Potbelly now Mcdonalds....University Club to be a mcdonalds

[jaytheory]

I dont know if I want to jump for joy or cry. probably cry. we couldn't have put anything else there? Even a Wendy's would be better the designs on their new store is much nicer

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/1...-club-detroit/


From the looks of the site plan. it will be a standard Mickey D's.

Yuck

[poobert]

The never-ending quest to make Detroit the world's shittiest suburb continues.
What the fucking fuck?

[bailey]

I dont know if I want to jump for joy or cry. probably cry. we couldn't have put anything else there? Even a Wendy's would be better the designs on their new store is much nicer

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/1...-club-detroit/


From the looks of the site plan. it will be a standard Mickey D's.

Yuck

Well, it is a taxpaying business that will create a few more jobs for unskilled, isolated workers in a city that desperately need them vs. a building owned by non profits that was unused or allowed to rot by it's owners and the city for 20+ years. Probably a net positive for the city from a financial perspective.

and speaking sardonically....Isn't it a bit ironic that a building which was purpose built for the original 1%ers to sit around and congratulate themselves on being masters of the universe would be so elevated? I'm surprised there aren't more on this board cheering the U Club's ignominious demise.... much as I'd expect them to cheer the Yon, Racquet, or DAC's demise should they meet the same fate. Fuck them and their little exclusionary memberships and their clubhouses....right?

[Danny]

The never-ending quest to make Detroit the world's shittiest suburb continues.
What the fucking fuck?

You got that right. Suburban-forming Detroit is like terraforming Mars. So long University Club hello clown food!

[jaytheory]

Well, it is a taxpaying business that will create a few more jobs for unskilled, isolated workers in a city that desperately need them vs. a building owned by non profits that was unused or allowed to rot by it's owners and the city for 20+ years. Probably a net positive for the city from a financial perspective.

and speaking sardonically....Isn't it a bit ironic that a building which was purpose built for the original 1%ers to sit around and congratulate themselves on being masters of the universe would be so elevated? I'm surprised there aren't more on this board cheering the U Club's ignominious demise.... much as I'd expect them to cheer the Yon, Racquet, or DAC's demise should they meet the same fate. Fuck them and their little exclusionary memberships and their clubhouses....right?

while im all for income equality and I personaly am not a 1% or the bottom "47%" to quote Mr romney. I think in a city of usch grandness and devastation. this is merely a symbol of were we have fallen. not only because of a mcdonalds replacing UC but because no one could think past there fucking nose to see what an asset the building could be.


If mcdonalds is going in, there is value in the land. MCD's is a real estate company that sells garbage to pay the mortgage.

sick of stupid people making stupid decisions

[DetroitPlanner]

I dont know if I want to jump for joy or cry. probably cry. we couldn't have put anything else there? Even a Wendy's would be better the designs on their new store is much nicer

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/1...-club-detroit/


From the looks of the site plan. it will be a standard Mickey D's.

Yuck

Wheee!!! And a Family Dollar! I hope FD builds one of those classy pole barn style buildings like they have in every small town in America.

[Honky Tonk]

I dont know if I want to jump for joy or cry. probably cry. we couldn't have put anything else there? Even a Wendy's would be better the designs on their new store is much nicer

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/1...-club-detroit/


From the looks of the site plan. it will be a standard Mickey D's.

Yuck

I'm lovin' it.

[bailey]

not only because of a mcdonalds replacing UC but because no one could think past there fucking nose to see what an asset the building could be.

I don't think anyone couldn't envision what an asset it COULD be, but the fact is there are few willing to risk the several million it would take to make the vision a reality. The only guy with the cash after the U club went bust and after the YWCA drove most of the final nails was the party store owner and the only reason he bought it was to tear it down.

If mcdonalds is going in, there is value in the land. MCD's is a real estate company that sells garbage to pay the mortgage.

yes, but the value is as a fast food place. No at as exclusive club... or renovated into offices other retail or residential. IF there was that sort of value, Party Store guy would not have been able to buy the property... or the U Club would not have gone under.

sick of stupid people making stupid decisions

Agreed. However, I'm equally sick of people refusing to acknowledge that we can't put every old building into a vacuum sealed bag and keep them in pristine condition until Dan Gilbert decides he wants to buy it. There are multiple old converted houses and semi derelict buildings along Jefferson that are already empty, or mostly vacant, or are for sale. At some point some of them are going to hit the wrecking ball because there is simply no market for them. Does that suck? Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that nobody wants to rent office space in them or live in them.

I mean, I don't understand the rage directed at party store guy when it was the U Club and then the YWCA that abandoned and neglected the property in the first place.

