Official Development Rumors at Hudson's Site Thread

[Doma]

Please don't do a Cheesecake Factory/House of Blues nonsense, it is played out people!

This is a serious attempt to have a discussion about what is going on at the Hudson's site. Hearsay, rumors and speculation are all approved here!

[animatedmartian]

Not sure if there's been an 'official' thread, but I know there's been big discussions about the site over the years.

[TheEnergizer]

I'm over in Korea for work...has there been activity at the site recently? So hard to keep up while being here.

[animatedmartian]

Nothing big in the last few years. Last I heard, Dan Gilbert wanted to put a garden on it until it was developed. The last time development was even thought about on the site was in 2006-2008.

A quick google of detroit hudson block brings up some archived DY threads.

I hope something is at least in the air for the site. A parking lot is better than some columns that make it look like something is on hold.

[stasu1213]

Not another parking structure. We have too many of those already. I would rather see a mutlfunctional building erected in that spot. A building that could be used for retail, office space, or residential. I would rather that it should be design to fit any need. I am against the urban garden idea unless a Botanical Garden is built on the site. It doesnt have to take up the whole site. Just 1/4 of it. .

[TheEnergizer]

Not another parking structure. We have too many of those already. I would rather see a mutlfunctional building erected in that spot. A building that could be used for retail, office space, or residential. I would rather that it should be design to fit any need. I am against the urban garden idea unless a Botanical Garden is built on the site. It doesnt have to take up the whole site. Just 1/4 of it. .

Agreed. If I see another parking structure I'm going to shoot myself!

[stasu1213]

A temporary tent that is 4 stories high could be constructed on that site heaters installed in it. Something creative could be done to cover or decorate the beams that are sticking up out of the ground. Events could be held in the temporary tent or structure that would coincide with events that are going on downtown. Auto show related events could go on inside the structure during to Auto Show for an example. The structure could also be used for vendors such as the ones at the eastern market to sell vegetables, fruit, etc. Maybe music could be played in the structure on Tuesdays during lunchtime such as music as played at Campus Martius in the summertime. Keep in mind, this could be just temporary until a permanent plan come up on what to do with the spot

[DetroitPlanner]

Agreed. If I see another parking structure I'm going to shoot myself!

I much prefer the vacant lot turned into parking lot. Very Texas-like... http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-...ouston-12.html

[Vitalis]

It is understood by the publishing community of Southeastern Michigan that Cengage Learning Inc. will purchase and develop the Hudson's site as a digital/eLearning campus for its now far-flung publishing companies, ranging from The Gale Group [[originally located in the Penobscot Building, and now situated in Farmington Hills at 12 Mile Rd. and Drake Rd., to the many textbook companies now located in the current HQ in Mason, Ohio. This digital education company should be a welcomed addition to the notion of a "Webward" corridor.

Ah, if only it would happen!

[Scottathew]

I think there's a big opportunity for a mixed use retail\office\residential on the site. However, we still have quite a few empty buildings downtown.

The site would be very lucrative. It already has an underground rape dungeon\parking garage. The supports for a building are already there. It's right in the middle of the Gilbert District.

It would be a good opportunity to supply housing to the single folks and DINKS working downtown.

[Lowell]

It's already developed. It's an underground parking lot. . Left as a park would be fine by me, there is something nice about the vistas it offers, but it is no doubt too valuable for that. I do enjoy the 'we're ready to go' expectancy implied by the up-jutting ibeams





While the site sits undeveloped, the removal of Hudson's has seen considerable development surround it since that day in October 1998.

[401don]

Maybe they can just put a solid construction fence around it and stick a big crane in the middle, sort of like the famous hotel window canopies. That should tide us over for another year or two.

[DetroitPlanner]

Maybe they can just put a solid construction fence around it and stick a big crane in the middle, sort of like the famous hotel window canopies. That should tide us over for another year or two.

Worked for Chicago's Block 37! Unfortunately Block 37 does not have a Cheesecake Factory or House of Blues..... What? I was not proposing this for Hudson's site!

As you can see even Chicago has run into many of the same issues and problems in getting projects started as Detroit.

