Development on Jefferson near St Jean

[stasu1213]

Does anyone know what is being built on Jefferson near Newport on the south side of the street?

[313WX]

Since when is Newport "near St. Jean?"

[Former_Detroiter]

Since when is Newport "near St. Jean?"

Good Question...

[stasu1213]

The development is on Jefferson somewhere between Chalmers and St Jean on the south side of the street

[ndavies]

The FCA plant expansion?

[MikeM]

Whatever is across from Jefferson North, it's big. Huge structural steel going up for the past few weeks in the space between the Connors Creek Pumping Station and Grosse Pointe Moving & Storage. I assume it's connected with the FCA expansion.

Down by Newport, the dead end Eastlawn has been a staging area for material and equipment for rebuilding some of the sewer lines in the area - the same reason the lanes of Jefferson have been blocked over the past year.

[Dexlin]

Only thing I can find is if the land is the big parcel directly across the street from Jefferson North is that it's own by the Moroun's Crown Enterprises. Their company still has it listed as a property on their website. Perhaps they found a tenant. I imagine it has something to do with the expansion of Jefferson North; probably a warehouse/logisitics/distribution facility or something. BTW, this propert actually fronts Freud.

[Danny]

More jobs are Detroiters Yay Duggan! 4 yore years!

[MikeM]

Only thing I can find is if the land is the big parcel directly across the street from Jefferson North is that it's own by the Moroun's Crown Enterprises. Their company still has it listed as a property on their website. Perhaps they found a tenant. I imagine it has something to do with the expansion of Jefferson North; probably a warehouse/logisitics/distribution facility or something. BTW, this propert actually fronts Freud.

This development doesn't front Freud. It's between Jefferson and the warehouse on Freud. It might be on land that the city bought from Crown... not sure.

[esighed]

This development doesn't front Freud. It's between Jefferson and the warehouse on Freud. It might be on land that the city bought from Crown... not sure.

I heard this land might have been part of Detroit bankruptcy deal with Moroun Family? Also it might be a supplier for FCA that is building the facility. Why is there so little news about this?

[Hamtragedy]

St. Jean is about to be relegated to historical maps due west of the Jefferson North plant. FCA has gobbled it up.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I’m surprised that the DetroitYes sleuths haven’t figured this out yet.

[Dexlin]

This development doesn't front Freud. It's between Jefferson and the warehouse on Freud. It might be on land that the city bought from Crown... not sure.

I should have been more clear, the lot fronts Freud; it stretches from Freud to Jefferson. Crown owns it through a shell company. It's address is 11851 Freud. Crown got some more land nearby in the swap, but this parcel has been Crown land for some years.



Immediately south of this land on the other side of Freud, FCA is building a "vehicle logisitics" area, which is just a fancy name for a surface lot to temporarily store the autos before they are shipped out. Though, rail infrastructure will be built/improved so that cars can be shipped directly by rail. They are purchasing a combined 60 acres between Lycaste and Clairpoint from DTE, GLWA and Conrail for this.

[stasu1213]

This project is coming along faster than the snell pace moving Meijer development on Jefferson near St Aubin

[stasu1213]

I should have been more clear, the lot fronts Freud; it stretches from Freud to Jefferson. Crown owns it through a shell company. It's address is 11851 Freud. Crown got some more land nearby in the swap, but this parcel has been Crown land for some years.



Immediately south of this land on the other side of Freud, FCA is building a "vehicle logisitics" area, which is just a fancy name for a surface lot to temporarily store the autos before they are shipped out. Though, rail infrastructure will be built/improved so that cars can be shipped directly by rail. They are purchasing a combined 60 acres between Lycaste and Clairpoint from DTE, GLWA and Conrail for this.

I wouldn't be surprised if FCA gobble up the whole area on both sides of Jefferson between St Jean to Alter from the from the Riverfront north to Mack. The whole area property value had plummeted in the past 40 years and could be bought by a major corporation such as FCA at a bargain basement price. The big downfall of this is Detroit still hasn't learn it's lesson. The city still allow factories to by up a lot of land, develop in them, then when that corporation decide to pick up and leave Detroit is stuck with areas of vacant behemoths that no one will want and would be eyesores to the Eastside. I would rather see innovative one or two story office complexes that could stretch from Jefferson close to the Riverfront such ad that immigration building is on Jefferson near Connor. Those type of developments could be more interchangeably functional than big factories

[Dexlin]

Okay, cool.

[Gistok]

I wouldn't be surprised if FCA gobble up the whole area on both sides of Jefferson between St Jean to Alter from the from the Riverfront north to Mack. The whole area property value had plummeted in the past 40 years and could be bought by a major corporation such as FCA at a bargain basement price. The big downfall of this is Detroit still hasn't learn it's lesson. The city still allow factories to by up a lot of land, develop in them, then when that corporation decide to pick up and leave Detroit is stuck with areas of vacant behemoths that no one will want and would be eyesores to the Eastside. I would rather see innovative one or two story office complexes that could stretch from Jefferson close to the Riverfront such ad that immigration building is on Jefferson near Connor. Those type of developments could be more interchangeably functional than big factories

You are probably too young to remember back in the 1980s when Chrysler built their Jeep plant that they had trouble obtaining one particular parcel with a warehouse building on it that miraculously filled with machinery... and the Young administration paid $42 million to buy just that one parcel with the machinery... and then later the company that owned it paid pennies on the dollar to buy back just the machinery.

