only 600 feet away from each other, so imo it really tells you something when one can command such a higher rent than the other. But hey maybe if you rent there you'll get lucky and it'll go into foreclosure again and you'll get better owners. :p

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Too bad that Mr Jackson didnt have the residents there at Lafayette Towers best interest at heart other than his pocket book. He probably try to sell before investing any of his money into it. I had visited my friend there who is sick due to the low heat in the byilding

if u want to live cheap, u will likely need roommates if u want something decent.

not downtown, but 3350 Cass and 149 Davenport will be reno'd next year - 47 units by 2015.

i would contact cass corridor neighborhood development corp. if u want something affordable

I'm a big fan of the Leland myself. It doesn't, however, seem to be for everybody, though near as I can tell they welcome just about all.

Our son just rented a place on the cusp of Midtown closer to downtown Detroit. Renovated apartments, all utilities, small one bedroom, no storage but secured parking. I believe he said 650. Partially solar powered. Owner lives there and young folk. Only saw it from outside, but it looked sweet.

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Originally Posted by Bham1982

Apartments in Lafayette Park area start at around $600.The Mies buildings start around $660.

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please help me understand where are the Mies buildings? Thanks.

How about the Hotel Yorba? The Viking? or the Leland?

I lived in the Leland years ago... do they still allow residents free access to City Club? Has Mr. Higgins improved the building at all since they de-Ramada'd the hotel part of the building?

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Originally Posted by Chinman

please help me understand where are the Mies buildings? Thanks.

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http://goo.gl/maps/53tXk

The three glass and aluminum towers are the apartments. The one to the left is the Pavilion which is expensive and the two to the right are the Towers which are cheaper but have bad management.

To the north is a concrete tower which is super ghetto, and to the south, on Lafayette, is an expensive condo tower.

Im assuming the south building referred to is 1300..? Its actually a co-op.. I dont really know if you would call it expensive by most standards but on the other hand it is not cheap.. you do get alot of the money.. a one bedroom , would cost you in the 20,000 for the equity and monthly fee is in the 800s on average.. which a portion is tax deductible which would give most about 100 month back,,,Nice building, great amenities,, good safety. great staff including shipping handling package clerk, door people. good facilities etc..and very close, good heating and cooling, windows have all been replaced, new elevators,, pool, workout room, all in great condition.... I live there,, its really a great place for the money on todays market.

Sorry I meant co-op. :[[

What you've said is what I've always heard about it, that it's really nice and a great value. But it's still expensive compared to apartment living. The monthly fee alone is already starting to get into a higher range.



http://www.jeanrivardapts.com/

I don't have any personal experience with this place, and while it's just outside of downtown it's a short walk from the people mover. It also has radiant heating [[instead of hot air coming through vents, the floor itself is heated) which is a higher quality heat, and is not common in Detroit. Comes with parking and a pool, and according to the website rent is about $800 a month. I don't know about availability or anything but I bet it gets overlooked a lot.

Did you try looking on theloftwarehouse.com, there are 2 current listings there now that might meet your needs.

I lived in both the Towers and the Pavilion in the early 00's and even then, with both managed by the same company at the time, I preferred the Pavilion.

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Originally Posted by Chinman

please help me understand where are the Mies buildings? Thanks.

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These are Lafayette Towers and Lafayette Pavillion, designed by highly-regarded architect Mies Van de Rohe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mies_Van_De_Rohe

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Originally Posted by Chris Rohn

I lived in both the Towers and the Pavilion in the early 00's and even then, with both managed by the same company at the time, I preferred the Pavilion.

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The Towers were going downhill in the 90s. In 2007/08 the laundry room use to flood. The mgmt was much better

Go to: midtowndetroitinc.org Go to: Live here. Enter the area and the amount you are willing to spend for an apartment. Great site!