[j to the jeremy]

I once had someone ask me if the steel beams were a Holocaust Memorial

[ghettopalmetto]

I once had someone ask me if the steel beams were a Holocaust Memorial

I think they are--a memorial to the holocaust of historic buildings.

[Detroitnerd]

You can't put a park on it. The slabs over the underground lot won't hold. It will sit empty, just as the Tuller site and Statler site sit empty, proving that Detroit's demolish-it-and-they-will-come strategy simply doesn't work.

[Gistok]

Worked for Chicago's Block 37! Unfortunately Block 37 does not have a Cheesecake Factory or House of Blues..... What? I was not proposing this for Hudson's site!

As you can see even Chicago has run into many of the same issues and problems in getting projects started as Detroit.

DP... wasn't that block the one where they razed a perfectly intact and wonderful Chicago United Artists Theatre?

[DetroitPlanner]

DP... wasn't that block the one where they razed a perfectly intact and wonderful Chicago United Artists Theatre?

There were a couple of theatres there though I am unsure which ones specifically. Most of it was cleared long before my first trip to Chicago in the late 1980's. Are you not glad to see it replaced with a relatively ugly building that has 4 floors of vacant retail?? Way to go Chicago. Add more retail square footage to a town that already has several sick or dead malls downtown.

[DetroitUA]

Yes - both the United Artists which was in perfectly usable shape, and the other smaller Roosevelt Theatre [[directly across from the main entrance of Marshall Field's). Both are sickening to think they are gone, those theatres would be in use by now as Broadway houses just like the Palace and Oriental and the other storefronts would have been redeveloped as retail - without tearing anything down and putting an awful mall there which is 80% vacant.

[mikeg19]

Question: How many story structure is the foundation prepped to handle? I don't remember reading anywhere what potentially could be built on top of it. Having said that, I would hope it's something that fits into that area. Say something in the 10-20 story range. No need for a supertall there.

[EL Jimbo]

Question: How many story structure is the foundation prepped to handle? I don't remember reading anywhere what potentially could be built on top of it. Having said that, I would hope it's something that fits into that area. Say something in the 10-20 story range. No need for a supertall there.

If I recall correctly, the max height it can support is 15 stories.

[Jason]

I forget exactly, you can look it up in one of the older threads. I think it was 15ish stories, but not evenly throughout the site.

Basically the garage structure was designed to hold multiple detached buildings, or several buildings connected by a short base, or something along those lines, but not a single gigantic box. When you see the rendering for the building that was designed for the site a few years ago you'll see what I mean.

There's actually a lot of information about it in the old threads, since someone from the architecture firm was in the conversation.

[Gistok]

I forget exactly, you can look it up in one of the older threads. I think it was 15ish stories, but not evenly throughout the site.

Basically the garage structure was designed to hold multiple detached buildings, or several buildings connected by a short base, or something along those lines, but not a single gigantic box. When you see the rendering for the building that was designed for the site a few years ago you'll see what I mean.

There's actually a lot of information about it in the old threads, since someone from the architecture firm was in the conversation.

Based on the beam placement, I would say that the site could hold 1 single 15 story box.

The multi-building complex that you're thinking about was the KraemerDesignGroup modernistic group of buildings that had an assortment of buildings with a plaza along Woodward.

Some here had a problem with that design because it didn't respect the Woodward streetwall, which every other building along lower Woodward seems to respect. There was more of a streetwall along the Farmer side in that design.

[animatedmartian]

I forget exactly, you can look it up in one of the older threads. I think it was 15ish stories, but not evenly throughout the site.

Basically the garage structure was designed to hold multiple detached buildings, or several buildings connected by a short base, or something along those lines, but not a single gigantic box. When you see the rendering for the building that was designed for the site a few years ago you'll see what I mean.

There's actually a lot of information about it in the old threads, since someone from the architecture firm was in the conversation.

Yep, it's still on the company's website.

http://www.thekraemeredge.com/index....woodward_block

From what I read, this is just a 'what if' proposal and I guess wasn't meant to be a concrete plan.

[esp1986]

Someone with knowledge of it told me a few years back that the site was prepped to hold UP TO an 18 story [[single) building.