Former Police Precinct [[Vernor at 20th St.) Renovation

[Pcm]

I noticed crews working on this building today, so I rode the bike past it later on to snap some photos.

Here is the street view photo from a while ago:



Here is is from the same [[sorta) angle from this evening:



The rear of the building shows more progress than the front. You can see new windows have been installed here:



And here:



New parking lot lighting:



New dumpster enclosure thing:



The permit shows the future purpose of the building. Check out how much this permit cost!



Is there any more information out there? I do remember hearing about a plan for this building a WHILE ago...

[Hardhat]

I don't know what they have planned for the former Third Precinct house, but there's already an awful lot of newly created empty office space nearby in the Welcome Center area off of Bagley by the east side of the new pedestrian bridge. Thank you for the update, I'm also curious what, if anything, is going in there. Maybe market it to tenants who have a need for jail space?

[RickBeall]

Sweet building! Spruced up it will look great.

[animatedmartian]

Looks like it says Art Gallery. $300,000. Cools.

[kryptonite]

Pcm - thanks for posting that. I'll have to drive by it when I can. I love that area near MCS and that section of Mexican Town. This is great to hear, it's a good looking building and the work will tidy up that area west of the MCS viaduct and tracks.

[DetroitPlanner]

I was only there once. It was after the St. Patrick's Day Parade. NO I was not thrown in jail for public drunkeness! I arrived to the parade early and found a legal spot on Wabash. Considering my main target for the day was the Irish American Club I was thrilled. After the parade I returned to my car to find the side of it all banged up and covered in what appeared to be green tempera paint. There was even pieces of wood on it, also painted green. I surmised that a float may have used Wabash as an easy way back to the the parking area for the parade walkers.

Being totally sober I went to the police station right away. After all it was only a few blocks away. The cops were disappointed I was not drunk [[sarcastically) and we all had a good laugh while I made my report.

I am glad someone is renovating the building and putting it to use. I could not believe what a pile it had become.

One of the issues with the Welcome Center area is that it was timed to open when the big bridge project was going to be done. It was meant to be a node for travellers across the bridge as well as a place to provide jobs for the neighborhood. Since the ramps were never completed, the signage directing people from the bridge to the welcome center is poor and the local streets are still getting beat up with truck traffic. Hopefully MDOT will be able to get the Bridge Company to comply with federal law so they can complete the project as the Environmental Impact Statement has outlined. the EIS in the respect of this project looked at not only the scientific impacts but the social impacts on the environment. This was ignored by MDOT's partner.

[hamtown mike]

Was over there about a month ago. Took a peek through the window. Looked like some large scale foam sculpting was taking place. Hopefully this is the start of somebody's creative endeavor!

[gnome]

This is a cross pollinated ventured between South West Solutions, 555 Gallery and ACD. Erb Foundation provided the seed funding back in 2009 or so. I thought it was just another crackpipe smoke dream, but I'm very pleased to be proven wrong.

Now, whether they really need a place to create macrame plant hangers is another discussion.

[Rocko]

Drove by it myself for the first time in a long while yesterday and was pleased to see work finally moving forward. This will go a long way to beautify this sad little stretch of Vernor between MC and Mexicantown and will hopefully better unify the west Corktown/east Mexicantown area. Vernor is an important thoroughfare and it's great to see Southwest Solutions investment in yet another area project. I hope they keep the classy old streetlights out front. Can't wait to see it open!

[Hans57]

I heard a little while back that the 13th Precinct is going to be used again, and when I drove by the other day, it looked as though some work had been started on it. I attempted to do a search about it but my efforts were fruitless. Does anyone have any info about this?

[Rocko]

From the Free Press:

Old Detroit police station houses 2 businesses

Vacant buildings in Detroit usually stay vacant. But an innovative partnership between nonprofit and for-profit players has rescued one derelict building at a key location in near-southwest Detroit.

The Detroit Police Department's former Third Precinct station on West Vernor just east of I-75 now houses the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios and the Detroit Lawn & Garden company, a firm that caters to professional landscapers as well as community and family gardeners.

The artist studio and the lawn-and-garden firm came to share the building at the urging of Southwest Housing Solutions, a prominent nonprofit agency in southwest Detroit providing housing, counseling and other assistance to residents.

The agency bought the empty police station from the City of Detroit after the station closed in 2005 and has spent almost six years stitching together a deal to reopen it. The new tenants moved in earlier this year and have been operating there for several weeks.

Tim Thorland, executive director of Southwest Housing Solutions, said the agency paid the city $250,000 for the empty station but then had to raise $1.6 million to get the building ready for occupancy, including updates to the electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems, a new roof, and more."It was somewhat experiential and haphazard, but we didn't necessarily mind that. Community development is sometimes like that," Thorland said last week.

