Palms Building vacant?

[eastland]

Anyone know the status of the Palms Building at the corner of Rivard and Jefferson? It looks vacant. Very cool building inside and out.

[Satiricalivory]

Palms apartments? It is definitely not vacant.

https://www.apartments.com/palms-apa...it-mi/gq71mtx/

[Lowell]

Famous for being one for the first buildings to use the Kahn system of reinforced concrete it is not going to fall down anytime soon either.

[renf]

Lowell,

I am glad you mentioned that, at least in the view of US architectural historians, this is the first building in the US to use reinforced concrete.
I have heard that Albert Kahn brother got a degree from U of M and then
went to Japan to study and them came back and, somewhere along the line, got the idea to use reinforced concrete. I don't know if that is true.

[eastland]

Palms apartments? It is definitely not vacant.

https://www.apartments.com/palms-apa...it-mi/gq71mtx/

You may have a different perspective if you drive past it.

[Satiricalivory]

You may have a different perspective if you drive past it.

Yeah not totally sure what the current status is. I did some digging and it doesn't seem like the listed owner has it on their site anymore. Maybe they sold it?

Hope they're going to update or something. Those are great units and demand for apartments in that area is extremely high.

[Richard]

Yeah not totally sure what the current status is. I did some digging and it doesn't seem like the listed owner has it on their site anymore. Maybe they sold it?

Hope they're going to update or something. Those are great units and demand for apartments in that area is extremely high.

Update ? I think they are cool and more representative of a comfortable home verses coming back to a serial box of just a place to sleep at the end of the day.

love the originality and retaining the historical aspects.

[Satiricalivory]

Update ? I think they are cool and more representative of a comfortable home verses coming back to a serial box of just a place to sleep at the end of the day.

love the originality and retaining the historical aspects.

I don't mean update like aesthetic remodel obviously. Fix and restore the things that are falling apart, maybe modernize utilities.

Looking at the rental reviews, it seems the managers/owners have been basically slumlords.

[Richard]

Last sold in 2019 for $605,000,I would buy that,64 units.

It’s listing the taxes at $1700,which makes no sense.

Where I am at you cannot even get anything for $900 per month even in the hood where you are dodging bullets,let alone shopping or good schools .

[Detroitdave]

Last sold in 2019 for $605,000,I would buy that,64 units.

It’s listing the taxes at $1700,which makes no sense.

Where I am at you cannot even get anything for $900 per month even in the hood where you are dodging bullets,let alone shopping or good schools .

I know someone that lived in that building, they made and are making everyone move out.
I believe bedrock bought it and making “market rate” apartments .
my friend moved to the Jeffersonian down the street.

[K-slice]

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...sell-6-million

Just sold earlier this year, let my Crains subscription lapse though and cant see the story. New buyer was probably getting things lined up over the summer for renovations and now they're ready.

The two big buildings on 2nd street, Between New Center and BE were also recently emptied of all their tenants. The Chatham and Lee Crest. Possibly related?

[Richard]

Not a bad return,even if you cut the 6 mil down to 3 mil per building,$605,000 in 2019 - $3 million in 2022.

I remember threads back after the bankruptcy and people asked,where is the best place to invest in Detroit for future gains,you are seeing it play out - anywhere.

[Richard]

I know someone that lived in that building, they made and are making everyone move out.
I believe bedrock bought it and making “market rate” apartments .
my friend moved to the Jeffersonian down the street.

Could be why the question was asked if it was vacant,if they have vacated it probably are going to re-hab it,Most likely in the current fad of open floor plans and stripping everything else out.

[EastsideAl]

I was by here during the auto races downtown, and in fact stood on the porch for quite a while as it had a great view of the cars coming up Rivard and accelerating down Jefferson. I was shocked to see that the building is apparently empty and by all appearances not being maintained at all. I knew people who lived in this building for several years and, despite indifferent maintenance, the apartments were beautiful with high ceilings, hardwood floors, and huge rooms with great views. Give where it's situated this places seems like a real opportunity for something great, and one that's being sadly missed right now.

[Neilr]

Here's a copy of something I posted on September 12, 2012.

Neilr

Join DateMar 2009Posts557

In 1902 Albert Kahn and George Mason built the Palms Apartment Building at 1001 East Jefferson. This was a seminal work in the use of reinforced concrete. This was the first significant use reinforced concrete in a building in Detroit. This work led directly to the methods he developed to build the new sections of The Packard Plant on EGB.


