Woodward/Charlotte Car Dealership owned by Ilitch facing demolition

[Gistok]

I've posted this before... but it bears repeating....

The very attractive and in good condition 2030 Grand River Ave.... a block from the Royal Order of the Moose Building and also a block away from the GAR Building. The Ilitch's bought it... on one of Detroit's main streets within the precincts of downtown... and today it is a parking lot... without any landscaping.... Another potential development on a main thoroughfare... [[like the plans for the Woodward fronted building)... squandered...

[Honky Tonk]

The Blight Rail parking shuttle isn't working out. The Roamin's want to arrive in their SUV chariots to watch their gladiators do battle. The earth must be scorched to provide ease of access to the coliseums. All hail Little Caesar!

[Zads07]

Fantastic column from Gallagher calling out Olympia and Ilitch for tearing down buildings for parking lots. About time a column like that came out.

[Gsgeorge]

2030 Grand River Ave

This is one of their greatest sins, along with the Madison-Lenox

[CrashDummy]

Demonstration vs. Demolition of Historic Ansonia and Atlanta Apts. and U.S. Motors auto dealership building at 2959 Woodward Announced.

Here a great article by John Gallagher of the Freep along with notice of the demonstration against demolition of this building along with Ansonia and Atlanta apartments at Cass and Henry.

Attachment 35069

IT'S TIME TO STOP RAZING BUILDINGS FOR LCA PARKING

I wouldn't say it's a great article, but it's fine for what it is, which is a bridge piece between Joe Guillen's article about parking lot landscaping and the demonstration planned for Saturday at the dealership site. Gallagher does some great work, however that Guillen article was a total mess. For a four page article with front page headline for the Sunday paper, it really didn't do anything but invoke more questions than it did answers. I guess the main point I got out of it was that the city code as written was terribly written and confusing, which was one of the points, but not the main point of the article I'm sure. But, I may have more feedback on that article at a later time, on a different thread.

As far as the US Motors dealership on Woodward, I have few doubts about the plans to tear it down, and I truly hope they don't, but I am skeptical about the planned motivation to turn it into a surface parking lot. It's kind of a lazy assertion. And I fear this backlash/demonstration will suffer from a similar lack of focus and clear message. As the title of Gallagher's article states "IT'S TIME TO STOP RAZING BUILDINGS FOR LCA PARKING". Is it OK to raze buildings to put up other buildings? I have a feeling is that it's not. What if it's somebody else doing the demolishing, like Bedrock or The Platform? Is that OK? Maybe. I'm not sure. Does it depend on the circumstance? Is it fair to put the Atlanta and Ansonia in the same category as the dealership building? Different location, type of building, and motivation, in my opinion. Or is it enough that they're both owned by Ilitch? I think without a clear, consistent message, these protests will end up just being noise and will simply be tuned out.

Anyway, it seems like this shouldn't have been a surprise, and maybe it wasn't for some people. Here is a development map that's been around a couple of years, but has been surprisingly accurate up until this point. In fact, I was shocked that the building next to the Eddystone that recently started construction popped up in another thread and looked exactly like the block on the map. Take it for what it's worth, but the US Motors dealership is in the upper right corner, block 1. Can't really tell what it's supposed to be, it's just a square block the same size as what's there now.

[K-slice]

How much more will Ilitch be allowed to destroy? One of my favorite pages listing a few of his neglected buildings taxpayers have demolished for him...
https://fadeddetroit.blogspot.com/2008/12/?m=1

[wolverine]

We’re kind of in this troubling era lately where historic preservation has fallen out of interest with the general population. It’s not like the 90’s and 00’s where people were ambitious to save old homes and businesses. Detroit’s preservation struggles are far worse elsewhere. At least much of the losses are due to abandonment and neglect. Lately in Chicago, buildings that have seen restorations and renovations in the last decade are now facing demolition. Like this:
https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/1/24...ilding-burnham

The deadline to save the facade is Monday, but of course no one is donating