Official Development Rumors at Hudson's Site Thread

**Doma** · September-27-11, 10:35 PM

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** · September-27-11, 10:48 PM

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

**TheEnergizer** · September-27-11, 11:18 PM

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

**animatedmartian** · September-27-11, 11:44 PM

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** · September-28-11, 05:01 AM

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. .

**Scottathew** · September-28-11, 07:56 AM

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** · September-28-11, 08:11 AM

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** · September-28-11, 08:42 AM

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** · September-28-11, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by 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.

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** · September-28-11, 02:06 PM

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

**ghettopalmetto** · September-28-11, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by j to the jeremy

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** · September-28-11, 02:42 PM

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.

**mikeg19** · September-28-11, 04:50 PM

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** · September-28-11, 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

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

**Jason** · September-28-11, 05:22 PM

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** · September-28-11, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

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?

**Gistok** · September-28-11, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

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** · September-28-11, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

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** · September-28-11, 08:25 PM

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.

**Gistok** · September-28-11, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

Yes, I heard the same thing...

**DetroitPlanner** · September-29-11, 06:58 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

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** · September-29-11, 08:54 AM

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** · September-29-11, 04:29 PM

I had forgotten about the conceptual designs for the Hudson's block. I actually really liked the layout of the site Kraemer Group had come up with. I wonder if those plans might be something a private developer may look at with the demand for housing in the CBD skyrocketing. That would fill a huge void. And while on the site, I also noticed the design for the Griswold next to the Book Cadillac. I wonder if that plan may ever take off again as well. Anyone with any knowledge of these two plans have any insight?

**Gistok** · September-30-11, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by lingramid

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.

Thanks lingramid... here's what was ripped down to build that monstrosity... it gives us a glimpse of the colorful nature of the slightly larger Detroit UA before it was left to the elements...

**TheEnergizer** · September-30-11, 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by 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. .

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