Matty Moroun to demolish 2 structures along Fort Street

**animatedmartian** · July-02-14, 06:14 PM

One is a nondescript building between 14th and Rosa Parks, doubt anyone is going to miss it.

The other is closer to the bridge on 18th and Fort. It looks like it has a bit more historical value to it. There's a huge date on it that says 1897 and looks to be in mostly good condition at least according to Gmaps. If anyone had any history on this building feel free to share.

Anyway, DIBC announced today that it was going to demolish these two properties to show that they can be a positive force in the community.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...thwest-Detroit

GUSHI · July-02-14, 06:56 PM

Yay now only 999999 to go

**rb336** · July-02-14, 07:56 PM

Neither is particularly significant in any way, but the 2600 is a semi-attractive building

**Dexlin** · July-02-14, 09:39 PM

Meanwhile, down the street at city hall, Mayor Duggan has announced he'll be demolishing 10,000 homes, tomorrow, with his bare hands. Mike angry! Mike SMASH!

Seriously, though, meh. If these are two buildings that truly can't be marketed because they are beyond repair, I guess I'd give this news a "meh." If this is something they could repurpose, then it's not progress, at all. To me "architecturally significance" is only one factor in preservation. Before anything else, though, it should simply be about reusing a property regardless of whether it's beatiful to someone else besides its mother.

I'm glad that it's now the stance of the City of Detroit that demolition is not always necessarily progress as was the doctrine of most previous administrations. I like the nuance and realization that some things need to be saved if even most things need to go. My hope is that this starts becoming more the thought in the private sector. I'd say that it is even from just a decade ago, but Matty still seems years behind other other major landowners in the city.

**Islandman** · July-03-14, 06:23 AM

The warehouse at 2600 was in perfect condition as little as 6-7 years ago, and was even on Loopnet:

http://www.loopnet.com/Property-Reco...2g/Sale-Lease/

The two pictures in the link will give a nice before/after perspective.

**DetroitPlanner** · July-03-14, 07:23 AM

Wasn't the one Lafayette Sales in the old days?

Matty is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. The post civil war 3 story building will make a perfect place to park his trucks. Don't kid yourselves.

**Lowell** · July-03-14, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by Islandman

The warehouse at 2600 was in perfect condition as little as 6-7 years ago, and was even on Loopnet:

http://www.loopnet.com/Property-Reco...2g/Sale-Lease/

The two pictures in the link will give a nice before/after perspective.

One of the first things Duggan should fix is the failure of code enforcement. I know there are legal diversions that can create delays, but owners that allow their properties to become blighted need to be annoyingly pursued until they fix, sell or forfeit. It would require a lot of up front hiring and legal fees but long term the returns would be huge.

The second picture you show is a beautiful building with history. It was run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd either for errant young woman or single moms. It was discussed on the old forum, cant' find it, and Andrew Foot's InternationalMetropolis.com has some good coverage at http://www.internationalmetropolis.c...ity-warehouse/

**Scottathew** · July-03-14, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by Lowell

One of the first things Duggan should fix is the failure of code enforcement. I know there are legal diversions that can create delays, but owners that allow their properties to become blighted need to be annoyingly pursued until they fix, sell or forfeit.

Yup, especially those with deep, deep pockets.

**canuck** · July-03-14, 08:59 AM

Good looking building, at least 5 yrs ago. But the mention of it being the Magdalen laundry poses a problem. You can bet that a lot of young women ended up doing drudge work for the nuns. A bit like the prison labor many of us abhorr on these threads.

**SWMAP** · July-03-14, 09:57 AM

"You can bet that a lot of young women ended up doing drudge work for the nuns"

You mean like this ??:

Responding to an appeal from Bishop Caspar Henry Borgess in 1883, five Sisters of the Good Shepherd arrived in downtown Detroit to the Ward Mansion on Fort Street to establish their first home. The industrial revolution brought progress and success to the area but left thousands of young girls and women behind, most of them living and working in desperate conditions. By the turn of the century, 33 Sisters were caring for more than 200 girls and young women in their facility.

Over the next 30 years, the House of the Good Shepherd continued to expand services to the ever-growing number of young women it served. In the late 1930s, the Sisters and the Salvation Army ran a joint fund-raising campaign called Open Your Heart, and successfully raised money for constructing new buildings, but still lacked property on which to expand. Then a miracle happened. After the Sisters prayed a novena for nine days, a representative of Henry and Clara B. Ford arrived at their door. He announced that the Ford family wished to give the Sisters 50 acres of land on West Warren Avenue in Dearborn Heights.

