Himmelhoch Eviction: "It's not the bad times that killed us, it's the good times."

[Lowell]

The owners of the Himmelhoch Building, Fourmidable of Bingham Farms, have evicted a group of current retailers. Most of the ground floor was leased by Larry and Dianne Mongo [of Cafe de Mongo fame]. "The husband and wife ran everything from beauty shops to restaurants in the Himmelhoch" for the past three decades reports the Detroit News.


Himmelhoch Brothers and Company building in 2003^

With the adjacent now upscale Whitney/Aloft opening its doors and filling with well-heeled residents and joining the similarly filled Broderick Tower across the street, moves on surrounding properties should not be surprising as the wave of downtown gentrification builds.

As Larry Mongo put it, "It's not the bad times that killed us, it's the good times."

Maybe Detroit IS the next Brooklyn.


Himmelhoch Brothers and Company building in 2010^

[Honky Tonk]

Smells like bullshit to me. ​This line says it all: "You could easily get $50,000 a month to rent that space right now, probably more," Fuck Fourmidable, fuck Midtown, and fuck the yupsters.

[Chicago48]

Smells like bullshit to me. ​This line says it all: "You could easily get $50,000 a month to rent that space right now, probably more," Fuck Fourmidable, fuck Midtown, and fuck the yupsters.

I don't know whose universe someone thinks that space is worth $50,000 a month. I don't know of any business that makes that amount of money in a month. It would have to be a luxury item business like Coach or Tiffany's, because no small business is going to rent that.
The owners will have to retro fit the space to accommodate a"special" tenant.
I hope Mongo got a payoff for the 2 years left on the lease.

[canuck]

That will be a big problem for Detroit, the boom and bust in high contrast. $2500. a month maybe too little but unless someone
came with a much better offer, the idea that the rent would jump so fast is nuts. But all is possible and commercial rents are open tomore bullshit moves on owners parts.

[Danny]

When Gilberttown Detroit is on the rise. Those who don't have thousands or millions of dollars in the sock have no business investing there. I feel really sorry for the D-Mongo owner who have put out by yuppified rich white folks. Formidable wants have the Gilberttown action. A matter of fact it could be a secret plot from Bedrock Holdings to have Dan Gilbert buy the Himmelhock Building.

[Zacha341]

Wow! This is interesting and may be a first of what other businesses may be soon facing downtown. I would say in this case a READ OF THE 'COMMENT' SECTION of the article is quite revealing! The Mongo's weigh-in there as well as John Enot the restauranteur who was planning to move in the building and other interesting comments pro and con.

One could argue, as does one 'commenter' that the D'mongo's should have gotten a replacement check or cash in for that payment as it seems the owners seemed to may this the 'jump-off' point to ditch their lease. A thirty year lease coming to an abrupt end before suggest some has some plans to expedite no doubt. $50K Lease. Who do they plan to run up in the building Apple and Microsoft stores side by side. Ummm, not gonna happen.

I hope the D'mongo's have a good attorney and not just some dandy to further spend-down their resources. I recall D'mongo's salon well from back in the day. The Dmongo's and their sub-lease businesses weathered alot when that areas was a ghost town.

[rjlj]

What does it say about the business proprietors seriousness of their business when they are just liquidating the contents of the business instead of looking to relocate into one of the numerous empty first floor locations in the central business district?


Will the outcry be made when the Bail Bonds store on Woodward a few blocks down has their rent increased?


Detroit is not Brooklyn. People who even bring that sound like they have been there.

[DetroitBoy]

Its a very pretty building. 30 years for a business in one location is a pretty good run. In a typical rental market sites turn over more quickly [[think about stores at different locations in a mall). Are they saying they are going to try to displace the people in low income housing that live there also?

[Zacha341]

Can't verify this, but per the articles 'comment' section [[in which even D'mongo makes a comment appeal to Dan Gilbert!) this building has the best of for section 8 tenants that change! If this trend continues there's gonna be alot of relocating in downtown, residents included!

I'd already heard that the Griswold once converted to condo obliged all of its former section eight and lower paying renters the heave ho!

Its a very pretty building. 30 years for a business in one location is a pretty good run. In a typical rental market sites turn over more quickly [[think about stores at different locations in a mall). Are they saying they are going to try to displace the people in low income housing that live there also?

[Zacha341]

According to this link I found in the comment section of the article low income housing displacement is hardly new and for certain discussed here on Detroityes:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/11/18/developers-hud-non-profits-collude-to-move-detroit-seniors-disabled-out-of-downtown-griswold-apts

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/02...nts-continues/

Its a very pretty building. 30 years for a business in one location is a pretty good run. In a typical rental market sites turn over more quickly [[think about stores at different locations in a mall). Are they saying they are going to try to displace the people in low income housing that live there also?

[stasu1213]

When had DMONGO ever had his restaurant open in the Himmelhoch building? I see tables and chairs with no signs of actual customers being served there. It is true that Fourmidable is a crappie management company. They had done a poor job managing Lafayette Towers while easing the rent on tenants more than 1 to $200 dollars on tenants after their leases term is up.

