Work on NBC building in New Center

[warsaw7]

This is great news! Amazing building, thank you for the pictures Krawlspace and thank you Stuart for the large chunk of good news! I have always admired this building and I am glad to see it is going to good use, especially with the close proximity to the railroad tracks. Here's to New Center!

[Meddle]

I think they are turning it into yet another self-storage warehouse

Guess RB gets the Kewpie Doll

[Pcm]

My name is Stuart and I am happy to report to everyone what is behind all the activity at 899 Baltimore St. This building is going to be the subject of an intense revitalization effort that will ultimately result in a new U-Haul location.

There's a lot that is still not known/decided about this project, and there's A LOT of work to do - but here's some basic info about the project so far:

Stuart, thanks so much for coming to the board and sharing this project with us. The NBC building has been an anomaly, it hasn't suffered the fate of so many other vacant buildings in Detroit. Could not be happier that a use has been found for her.

With that said, I have a few questions:

Who was the previous owner before it was purchased by U-Haul?

Are there any plans for the art and murals on the railroad side of the building? Some of it is very old and intricate.

Are there plans to change the current windows? The current windows must really cut down on natural light.

Will there be employees and offices in the building, or just storage?

[StuartS]

Stuart, thanks so much for coming to the board and sharing this project with us. The NBC building has been an anomaly, it hasn't suffered the fate of so many other vacant buildings in Detroit. Could not be happier that a use has been found for her.

With that said, I have a few questions:

Who was the previous owner before it was purchased by U-Haul?

Are there any plans for the art and murals on the railroad side of the building? Some of it is very old and intricate.

Are there plans to change the current windows? The current windows must really cut down on natural light.

Will there be employees and offices in the building, or just storage?

Pcm,
Glad to do as much sharing as I can. I wish every location we set up had an active community that cared about it structures as much as you guys do! As for the questions, here's the best I can do for now:

- Not sure who the previous owner was exactly. I believe they didn't own it for long [[3yrs I think?). But don't quote me yet - let me get the facts on the deal and make sure that we haven't agreed to keep this kind of info confidential or something like that. So let me get back to you...

- I do not know what the plan is for the art on that side of the building. I have not heard it discussed one way or the other. Right now we're focused on the basics like water, power, lighting, HVAC, elevator [[as you know haha), etc. Any history that anyone can provide about it would be much appreciated!

- My understanding about the windows is that they are actually new and were probably pretty expensive for whoever it was that had them put in! As such they're very efficient and will likely help reduce the energy requirements for keeping the building warm in the winter and cool in the summer. For this reason, my gut says we'll be keeping the windows.

- "Just Storage?" You say that like it's a bad thing haha! Short answer: mostly storage. Long answer: Most of the square footage of the building will hopefully be occupied with storage rooms. But that's only a fraction of what will be going on here in terms of products and services that we're going to bring to the neighborhood - but that's another story. What's important to note here, however, is that this building represents a long-term commitment to New Center. What I mean is that right now our analysis says that the neighborhood can't support a storage facility of this size... yet. So we're talking about a plan that includes a modest storage build-out and then trying to use the other space for something more creative. More importantly, if [[translation: WHEN) folks start moving back and the houses fill up, then we'll need to build out more storage rooms accordingly. Make no mistake, getting a building of this size meant asking ourselves which way is Detroit headed and whether we could be patient enough stick with it - and we decided that Detroit is headed up and that we want to be a part of it.


Sorry to be so long-winded. This project just has so many cool parts to it that I get a little worked up. I hope to have more info for you guys soon - in the meantime, send more questions and check out the website it you haven't already! I am so glad that we are in a neighborhood that has so much passion for it's own history, and I appreciate all the great comments that reflect that.

Stuart

[barnesfoto]

Great building, it fascinates me because I live near its' twin in Los Angeles, which is the site of very high end loftominiums and a ground floor overpriced restaurant.

http://www.biscuitcompanylofts.com/


http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/0..._penthouse.php

[Richard]

Here are some pics of a U Haul in a historic cigar factory in Ybor city Tampa,they bricked up the windows not sure if it was for security or space utilization,it was a nice reuse at a time the area was a war zone.

[Eber Brock Ward]

Exciting!

To sort of copy Richard's post, here's an example of similar adaptive reuse by Uhaul in Chicago. When I lived in Chicago, I used this location multiple times with great success, even if the fit is a little tight with the trucks in this old building sometimes.

http://goo.gl/maps/miJFO [[google maps street view)

Also beats driving to Hazel Park, which I had to do when I moved some furniture here, for a location with good hours.

[Wheels]

Great building, it fascinates me because I live near its' twin in Los Angeles, which is the site of very high end loftominiums and a ground floor overpriced restaurant.

http://www.biscuitcompanylofts.com/


http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/0..._penthouse.php

The Penthouse is now half the price it was in 2008.


http://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/0..._penthouse.php

[StuartS]

Richard and Eber Brock Ward:
I was so happy to see that someone actually recognized some of our previous projects! It was a big boost to our team here at the home office to see that their work is appreciated - oh man you have no idea, so thank you!

We've got a lot of fleshing out to do, but we've started a section to our MovingDetroit website that features a few of these kind of properties. We have so many to choose from, but oddly enough the Tampa facility and another one in Chicago were 2 of the 3! Here's a link to that part of our site:

http://blogs.uhaul.com/detroit/uhaul...evitalization/

I have been to the Chicago place personally and have seen Al Capone's private barbershop with my own eyes - crazy!