The Sisters bought the land from the Fords for just $1.00 and immediately began taking steps to build residence halls, a school, a powerhouse, and an auditorium/ gymnasium. On December 8, 1942, the House of the Good Shepherd officially reopened with the new name, Vista Maria.

From 1942 to the mid-1970s, the Sisters helped thousands of young women. During those years, the girls attended school, participated in activities, both on campus and in the community. In the early 1970s, as the Sisters numbers diminished, laypersons assumed a greater role in the agency's activities, and eventually would assume full responsiblity for operations, and program development and delivery.

The 1980's and 1990's were years of continued growth and change for the agency. New programs were added and the agency's focus evolved to provide abused and neglected girls with emotional, educational, psychological and spiritual guidance to facilitate their transition to adulthood as productive, contributing members of society.

Today, Vista Maria is recognized as providing best-in-class residential and community-based treatment and therapy for girls, young women and their families. Vista Maria looks to its future as a healing resource center, which will ensure that children and families within our communities have access to critical services and care.

**canuck** · July-03-14, 10:21 AM

I meant more like this; http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4509415/

**SWMAP** · July-03-14, 10:25 AM

So, you couldn't resist the slur?

**animatedmartian** · July-03-14, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

Wasn't the one Lafayette Sales in the old days?

Matty is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. The post civil war 3 story building will make a perfect place to park his trucks. Don't kid yourselves.

At first I thought you were being sarcastic, but you maybe be right about that.

As part of a partnership between Manuel “Matty” Moroun’s Detroit International Bridge Company and Duggan’s office, the former South End Village Center at 2600 W. Fort St. is being razed to make way for an expanded maintenance facility for the Ambassador Bridge.

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroi..._matty_mo.html

**jt1** · July-03-14, 11:59 AM

I would celebrate this if Manny and Matty were in the basement when demolition started

**canuck** · July-03-14, 12:22 PM

Originally Posted by SWMAP

So, you couldn't resist the slur?

Not so. Anybody with a christian, esp. catholic upbringing is more or less aware of Mary Magdalene's meaning in the story of Christ. I am just suspicious of the goody twoshoesness of Catholic institutions that bear a history much darker than advertised for so long. There was a movie, a series and an excellent song by Joni Mitchell about this subject. Many girls and women were used by the various orders to do the hard work, unpaid and isolated from society. Quebec was heavy handed in these practices, the church and state were tightly knit and social services were provided by the various denominations for so long. I am not condemning the church wholesale but the fallen or lost woman legacy was for the most part a convenient way of using and abusing less fortunate members of the female persuasion. What they used to call the weaker sex.

**stinkytofu** · July-03-14, 12:23 PM

What a damn shame. That is a gorgeous building - it is not blighted beyond repair and could definitely be reused in the future. It has historical significance and still looked OK. What a shame...and this will be used for a parking lot! The Morouns are just complete wastes of life...and really disappointed in Duggan on this one.

**animatedmartian** · July-03-14, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by stinkytofu

What a damn shame. That is a gorgeous building - it is not blighted beyond repair and could definitely be reused in the future. It has historical significance and still looked OK. What a shame...and this will be used for a parking lot! The Morouns are just complete wastes of life...and really disappointed in Duggan on this one.

To be fair, the location wasn't the most ideal for anything other than industrial. I think the building could have been a nice conversion into condos or apartments, but there's really nothing to walk to within 5 minutes that's of interest. Green Dot Stables is just barely outside of a 5 minute walk.

**Detroitnerd** · July-03-14, 04:00 PM

Chee-zis. You coulda put it on wheels and moved it down the street. It would be lofts in 10 years.

**animatedmartian** · July-03-14, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Chee-zis. You coulda put it on wheels and moved it down the street. It would be lofts in 10 years.

Didn't think of that. Would have been a very cool idea.

Anyway here's more history about it via Detroiturbex.

In this picture from 1947, you can see the building in its original use as the laundry facility for the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Girls Reformatory, a facility for troubled women that dates back to 1883.

At its peak the reformatory covered an entire block just south of St. Anne Church with its own church, dormitory, power house, and school. The chapel was demolished by the 1940's and the remaining buildings were used as apartments. The laundry building was a bingo hall and then a warehouse in the 1960's. All other reformatory buildings were demolished by the 1980's.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.812386942128352.1073741849.109210839112636

**Smirnoff** · July-04-14, 08:43 AM

Less taxes to pay w/o a building.....

**Hermod** · July-04-14, 09:08 AM

The most historical part of the reformatory has long since been demolished leaving an industrial building/warehouse with obsolete design for industrial use. If it wasn't Maroun and was Gilbert tearing it down to make way for a maintenance facility, you would be dancing in the streets about all the jobs moving to Detroit.

