Is anything going to happen with this empty Indian Village commercial strip?

[gameguy56]

http://g.co/maps/vd7m3

It looks very sad and lonely from google streetview.

[MidTownMs]

http://g.co/maps/vd7m3

It looks very sad and lonely from google streetview.

That strip is between Parker and Van Dyke which is West Village not Indian Village.

[canuck]

I guess the poster noticed the city banner announcing Indian Village across the street? These are very nice little buildings.

[5speedz34]

I live on Field St at Vernor not far from there. The record store closed last summer and about all that is left is the barber shop and of course Butzel rec center. It's sad because most of our small commercial arteries in Detroit are pretty much gone.

Personally I'd rather take the old bank/Dominos that is at Van Dyke and Kercheval. It's been for sale for at least 2 years.

Go to Kercheval in GPP and you can see for yourself what a 40's era commercial strip in Detroit would look like today.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

When I hit the Mega Millions, I'll fix it up. As well as that sad little corner park across the street.

[313WX]

It'll likely be demolished.

[EastsideAl]

As pointed out, that strip is not in Indian Village proper, as the Village is zoned entirely non-commercial.

That strip is actually rather personal to me, as my great grandfather once ran a bar in the storefront on the SE corner of Van Dyke and Kercheval back before Prohibition. When I was a little kid growing up in the neighborhood that strip had a bank, a dime store, a beer store, a couple of little candy stores, a couple of dry cleaners, a really nice second-hand store at the Parker corner, and a barbershop where I got my first haircut. When I delivered the Free Press the newspaper depot was on that strip. Many of the stores along Kercheval, which was once a major commercial street, were burned out during the '67 riots [[I vividly remember watching the dime store and barbershop going up in flames), and most of the stores disappeared then or closed soon thereafter. Most of those storefronts have been only sporadically occupied since, with small hints of revival coming and going over the years.

The record store [[Pearl's) was a nice place run by really nice people and its closing was a real loss. But record stores themselves are, of course, a rapidly dying breed, so the handwriting was on that particular wall for a while. The biggest loss though was the burning of the storefronts west of Parker, which has pretty much doomed any chance of the strip's physical survival.

In any event, outside of Indian Village and the West Village themselves, the rest of that area has suffered such radical depopulation and economic devastation that it's hard to imagine any businesses being able to prosper there for many years into the future. It's almost impossible to imagine now that Butzel School was horribly overcrowded [[as were most area schools) when it opened, but it's true.

[DetroitVideoDaily]

The google map doesn't tell the most recent story. Here are some photos from today.







The Sweet Retreats Shop and DogCatastic Pet Supply are where Pearls Music used to be. Not saying the strip is hopping with retail activity, but it is different then a few years ago. I wonder what type of businesses could go in the other store fronts that would be successful?

@EastsideAl just down the street on Kercheval heading west are these two old businesses. One obviously a market. I was told the other was a bar. Is that true? The building looks to be in good shape. I'm surprised no one has tried to start a business there.



Side of the building.


-DVD

[EastsideAl]

@EastsideAl just down the street on Kercheval heading west are these two old businesses. One obviously a market. I was told the other was a bar. Is that true? The building looks to be in good shape. I'm surprised no one has tried to start a business there.

I've certainly been inside the Seyburn Market in one of its earlier incarnations. But I don't ever remember a bar next to it. I think there was once a beauty shop in that space, but I could be wrong. As you can see, many years before that it was a dry goods store.

[DetroitVideoDaily]

Thanks for the info EastsideAl. The fact that the building is directly across from Butzel Family Center always led me to believe it could possibly have some renewed life with retail because people going in and out of Butzel may stop by. I guess it all depends on what the store is though.
-DVD

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I'm glad that little strip is looking better than in the google street view. WV deserves a better gateway from the north.

[winstonst]

Regarding the music store. Here's Detroitblog on it
http://www.detroitblog.org/?p=1973