So back to The Palms Apartment Building. At the turn of the century Jefferson was one of the elite residential streets in Detroit. Many fine homes of that era still survive as office building, etc. For Example, the Parker house [[just to the west) is now a law office.


The lower level of the Palms had a restaurant that ran along the east side. You can see its placement today because its old bottle glass windows are still in place. That space is now a union office, IIRC.


Each upper floor contained 4 apartments. Two bachelor apartments [[no kitchens) were in the central portion of the front of the building. The two similarly large, significant apartments comprised the entire east or west wing of the floor. They were of the long hall variety. And they were grand!


For example, the east apartment: you entered a small vestibule which led to a large square foyer off of which to the right was the living room which contained fireplace and a large four-windowed bay overlooking the intersection of Rivard and East Jefferson. Also off the foyer was a good-sized reception room. Finally off the foyer led a wide, long hall with two bedrooms, and connecting bath, on either side. At the end of the hall to the right, was a large dining room with another fireplace. Also at that end of the hall was a small vestibule to the maid's room [[with another bath) and the kitchen. Connecting the kitchen to the dining room was a large pantry. At the very rear of the kitchen was the refrigerator room. The kitchen had a service door that led to the service porch and back stairs. A dumb waiter was provided to bring deliveries, such as ice up to both the east and west apartments.


My attachment to this post is of the plan of the 4th floor which is typical. I tried to make it a bit clearer by using a magic marker to separate the two bachelor apartments from their larger neighbors.

[expatriate]

Good example of grand apartment living that never really took off in Detroit which was a city of blue collar workers with a preference for single family detached dwellings. With few exceptions there are not many apartments with several rooms and domestic quarters as was the case in pre-war New York apartment buildings. I recall seeing one in Palmer Park many years ago and the Detroit Tower comes close in that regard, but perhaps someone here is aware of more.

[Neilr]

Here's a copy of something I posted several years ago.

• Neilr
  
  
  KnnNike,
  IMO, the Garden Court is a very handsome, elegant building and the subdivision of the original large apartments has, in general, been well done.
  Here's a cut and paste of one of my posts from several years ago:
  
  The Garden Court was designed very much in the manner of a prewar Park Avenue apartment house. The building was to be entered by tenants and their guests through one of the two entrances facing the garden on the west side of the building. Each lobby led to a passenger elevator that serviced just two apartments on each floor. Additionally, there were three sets of service elevators and stairs for staff and tradesmen.
  
  
  There were only four apartments per floor. The smallest [[if you can call an 8 room apartment small) was in the center of the south wing, facing east and west. Next in size was in the center of the north wing. It had nine rooms. Next largest in size was the north, Jefferson facing, unit with nine rooms. The largest, also with nine rooms, faced south towards the river. While its room count is the same as the Jefferson facing unit, the trapezoidal shape of the building allowed for larger rooms.
  
  
  The two center apartments have windows facing three directions while the north and south facing apartments have windows facing all four directions. In addition to proving ample light throughout the day, this was an important feature for ventilating apartments before the use of air conditioning.
  
  
  Every apartment had a small Juliet balcony. The end apartments also had a small balcony off of the bedroom hallway. The balconies for the center units were off the kitchens.
  
  
  Alas, as times changed and an East Jefferson address lost some of its appeal, most of the apartments were broken into smaller, more rentable units.
  
  
  To me, the original Garden Court apartments were the equal of those in Indian Village Manor and the Walbri on Covington in Palmer Park.
  
  
• 

[KnnNike]

Here's a copy of something I posted several years ago.

• Neilr
  
  

Lol, blast from the past. I ended up buying that unit, the one that James Harrington Walker originally owned, and we completed a major renovation restoration last year. Found copies of the original blueprints in the Albert Kahn archives, and used those to restore lighting, moldings, etc. that had been lost over the years.

Can't do much about the "chopped up" units, I'm afraid, but the building itself is getting restored to some of its former glory. In the past year, we've spent about $3 million replacing the passenger elevators, restoring the original service drive, and repairing all of the crumbling mortar and parapet wall bollards around the building.

At some point, I'd love to get my home on the local historic house tour list...

[royce]

Still vacant.

[stasu1213]

12 years ago I had viewed a one bedroom 2 bathrooms apartment at the Palms. I was told that it was really two studios combined made into a one bedroom two baths. The building has much charm. It originally housed 6 apartment homes. Each taking up half a floor. Something like one would see in those Noir 1930s movies

[royce]

Just today I saw a sign wrapped around the fencing that appears to indicate that renovation work is being done/will be done by whoever the name on the sign is.