[motz]

Two things:
1) That site layout looks terrible. A parking lot fronting right on the street? This is just making Jefferson look like it is even more confused than it was before. Seriously, no semblence of streetwall, the "retail" isn't even facing the street which it is on, not to mention this is the city's TWENTY NINETH McDonald's. It's not even a Taco Bell. C'mon people.

2) Some fun Kwame Keynatta quotes from the article! Hurray!

Originally said by Mr. Kwame Keynatta:
Preservationists tried in vain to save the building with a historic designation, but Councilman Kwame Keynatta boastfully nixed the plan more than a year ago after saying “blacks probably couldn’t” be members, which was false. Even former Mayor Coleman A. Young was a member.
“I don’t have the same nostalgia that most folks have about some of these buildings; most of them were built many years ago when certain folks couldn’t be let in,” Kenyatta said at the time. “You’ve got slave institutions that were designed by great architects and some of them still stand.”

I find it amazing that someone tried to preserve a piece of Detroit's history, and because Kwame K didn't like the building for reasons, he nixes it and allows for it to be burned, scrapped and removed. Good job there buddy, maybe you should go resign from another job or two.

[jaytheory]

I think a walk up mcdonalds with a zero setback and drive thourgh in the back could have been better than what we are getting. they didnt even try a new model

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/for...topic=15407.60



i would have likfed to see something like this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mc...angasinan).jpg

[poobert]

Agreed. However, I'm equally sick of people refusing to acknowledge that we can't put every old building into a vacuum sealed bag and keep them in pristine condition until Dan Gilbert decides he wants to buy it. There are multiple old converted houses and semi derelict buildings along Jefferson that are already empty, or mostly vacant, or are for sale. At some point some of them are going to hit the wrecking ball because there is simply no market for them. Does that suck? Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that nobody wants to rent office space in them or live in them.

I mean, I don't understand the rage directed at party store guy when it was the U Club and then the YWCA that abandoned and neglected the property in the first place.

No, they can't all be saved. However this building is on what is pretty easily the healthiest stretch of retail in the city of Detroit [[East Jefferson) and within what is now a burgeoning downtown.

I don't subscribe to your philosophy of "well, this is what happened, so this is what should have happened" economics. We've operated under this "anything goes" land use and preservation mentality in Metro Detroit for the past half a century and the main result appears to be us becoming the anus of the universe.

As for a case study, in the not-so-distant past, the southern portion of Corktown was cleared as a slum and turned into "light industrial." Now, Corktown is desirable and exclusive while the light industrial portion is largely vacant. I'm saying we can apply some intelligence and foresight to our planning.

We also seem to get our minds blown by the idea of anything being reused in a way it wasn't originally intended for it to be.

https://www.theimagefile.com/?Action=VF&id=8503699602

The choice doesn't have to be "Hall Road or bust." Helsinki ain't Paris, and we don't have to be either.

I'm also quite baffled that you seem to think it is acceptable business practice for a liquor store owner to buy a historic property, intentionally leave it open to vandals and the elements and allow it to be demolished by neglect. Demolished by neglect would be generous, since it seems rather clear that he intentionally created blight to get it torn down. That wouldn't fly in the suburbs or anywhere else in this country so it shouldn't in Detroit.

All in all it's maddeningly disappointing as it is unsurprising. Metro Detroit, you are as predictable as you are insufferable.

[hastings paradise]

another McDonalds in place of a historical property. Now remember there was another historical property gone to wackarnolds. Oh yeah the graystone.

[beachboy]

Standard Mickey D's ... I'm lovin' it.

It could be wurst:

[Downriviera]

Need something different like a McDowells.

[iheartthed]

Well, it is a taxpaying business that will create a few more jobs for unskilled, isolated workers in a city that desperately need them vs. a building owned by non profits that was unused or allowed to rot by it's owners and the city for 20+ years. Probably a net positive for the city from a financial perspective.

It won't even do that. No new jobs will be created. A McDonalds opening there just means an abandoned McDonalds somewhere else. All this will manage to do is replace a structure of architectural importance with a McDonalds.

[bailey]

It won't even do that. No new jobs will be created. A McDonalds opening there just means an abandoned McDonalds somewhere else. All this will manage to do is replace a structure of architectural importance with a McDonalds.

What McDonalds is getting abandoned? There is no McDonalds along Jefferson from GP. There was one, but it burned down 10? years ago.

