New Apartments Downtown

**bassab** · December-17-12, 10:29 PM

Two new projects [[Milner reported earlier).

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...nd-apartments#

**DetroitPlanner** · December-17-12, 11:32 PM

I am pretty sure the Claridge has been an operating apartment building for years and is still open. http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate...partments.html

**webband1** · December-18-12, 09:04 AM

I believe Claridge is seniors only, from what I could gather while I was apartment hunting this past summer.

**DetBill** · December-18-12, 09:07 AM

While this is always good news.. it would be nice somehow to see some mid range apartments being developed to attract all types of people . The big push is for luxury apartments, with luxury rents attached to it.. I guess its the idea that they need to do this for viability development but somehow it would be nice to see a mix of rent levels throughout downtown...

**cmubryan** · December-18-12, 09:15 AM

Originally Posted by DetBill

While this is always good news.. it would be nice somehow to see some mid range apartments being developed to attract all types of people . The big push is for luxury apartments, with luxury rents attached to it.. I guess its the idea that they need to do this for viability development but somehow it would be nice to see a mix of rent levels throughout downtown...

I think luxury is great! There are enough mid-range apartments downtown and if downtown is going to compete with other major city downtowns we need to attract the high income folks who demand luxury living!

**DetBill** · December-18-12, 09:48 AM

I agree with you about high end being nice. and we seem to be getting a list of this type of housing being developed . but mid range is becoming very hard to find,,waiting lists exist at many, which is telling you what is in demand , many I talk to about thinking of moving downtown are already saying its being priced too high.. I know that might be good for the closer secondary areas but they are a stretch to many for safety reasons. Most will go to Ferndale , Dearborn etc.. you can still find places in those areas oddly enough in the mid range price point. You really need a balance to get this whole thing going properly. Making downtown a haven for the wealthy only is not good for the longevity of it. It will be hard to sustain in Detroit. You need varied income levels living downtown to make it thrive in the long run.

**gnome** · December-18-12, 10:08 AM

Anyone have any pix of the Claridge before Mr. Belvidere put up the aluminum cladding? It was the Michigan State Telephone Building built in the early part of the last century, and wasn't converted to apartments until the 1970s or 80's ...

Anyone ever been inside the place? Where are all the current residents going to go? Old folks kicked to the street is going to look pretty bad.

**oladub** · December-18-12, 10:51 AM

http://www.downtownjournal.com/index...65&category=92

This story is about a problem downtown Minneapolis is having and will eventually have to be addressed in Detroit as more young couples move downtown. Minneapolis has over thirty thousand young people, think yuppies, living downtown and anticipates 70,000 by 2025. The problem is that when their children get to be about school age, these families split for the burbs with better schools. Near downtown Minneapolis public schools rank in the bottom 10% academically statewide. This is unacceptable for yuppies, so they leave. They are making the case that there will be enough of them to build a new public school to serve their own children. No one there would use the word 'segregation' to express why thy don't want to send their own children to schools that have to advertise that they are safe but have low academic scores. Anyway, Detroit, if similarly successful in bringing affluent couple downtown to live, will eventually also be confronted with how to satisfy the public school needs of young affluent couples in order to keep them.

**gameguy56** · December-18-12, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by oladub

http://www.downtownjournal.com/index...65&category=92

This story is about a problem downtown Minneapolis is having and will eventually have to be addressed in Detroit as more young couples move downtown. Minneapolis has over thirty thousand young people, think yuppies, living downtown and anticipates 70,000 by 2025. The problem is that when their children get to be about school age, these families split for the burbs with better schools. Near downtown Minneapolis public schools rank in the bottom 10% academically statewide. This is unacceptable for yuppies, so they leave. They are making the case that there will be enough of them to build a new public school to serve their own children. No one there would use the word 'segregation' to express why thy don't want to send their own children to schools that have to advertise that they are safe but have low academic scores. Anyway, Detroit, if similarly successful in bringing affluent couple downtown to live, will eventually also be confronted with how to satisfy the public school needs of young affluent couples in order to keep them.

LOL this already happened. Chrysler elementary serves lafayette park and downtown. That's it.

http://www.quickenloans.com/blog/qui...school-detroit

**Eber Brock Ward** · December-18-12, 11:15 AM

If they are yuppies with that much money, why not just put their kids in private/parochial school, like just about every other major city?

Sounds like they're trying to have the yuppie city experience without paying for it.

