48 vacant buildings blight downtown Detroit

[Patrick]

Waad Nahir's comments about his building is indicative of the market realities too often ignored on this forum:

"The taxes are too high and the prospects too low," said Waad Nahir, chief executive officer of Bosc Equities, which manages the former Peoples Bank building at 751 Griswold. Nahir's building has been empty for seven years, and he hopes to sell it

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This.

[Hypestyles]

is it really all that expensive to tear down most downtown structures? what's the breakdown for the cost projections--

[reddog289]

After reading the article, I had forgotten about some of the buildings listed such as Ford Auditorium. Got my October issue of Hot Rod magazine. They even have an article of Detroits abandoned factories.

[LeannaM]

1133 Griswold building. Is that a modern building, or a historic building with a modern face?

Just wondering.

I know in 1999, Downtown St. Louis had about 70 vacant or underutilized buildings. Now there's less than a dozen. Obviously they're different cities, and Downtown St. Louis isn't very big, but there may be hope for Detroit yet. Of course, when Downtown St. Louis began its renaissance, the economy was better across the country. State and Federal Historic tax credits have a lot to do with it. A few renovation projects are still happening [[like Kiel Opera House), but it has slowed down. A few major buildings [[Arcade, Dillard's, St. Louis Centre, a few of the Cupples Station Buildings) are still empty and awaiting development.

Looking at the interactive map of Detroit, it's funny that you can have an ugly, blank-faced building like 1120 Griswold next to a gorgeous building like 62 State Street.