Today, what this managed to do is replace a burned out, scrapped out hulk of a dead building with an actual business.

poobert
No, they can't all be saved. However this building is on what is pretty easily the healthiest stretch of retail in the city of Detroit [[East Jefferson) and within what is now a burgeoning downtown

Are you fucking high? east Jeff at the U club is the "healthiest stretch of retail in the city of Detroit"!?!? The ONLY retail on that stretch anywhere near the U club is the Party Store across the street and a strip mall at Chene. Are we counting the empty Wintergarden, Fortress Harbortown, and sprawling car dealership and no-tell motels in that "retail"? It an 8 lane, unwalkable major thoroughfare with mostly vacant office space and abandoned or blighted apartments. If that is a "healthy" area of retail... I'd hate to see what you think is blighted.

[WaCoTS]

I don't think anyone couldn't envision what an asset it COULD be, but the fact is there are few willing to risk the several million it would take to make the vision a reality. The only guy with the cash after the U club went bust and after the YWCA drove most of the final nails was the party store owner and the only reason he bought it was to tear it down.

i dont think thats a fair assessment of its worth...the market in 2006 when it was bought was nothing like what it is now. if it had been kept **properly secured, as is code** it would not have needed to be put in a "vacuum sealed bag." who knows who might have taken it up if it were actually ON the open market right now. it's in a great spot, and when Mr Partystore bought it, it was in useable condition.

i dont buy that no one wants it or can do anything with it. i dont buy that at all. the fact that it has not been on the market since the dismal year of 2006 is the reason no one has bought it. if Mr Partystore wants to buy it to destroy it, thats his prerogative i guess, but there are codes pertaining to keeping your properties up. if our city enforced those at all, it wouldve been a lot harder for him to pull off the typical "demolition by neglect."

[iheartthed]

What McDonalds is getting abandoned? There is no McDonalds along Jefferson from GP. There was one, but it burned down 10? years ago.

There is a McDonalds on Jefferson across from the Jeffersonian apartments.

[bailey]

i dont think thats a fair assessment of its worth...the market in 2006 when it was bought was nothing like what it is now. if it had been kept **properly secured, as is code** it would not have needed to be put in a "vacuum sealed bag." who knows who might have taken it up if it were actually ON the open market right now. it's in a great spot, and when Mr Partystore bought it, it was in useable condition.

i dont buy that no one wants it or can do anything with it. i dont buy that at all. the fact that it has not been on the market since the dismal year of 2006 is the reason no one has bought it. if Mr Partystore wants to buy it to destroy it, thats his prerogative i guess, but there are codes pertaining to keeping your properties up. if our city enforced those at all, it wouldve been a lot harder for him to pull off the typical "demolition by neglect."

Valid points... however, as posted above, not only was this typical non enforcement of codes... Kenyatta took affirmative steps to ensure the place got demo'ed because of his unabashed and totally uninformed racism.

The Party store guy doesn't assume a duty of preservation when the city abdicated it.

Further, I lay 100% blame for it's demise upon the U Club itself. If the Players [[ an all male private theater club...) can maintain its historic building and thrive along that strip... a U club should be able to.

[bailey]

There is a McDonalds on Jefferson across from the Jeffersonian apartments.

Oh yea.. I forgot about that one... i was thinking it was a wendys. But that is a couple of miles down jefferson from this one. Now that I think about it, IIRC there is one in the basement of the RenCen [[with limited hours) too.

[iheartthed]

Oh yea.. I forgot about that one... i was thinking it was a wendys

There is one of those too that sits at about the midpoint between the current McDonalds and the proposed site of the new McDonalds. In fact, fast food establishments have that area pretty well saturated. I doubt there is much of an excess in demand to absorb a new fast food restaurant in that part of Detroit, or any other part of Detroit. So a new McDonalds there probably means that a fast food restaurant in the vicinity will close and not be replaced in the near future. It is a zero sum. No new jobs will be created.

[poobert]

What McDonalds is getting abandoned? There is no McDonalds along Jefferson from GP. There was one, but it burned down 10? years ago.

Today, what this managed to do is replace a burned out, scrapped out hulk of a dead building with an actual business.

Are you fucking high? east Jeff at the U club is the "healthiest stretch of retail in the city of Detroit"!?!? The ONLY retail on that stretch anywhere near the U club is the Party Store across the street and a strip mall at Chene. Are we counting the empty Wintergarden, Fortress Harbortown, and sprawling car dealership and no-tell motels in that "retail"? It an 8 lane, unwalkable major thoroughfare with mostly vacant office space and abandoned or blighted apartments. If that is a "healthy" area of retail... I'd hate to see what you think is blighted.

I was speaking of East Jefferson in general. No, it isn't bloody Kercheval, however you have a Staples, Harbortown, and a mix of office and retail. I never said it was walkable. Just tell me a better stretch of retail on a thoroughfare in the CITY of Detroit, then. Chene between I-94 and Mack, perhaps?