Hi everyone of DetroitYes! I was wondering whatever happened to the supposed development of the Vinton Building [[downtown CBD)? I've always thought it would be a extremely great structure to be mix residential/office. Will it ever get redeveloped? Would love to move in to that place post graduation. Thanks
Umbound.
iirc, the investors [[forumers actually) got screwed over by city corruption.
I know there is a lot of backstory on that building on this site, but I was literally just showing the Vinton to a family member of mine tonight and talking about how awesome it would be if it came back to life.
Is there any hope?
A few of the former forumers should be going through those Kwhyme text messages to find evidence of collusion with Bobby Ferguson. I'm betting the weekend the elevator motors came up 'missing', there was a huge party at Bobby's place. BYO or get pistol-whipped.
Damn, if any of this is really true, tell me when the corruption will end. Great building - just discouraged!
There have been newspaper articles about the development crashing and burning. There have even been threads on DYes that included a few bits of inside information. But it seems that real story has never really gotten out.
What seem indisputable is that the deal went south very quickly after Mr. Ferguson got involved. None of the principals or anyone at the DEGC have ever gone public with why Mr. Ferguson's firm was hired in the first place. But clearly the hiring resulted from political pressure.
The Kilpatrick RICO indictment discloses that at the time of the Vinton Building deal, the DEGC was not in Ferguson's corner given his disastrous results with the first aborted development at the Book Cadillac. The administration must have really leaned on the DEGC to allow him in this deal. Or perhaps his involvement didn't arise until after the DEGC approved its loan. Maybe some of the principals have addressed this in some of the litigation that arose out of the deal, but no deposition transcripts seem to be floating around.
Mr. Ferguson's MO was to underbid jobs, and then when he got an award, change orders increasing the work and the cost would start flying as soon as the work started. This worked well with public projects where he could rely on the mayor, Victor Mercado or Derrick Miller to make sure that the change order inflations got approved. On the Vinton Building deal though, the extra money was going to have to come from the private condo-owner investors. But their BS meters and absence of deep pockets prevented Mr. Ferguson's plan from working and the deal fell apart.
As for what's going with the building now? The DEGC has been pretty mum, but it seems unlikely that the organization hasn't regained full control over the building. It's been a long time. Court records at CAYMB would probably shed a little light too.