Lincoln Park, MI –July 26, 2009 – Preservation Group Seeking Developers for Historic Mellus Newspapers Building

Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance is desperately seeking a developer to purchase two buildings from Lincoln Park DDA’s by a September 1st deadline or they will face the wrecking ball. Lincoln Park’s DDA has set forth a September 1st deadline for anyone interested in the Mellus Newspapers Building, 1661 Fort Street and the Pollak Building, next door, at 1667 Fort Street, Lincoln Park to come to them with a plan and financing. The buildings will also be on the August or September Dangerous Building Board agenda.

Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance got the Mellus Newspapers Building on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. Their vision has been to see the Mellus turned into a retail incubator of a coffee house, art gallery and small business spaces and with Pollak as leased out for a sandwich, bagel shop etc. The buildings would be cheap to acquire with the Mellus also being cheap to renovate. The open floor plan of Mellus lends itself quite nicely to building studios or retail space. LPPA has had two architects in the building within the last two years that will back up the premise that the building could be cost effectively renovated. Tom Roberts AIA looked at the building for us two years ago. And Mike Kirk AIA looked at the building this past April. There are also tax credits available for these buildings with Mellus being eligible for the 20% Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit and both buildings eligible for the Brownfield Tax Credits. And there is a possibility that they might qualify for the New Markets Tax Credits. If the buildings get torn down, it will be years before a developer is found due to the current economic climate and that there are no tax credits for vacant land.
From a planning standpoint, if the buildings demolished it will leave a void in the downtown area.

The Mellus Newspapers, owned by newspaper publisher William S. Mellus, was the local newspaper for most of the Downriver communities with The Lincoln Parker being the Lincoln Park newspaper from 1933 – 1985 when they merged in with Heritage Newspapers. They moved out of 1661 and 1667 Fort Street in 1986. The buildings have been vacant ever since. The buildings were purchased from the Mellus family in 1994. Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance, has done fundraising in hopes of purchasing the buildings. Although the Pollak Building isn’t recognized as historic, like Mellus, but it doesn’t make sense to tear it down if Mellus can be saved. The Mellus is a wonderful streamline modern building built in 1941. Pollak is your typical one story store front. The Pollak Building, once home to Pollak Jewelers but acquired by the newspaper at some point to use as an annex for their operations. And I understand that the male writers sat in one building and the female writers in the other building. Many of the writers went onto other newspapers such as the Detroit News and Free Press. Two former Mellus writers, Craig Garrett and Dennis Niemic, went onto write for the Detroit News and Free Press, respectively, and now work for Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano at Wayne County.

The Mellus is 4080 square feet with the bulk of it on the first floor. A rear two story addition was added in the 1950’s. Pollak is 1620 square feet and one story.
The cost to acquire the buildings is unknown but the Lincoln Park DDA bought both buildings earlier in the year for $90,000 as a package deal.

LPPA has 3 small business people interested in space in Mellus. They are seeking a coffee house person. For more information on the building read Jon Zemke’s March 2009 Metromode article http://www.metromodemedia.com/features/LincolnParkMellus0109.aspx . LTU College of Architecture and Design professor, Jim Stevens, grad level adaptive reuse class utilized Mellus for their class project this year. Jim presented the class teams presentations at the June DDA meeting.

A developer is desparately needed because the mood amongst most of the DDA including our mayor and city manager is that they want the buildings torn down. The city manager states that there is not a building in Lincoln Park worthy of restoration! The DDA attorney states they are health and safety hazard. He bases this on a feasibility study by engineering firm Dzuirman Associates PC . However, two years ago architect Tom Roberts looked at the buildings. He felt that the Mellus was structurally sound. Preservation architect Mike Kirk with Neumann Smith Architects was in the buildings in April. He said that Mellus is structurally sound and that as buildings go its not all that bad. He’s seen worse he said. And the only difference since when Tom Roberts was in the buildings and Mike’s visit is that there is two roof leaks in the front of the building. And that just developed end of the year / beginning of 2009 because the building had no leaks when I showed Zlati Meyer of the Detroit Free Press the buildings in October. That was the day after our spaghetti dinner fundraiser for it. And it rained that evening.

I’ve attached photos for your review.

Thanks,

Leslie Lynch-Wilson
President
Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance
Lincoln Park
313-598-3137