It was a big scandal back then that all the Detroit papers were posting.

Land that is needed for a large project cannot be purchased for bargain basement prices anywhere in Detroit. There will always be a greedy businessman who owns [[or will quickly buy up) some needed parcel that wants an exorbitant price for the property.

Remember the riverfront land for the casinos? Also remember that house west of LCA, where the owner wants $5 million for it?

The 7 story Detroit Film Exchange Building on W. Montcalm and Cass is a prime example. Back when Comerica Park was going to be built west of Woodward back in the 1990s, that empty building owner put in all new windows in that building... until it was decided to include Ford Field into the stadia district, which was then moved to east of Woodward... and suddenly that building owner did no more work on it, and it remained empty. Then when west Foxtown was considered to be the location of the new arena, that same owner painted that empty yellow brick building white. Well LCA was built north of the Fisher Fwy., and that same building is still empty today... but with new[[er) windows and a white coat of paint.

Land in Detroit is only cheap when nobody wants it. The moment someone wants a large parcel for some project... it suddenly becomes expensive.

[bust]

^^ We could have a whole thread listing examples where this has happened in Detroit.

Another: all around City Airport-- because every now and then someone floats an idea to expand or repurpose it. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere Maroun is one of the big property owners there too.

The game the speculators play is always the same:

1. Scoop up the cheapest adjacent and nearby properties;
2. Let them rot or more quickly destroy them, thereby encouraging the neighborhood to spiral downward;
3. Repeat.

...Until of course what Gistok said.

Though this leaves out some of their most unseemly tactics and accomplices often involved.

[stasu1213]

You are probably too young to remember back in the 1980s when Chrysler built their Jeep plant that they had trouble obtaining one particular parcel with a warehouse building on it that miraculously filled with machinery... and the Young administration paid $42 million to buy just that one parcel with the machinery... and then later the company that owned it paid pennies on the dollar to buy back just the machinery.

It was a big scandal back then that all the Detroit papers were posting.

Land that is needed for a large project cannot be purchased for bargain basement prices anywhere in Detroit. There will always be a greedy businessman who owns [[or will quickly buy up) some needed parcel that wants an exorbitant price for the property.

Remember the riverfront land for the casinos? Also remember that house west of LCA, where the owner wants $5 million for it?

The 7 story Detroit Film Exchange Building on W. Montcalm and Cass is a prime example. Back when Comerica Park was going to be built west of Woodward back in the 1990s, that empty building owner put in all new windows in that building... until it was decided to include Ford Field into the stadia district, which was then moved to east of Woodward... and suddenly that building owner did no more work on it, and it remained empty. Then when west Foxtown was considered to be the location of the new arena, that same owner painted that empty yellow brick building white. Well LCA was built north of the Fisher Fwy., and that same building is still empty today... but with new[[er) windows and a white coat of paint.

Land in Detroit is only cheap when nobody wants it. The moment someone wants a large parcel for some project... it suddenly becomes expensive.

When the property value goes down due to dilapidated homes and vacant lots developers buy it for dirt cheap

[MikeM]

Another: all around City Airport-- because every now and then someone floats an idea to expand or repurpose it. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere Maroun is one of the big property owners there too.

Every lot colored yellow, and now the large blue one as well:

[bust]

^^Maroun is such a heartless scumbag.
No wonder that neighborhood is as it is.

There needs to be a much more effective way to penalize and discourage slumlords from destroying properties and neighborhoods. What small fines they infrequently pay are clearly not enough. Some kind of a derelict property tax punitive enough to discourage the behavior, the receipts of which are used to counteract the damage and suffering they cause.

Why is it in every city I know [[I count 4) the major developers have so many willing accomplices in city government? I think we all know why, just not specifically how.

[Gistok]

^^Maroun is such a heartless scumbag.
No wonder that neighborhood is as it is.

Well he's now dead [[died at 93 this summer)... let's hope his son Matthew is an improvement...

https://www.freep.com/story/money/bu...dge/716960001/

[Dexlin]

Matthew's effectively been running the company for the last few years, anyway. We already know who he is, and it's not much of an improvement.

That said, I'm not sure I agree with blaming them for some of the neighborhoods being the way they are. The airport neighborhood emptied out long before the Morouns started buying up land there. They are vultures, but in most cases, they buy in or adjacent to already industrial developed lands to expand them. In the case of the airport, with the city fighting for decades over what to do with it, and requirements having become much more strict about the interaction between airport uses and non-airport uses, the old residential neighborhood between it doesn't even make sense as a residential neighborhood, anymore. The neighborhood voted with its feet. And Duggan wants to turn it into an industrial park; in any case it makes sense as industrial lands.

[MikeM]

Passed by today. Looks like a large warehouse. Goes back farther than it is wide.