Right now it's a little weak as far as pictures go and we're trying to add more content to the entire website, so hopefully some more pictures and better descriptions can be added soon for everyone to see! I'll keep everyone posted...

barnesfoto and Wheels:
We knew that there's a lot of other NBC buildings around the country that are still standing tall, but we weren't aware of the one in LA. Vincent Gallo's pad is pretty bad-ass! Although that price is pretty hefty! You'll be able to rent A LOT of storage rooms in our building for that much hahaha. Heck, for that much you can probably have them all... for a few years...


In other news, I'm still doing some research around here to answer those questions from the other day about the mural and previous owner... more to follow...

-Stuart

[downtownguy]

StuartS, your enthusiasm for the project is inspiring and refreshing. Do you mind if I ask if you are a native Detroiter?

[StuartS]

StuartS, your enthusiasm for the project is inspiring and refreshing. Do you mind if I ask if you are a native Detroiter?

Nope. Just a wanna be I guess haha...

I'm from Phoenix - still am. Grew up in a family full of car guys and then at some point early on I became one of them, so Detroit always had the mistique of some sort of Promised Land.

Then when I became a grown-up and started working at U-Haul, I ended up traveling to Detroit quite a bit for work since I was responsible for the spec-ing and the purchase of our trucks from Ford and GM. As a result of all these things [[and more, but it's a long story), I feel I have a lot of personal connections with the city [[compared to the average outsider anyway).

I guess this is as good a place as any just to let people know that my name is Stuart Shoen and I'm an executive at U-Haul. I hope this gives everyone confidence in the things that I've said in this thread. I am still so impressed and grateful for all the interest in this project. Knowing that people are watching us on this project is really pushing everyone in UH to do a first-class job on this one. I promise I will do everything I can to keep everyone informed and live up to the high expectations that we have for ourselves!

EDIT: We just posted our first Project Update! It's a little weak on the pictures [[and I just gave that feedback to my posse), but it's a start anyway. Enjoy!: http://blogs.uhaul.com/detroit/proje...-a-good-start/

Stuart

[Pcm]

Keep it up Stuart, we love the details [[and pictures)!

[Gistok]

Stuart, welcome to Detroit!

You happen to have picked a prime location for your refurbished facility. Here's a little background on New Center.... the name of the area where your future location is located...

Back in the early 20th Century Detroit was bursting at the seams with new constructions, hundreds of thousands of new residents, and opportunities for well paying jobs everywhere.

As downtown Detroit was filling up with new buildings, William C Durant the head of the new General Motors Corporation was looking for space to build a new World Headquarters. Downtown just didn't have the space he needed for what was then one of the largest office buildings in the world. So he looked northwards.... Midtown was also filling up fast, so he picked a spot on Grand Boulevard north of midtown to build his enormous 14 story 8 wing 1.4 million sq. ft. headquarters for General Motors.

This enormous bulk of building was followed later that decade by other large buildings, such as the massive 28 story Fisher Building and arcade, the huge Argonaut Building, the Albert Kahn [[Saks Fifth Ave) Building, and many other large structures. The expectation was that downtown Detroit was going to spread northward thru Midtown, but there were other historic properties [[many residential) already in the way... ditto for the Detroit Main Public Library, Detroit Institute of Arts, the enormous Maccabees Building, the ever expanding Wayne State University, and many other large structures.

So due to the expansion stopping Great Depression, rather than be the north end of downtown Detroit, New Center became more of a 2nd downtown.

The addition of the richly endowed Henry Ford Hospital near your location, and the restoration of the historic neighborhood north of New Center set the tone for a beatiful section of the city.

Although General Motors moved their HQ down to the waterfront Renaissance Center, its' mammoth building [[now known as Cadillac Place) became the "State of Michigan" building in our state's largest city. That building is likely the finest non-state capitol state office building in the country... with a massive footprint and rich details unlike any other found in any states largest [[non-capital) city.

Since that evolution, Wayne State University, TechTown the Ford Hospital corporate campus, the College for Creative Studies, and other massive plans have been incubated and are in the implementation stages.

Your new U-Haul Center could not find a more impressive non-downtown area in the country in which to become an integral part of.

Kudos, and hoping for a flourishing future....

[stinkytofu]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...xt|FRONTPAGE|s

[artds]

Thank you for sharing the info, Stuart. If you don't mind me asking, what is your role with U-Haul? You mentioned that you are an executive with the company, but I didn't see your name listed on this roster: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ir?s=UHAL+Insider+Roster

[StuartS]

Gistok: Wow - thanks for taking the time to share all of that. I love that stuff and it makes me really feel like we are part of something special now and have a real gem on our hands!

artds: I don't mind you asking at all, although I'm always a bit nervous when talking about myself. Not sure how much you wanted to know, but my title is Executive Vice President. My responsibilities include oversight of about a third of our home office operations. I've been in this role for about a 16mo, and for the previous 5 years I was Vice President of Technical Center Operations, which included oversight of what could roughly be referred to as our Product Division. It was in the course of this work that I spent a fair amount of time in Detroit working with our friends at Ford and GM. In total, I have worked at U-Haul for about 15 years.

Hope I didn't put anyone to sleep with that haha...

-Stuart