Carl Goines and Monte Martinez, partners in the 555 art center, have already begun to sublease some of the available space to other artists. They even rent out the former cells in the drunk tank as mini-studio spaces, with the barred cell doors still in place.

The two artists met at the University ofMichigan and have operated their 555 studio from a number of other rented locations. They're hoping the former precinct turns into their long-term base.

"We have a 10-year agreement that we're hoping will turn into more of a lifetime; that's what we're shooting for," Goines said.Martinez said they plan to hold community events in the center, including community meetings and performance events, as well as renting out the space for weddings, birthdays and other private events."It's not your traditional community space," Goines added.

For Jeff Klein, a partner in Detroit Lawn & Garden, which occupies the former garage space in the building, the old precinct station proved a boon. Klein and his partner, Andy Ray, had been working out of their homes for most of the past decade or so. Now, they finally have enough space to run a proper business.

Their biggest seller tends to be bulk topsoil, mulch and other landscaping supplies. But the store stocks a mix of offerings for any urban gardener, from chicken feed and gardening tools to antique lawn furniture.

"This is a great spot. This space is amazing. It really serves us well," Klein said this month. Despite the lengthy delay the past few years during the time it took for the space to be ready, Klein said, "It's worth the wait. We wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

"The Mexicantown Welcome Center is steps away, as is the new and architecturally notable pedestrian bridge over I-75 to the Mexicantown restaurant district. The former precinct house plugs a gap that otherwise might drain energy out of the neighborhood.

For Thorland of Southwest Housing Solutions, the five years and $1.6 million invested in the project were well worth it.

"That's a lot of money, but it's not a completely unreasonable amount of money to make something happen," he said. "It doesn't take that much. A little sweat equity, a little imagination, and we can have some pretty cool places to be."

___________

This is the second old precinct in southwest that has been successfully repurposed. The other is at the corner of Fort W. and Green, a beautiful building.

[EastsideAl]

Nice to see #3 reused. I've always thought that was one of the nicer looking buildings of the "modern" DPD precincts, and it's in a reasonably good location too. It should go without saying that we need much more of this sort of productive renovation and reuse, and much less of the "tear it all down and they will come" school of wishful demolition, but our city authorities for some reason seem to be complete true believers in the latter.

On a personal level, my best friend's father spent over 20 years working in and out of that building, and I visited him there many times. And, on a less warm note, I also spent a long not too memorable night there after trying to tone down the behavior of a drunken asshole at a hockey game, who turned out to be a cop [[ooops...)

[Ray1936]

The building was built c. 1948, give or take a year. It was constructed to replace the temporary Second Precinct station, which was in a warehouse on National [[now Cochrane) and W. Vernor. That facility was set up during the war years to temporarily replace the old Trumbull Station, which was located on Trumbull south of Michigan. The Trumbull Station had been condemned, having been built in the 1870's. The war delayed the new construction, so the officers made do with the old warehouse for better than a half-dozen years.

Changes took place inside the building over the years. The squad room on the first floor [[the part of the building closest to the camera in the top two photos at the start of this thread) was turned into four offices [[cubicles, really) around 1961, and the squad room [[on and off duty roll callse) was moved directly upstairs to the gym. Since the locker room was adjacent to the gym, it made sense to make the move. The gym retained its pool table and ping-pong table, though, and during my stay there for six years in the early sixties, it wasn't uncommon to see the guys stay a couple hours after work in ping pong tournaments. Some of those guys were killers on that table! [[Did'ja know....a ping pong ball fits perfectly inside your handcuffs in a cuff case. I remember one time three crews tackled a real wacko resisting arrest. Six officers all fumbled for their handcuffs, and as a set was finally affixed to the thug, five ping pong balls were bouncing around in the street. Funny as hell.)

I left there in 1965 to transfer to the Motorcycle Traffic Bureau, but always felt warmly towards the old place. Remarkable memories. In 1984, Chief William Hart directed a re-numbering of the precincts, and old #2 became new #3.

[Rocko]

This project will hopefully bring more development and attention to the narrow area linking Corktown with Mexicantown/southwest, two somewhat stable areas of the city where investment is taking place and growth is a realistic possibility. Vernor is a major thoroughfare connecting the two and this project is right on that main route. Congrats to these folks following through with their dream and project and making this happen for the people of southwest.

[Funaho]

On a personal level, my best friend's father spent over 20 years working in and out of that building, and I visited him there many times.

I have a few memories of that building myself. My grandfather was the owner of Heatley Service across the street from #3. He did towing for the City and was buddies with all the cops over there.