**ismoakrack** · July-04-14, 02:09 PM

I didn't think Duggan was so gung-ho about demolition, like say, Gilbert saying every vacant structure needs to go. This building was far from beyond repair, and there are plenty of converted buildings that aren't particularly close to downtown.

What's even more worrisome are the other three warehouse buildings that the MLive article says are coming down. These are all on Fort St no less; a major artery. And the area is only fit for industrial use now? Hardly. They only even remotely unpleasant aspect to living there would be the bridge's proximity. But that's not a big deal, IMO. One of the older buildings still around, which has been vacant for decades, and then gets demolished for no good reason. I have only lived in Detroit for seven years, and up until now have held out hope that by 2014, those who have money and power will start to 'get it', but I have given up hope, and now can't wait to leave. Very disappointing.

**animatedmartian** · July-04-14, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by ismoakrack

I didn't think Duggan was so gung-ho about demolition, like say, Gilbert saying every vacant structure needs to go. This building was far from beyond repair, and there are plenty of converted buildings that aren't particularly close to downtown.

What's even more worrisome are the other three warehouse buildings that the MLive article says are coming down. These are all on Fort St no less; a major artery. And the area is only fit for industrial use now? Hardly. They only even remotely unpleasant aspect to living there would be the bridge's proximity. But that's not a big deal, IMO. One of the older buildings still around, which has been vacant for decades, and then gets demolished for no good reason. I have only lived in Detroit for seven years, and up until now have held out hope that by 2014, those who have money and power will start to 'get it', but I have given up hope, and now can't wait to leave. Very disappointing.

That seems a bit hyperbolic.

Fort Street from Downtown to Delray has always been mostly industrial from even early in Detroit's history. Sure maybe there could be some residential and retail added to the area, but I wouldn't see that happening for quite a while unless there was a strong enough market to support it.

If you haven't lived in this area how can you even make a claim that it isn't unpleasant to live there? There's lofts on the corner Fort and Rosa Parks and the reviews I've heard is that it isn't worth much to live there. People aren't exactly tripping over themselves to move to Fort Street like they are along Woodward Avenue.

You can leave Detroit all you want, but I'm just saying, this is a pretty lousy reason for feeling upset about it.

**ismoakrack** · July-07-14, 03:54 PM

I'm just saying I'm very much a city person, and truck noise and things like that don't bother me. Sure, there aren't amenities there for current or future residents, and it looks like there won't ever be.

I'm just sayin I'm disappointed that even under the new regime, about which so many people are hopeful, it's the same ole' demolish everything that 'can't be saved', which is potentially anything, particularly outside the CBD.

I remember Duggan saying during his campaign something about coming up with strategies to get residents in homes instead of demo'ing them [[and by extension, business or whatever in abandoned buildings). The housing auction is a step in the right direction, but at the current rate of abandonment, it won't do much good.

I'm completely with Lowell in that a top priority for the current admin should be to enforce blight laws, severely punish those who abandon or do not maintain their property, and work with county, state, fed government to at least stabilize older, larger, more prominent structures. Otherwise, Detroit will continue to become less and less unique and therefore appealing.

**animatedmartian** · July-07-14, 04:52 PM

But Duggan is right in that if the market is not, should I say, moving fast enough to get the buildings occupied, then the owners are basically just maintaining them to stay vacant [[which Matty seems okay with doing anyway but I digress). And vacant buildings are not productive for a city regardless of any other value and yet the still cost money.

In an ideal world, developers would be fighting each other over property in Detroit right now. Multiple new high-rises would be under construction would be under construction right now, and Corktown would have new townhouses and apartments on every corner from Fort Street to MLK. Yet, this is not the situation we are in.

In the real world, just punishing the owners doesn't accomplish much other than provide revenue for the city. The options for the owners? Demolish the property or sell it so they don't have to be punished with fines. And actually, this specific property was for sale for quite a while so how come no one bought it? There was ample time for someone to come in a preserve this property and do whatever with it, but no one chose to. That's the market and that's the reality of the situation and many other properties in Detroit face the same situation. Working with the government isn't necessarily any easier because now you're just placing the potential burden on taxpayer money which itself is a whole different issue.

In the end, if Detroit becomes a less appealing place because of it, well then that's just the outcome of a free-market society which is far bigger than what Duggan is responsible for. If 2 million people wake up tomorrow and decide they want to move to Detroit then maybe a lot more of these historical properties will have a chance. Until then, decisions have to be made.