**DetroiterOnTheWestCoast** · December-18-12, 02:21 PM

I would imagine that in the present situation its difficult to finance mid-range apartments as opposed to "luxury" ones. However, it wasn't that long ago that nobody would would even build the high end, so hopefully we'll see more of the mid-range sooner rather than later. There's certainly lots of properties ripe for redevelopment available downtown. And if Downtown can creep north and Midtown south.....

**esp1986** · December-18-12, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by Eber Brock Ward

If they are yuppies with that much money, why not just put their kids in private/parochial school, like just about every other major city?

Sounds like they're trying to have the yuppie city experience without paying for it.

By contributing to public schools in close proximity to downtown, over time they can make it more attractive for more and more affluent people to move closer to downtown.

By having better education nearby, it could sway a few minds that would consider moving to the suburbs. Granted, not many, but maybe a few.

**downtownguy** · December-18-12, 02:46 PM

Gnome, I was in the Claridge once in the 80s when I lived across the street at Trolley Plaza. My memory's a little fuzzy, but I remember it as a nice building. The apartment I was visiting was on the top floor, very spacious and had a huge outdoor patio that put my little Trolley Plaza balcony to shame.

webband1, from what I recall, the Claridge had mostly older tenants back then, but it wasn't a "seniors" building as are the other apartments on that side of the block: Himelhoch's, the Industrial Building and the Steven's Apartments.

The Milner is a very handsome building and I think luxury apartments fit it perfectly. As for mid range priced apartments, there are quite a few already. However, most are operated by Boydell Development, which does not have a good reputation for service.

This is good news, too:

Dreer said these were the first two of many acquisitions Lester and Princeton were working on in downtown Detroit, but would not disclose any other potential deals.

**szla** · December-18-12, 07:37 PM

Is it possible that the 60s redo on the exterior is just a skin of some sort? The older pictures are of a gorgeous building.

**Dexlin** · December-18-12, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by DetroiterOnTheWestCoast

I would imagine that in the present situation its difficult to finance mid-range apartments as opposed to "luxury" ones.

This, the market is still not strong enough to support mid-range projects. Unless you're building at either end of the spectrum - government subsidized and students apartments on the low-end or luxury apartments/condos on the high-end - banks are funding the stuff in the middle, and developers want the quick buck regardless.

Detroit has fallen far enough where I'd like to see increased density across the income scales in and around downtown in general, but until that happens, we're going to see really upper-end stuff or lots of small, low-end stuff.

**rustdetroit** · December-18-12, 09:32 PM

The below link show the Main Exchange building before it became the Claridge Apartments.

http://detroithistorical.wordpress.com/page/2/

**Neilr** · December-18-12, 09:57 PM

Here's a link to an earlier thread about the Claridge Apartments.

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...atest-Purchase

In the 60's and 70's I considered [[with NO factual basis) the Claridge Apartments to be the building in which wealthy downtown businessmen stashed their mistresses.

**corktownyuppie** · December-18-12, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by Dexlin

This, the market is still not strong enough to support mid-range projects. Unless you're building at either end of the spectrum - government subsidized and students apartments on the low-end or luxury apartments/condos on the high-end - banks are funding the stuff in the middle, and developers want the quick buck regardless.

Detroit has fallen far enough where I'd like to see increased density across the income scales in and around downtown in general, but until that happens, we're going to see really upper-end stuff or lots of small, low-end stuff.

I agree with Dexlin's analysis here but will add that the mid-range stuff will all come in due time. Someone feel free to choke me for saying "trickle down", but that's the inevitable conclusion.

People in the mid-range market don't want to live next to a bunch of abandoned buildings. They don't feel safe there. They don't have enough money to pay for private security. It's just a bad fit, and they can find what they're looking for in the suburbs.

So why not take the abandoned buildings and turn them into a mid-range rental? You can't. The cost to rehab is too high, and the risk is too great to do a project and then not squeeze every potential rent dollar per square foot.

But with every luxury-end that gets done, you're setting the rent comps high and lowering the risk for the next developer. [[Which is riskier, doing the first rehab on a a block of abandoned high-rises? Or doing the last one?) As those risks get lower [[and they are getting lower as the luxury end gigs get filled), more and more investors will be comfortable getting in. I think we'll get more and more diversity among the income scales as development becomes less and less of a crapshoot, which for decades in Detroit, it has been.

I can see Downtown and Midtown becoming luxury high rent [[$1.50 PSF?!?!) while the Corktown/Woodbridge/Lafayette Park surrounding would be more of the $1-$1.25 PSF because of its proximity.

And then the true "middle income" places will be another ring around that.

That's my gut feeling, anyway.