[animatedmartian]

While what Fourmidable did is kind of messed up, Mongo was planning on opening two restaurants within the space the he was leasing. This comes as he knew he had only less than a few years left on his lease. Obviously without knowing the terms of the lease or how long Mongo had these restaurants planned, something leads me to believe Mongo isn't completely innocent in this. Understandably, he might have bitter feelings about the circumstances of the situation regarding the rising values of downtown space, and certainly over what Fourmidable did, but something tells me there's more to this story than what's being reported. Either way, changes suck and I hope Mongo can find other space to open some businesses.


http://detroit.eater.com/2015/1/9/75...-landlord-feud

[eliboyer]

The $50K monthly rent estimation by Scott Griffin is an absolute joke. I'm not sure what kind of square footage these spaces occupy, but is it anywhere near 27,272 SF? If we're using the accurate estimate of $22 PSF annual rent, that's the size that would dictate $50K in monthly rent, and I don't think it's anywhere close to that.

[iheartthed]

The $50K monthly rent estimation by Scott Griffin is an absolute joke. I'm not sure what kind of square footage these spaces occupy, but is it anywhere near 27,272 SF? If we're using the accurate estimate of $22 PSF annual rent, that's the size that would dictate $50K in monthly rent, and I don't think it's anywhere close to that.

$50,000 sq ft/month / $22 sq ft = 2,273 sq feet.

[BankruptcyGuy]

$50,000 sq ft/month / $22 sq ft = 2,273 sq feet.

Commercial rental rates are quoted on an annual basis. When you see "$22/sf" that means for a full year. $50,000/month on a 2,273 sf building would be quoted as $263/sf.

[Lowell]

There has been a charade of a restaurant on the Washington side noted a few times previously on this forum. It has never been opened and has been like a movie set frozen in time. Here are some pictures from 2002.


My table cloth please...

[Zacha341]

^^^ That's odd [[re. the restaurant photos). You don't set plates and empty gravy boats etc. out like that prior to the sit down for the meal. Looks like a 'dust' catching setting, more than in use, or eye catching!

[Lowell]

^^^ That's odd [[re. the restaurant photos). You don't set plates and empty gravy boats etc. out like that prior to the sit down for the meal. Looks like a 'dust' catching setting, more than in use, or eye catching!

The Himmelhoch faux restaurant always struck me as eerie, as if from a Victorian gothic novel, like Miss Havisham's dining table with the wedding cake in Dickens' Great Expectation.

[Gistok]

^^^ That's odd [[re. the restaurant photos). You don't set plates and empty gravy boats etc. out like that prior to the sit down for the meal. Looks like a 'dust' catching setting, more than in use, or eye catching!

That setting has been there for nearly 2 decades [[or more?). I remember many years ago looking into that window and the thing that caught your eye first was that there were candlesticks at each table, with tapir candles that had long since melted... they were still in their candleholder, but the tips were slumped over touching the table top.

Apparently that display is a sealed off room, with no ventilation... and the afternoon sun created enough heat to cause those candles to melt over time....

[Zacha341]

The whole scene seems pretty macabre. Just the opposite of intention I'm sure.

That setting has been there for nearly 2 decades [[or more?)....

Apparently that display is a sealed off room, with no ventilation... and the afternoon sun created enough heat to cause those candles to melt over time....

[downtownguy]

There has been a charade of a restaurant on the Washington side noted a few times previously on this forum. It has never been opened and has been like a movie set frozen in time. Here are some pictures from 2002.

My table cloth please...

Actually, it was opened for a minute in the mid or late 80s. I remember that much, as I ate there a few times when I had an office next door in the David Whitney Building. But after that, my memory fades. I was active with the Grand Circus Park Development Association back then, and we were all thrilled to have something so quaint and classy in our forgotten part of downtown.

Diane had her salon open on the Woodward side at the time, and Larry may well have controlled the lease on the Washington Blvd. side cafe--but as I recall, he didn't run it. The cafe is across the hall from another long time tenant, James Schelberg, a podiatrist. I'm not sure, but the good doctor may have had something to do with the business end of the restaurant. If it wasn't Schelberg, I think it was some other nearby business person.

After it closed, I have faint memories that the tables were cleared for a time. Then, all the fancy china came back without any announcement of a re-opening, and it's been that way ever since.

Incidentally, Dr, Schelberg is probably getting close to retirement age. I think he may be the only other tenant on the ground floor. I wonder if Fourmidable is also trying to get him out.

[ScienceFair]

Actually, it was opened for a minute in the mid or late 80s.

Thank you for the history lesson. I always wondered what the deal was with that place. I just assumed it was a couple of fake store fronts to make the old people living upstairs think that it was still a viable neighborhood. I've never been in there myself, I had no idea there were actual businesses operating in there. Fascinating.

[Zug]

How many customers has this affected? If it's a substantial number of people, then I'll have more sympathy for the "it's unfair" outcry. But I don't really see any evidence that the businesses have created any noticeable foot traffic in that area. And I have failed to read anything [[either here or the News site) where customers are saying they are affected.

If the businesses only survive because just a few customers are needed to pay off ridiculously low lease rates, then personally I have no problem seeing them go. I want more foot traffic downtown.

Have any of the forumers gone to these businesses, or know someone who has? If so, are they any good?

[stasu1213]

Was this restaurant there for curb appeal or just for tax write off purposes

[canuck]

Was this restaurant there for curb appeal or just for tax write off purposes

A business version of a "home staging" type thing, IMO.