History to Parking Lots - Demolition begins on United Artists Theater

[Lowell]

As being reported by Crains.

UPDATE: Picture from Sept. 30 revealing some of the interior.


Click ^Image for larger view.

Demolition has started on the historic United Artists Theatre building downtown.

The Bagley Development Group working on converting the attached United Artists Building office tower into 148 apartments at 150 Bagley St. is razing the C. Howard Crane-designed theater attached to it that opened in 1928. The resulting space will provide parking to residential tenants.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/detroits-united-artists-theatre-demolished-parking-lot

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's great light-painted photo of the theater.

[kuuma]

The resulting space will provide parking to residential tenants.

if they leave it as surface parking and don't make a plan to build something else, the city needs to go full authoritarian communist and seize the property for public development

if they're gonna own half of downtown and just camp on it with the lowest-effort use possible, they don't deserve to keep it

[Ray1936]

Left Detroit in 1984 when I retired from the DPD. Was back once about 1990 for a wedding, but not since. I doubt if I'd recognize the place from what I've seen on Google Street View. Eh?

[Atticus]

Left Detroit in 1984 when I retired from the DPD. Was back once about 1990 for a wedding, but not since. I doubt if I'd recognize the place from what I've seen on Google Street View. Eh?

Olympia is selling some of their coveted surface parking to Ross for the UofM center. This project we’ll help offset that loss of luxurious downtown surface lots.

[Burnsie]

No need to be sad about the UA demolition. The new parking lot, in the best Ilitch tradition, will doubtless be LIGHTED and LANDSCAPED!

[Burnsie]

Left Detroit in 1984 when I retired from the DPD. Was back once about 1990 for a wedding, but not since

Good for you. The rest of us have still found this city compelling enough to live in or visit whenever we can.

[Former_Detroiter]

I saw Ben-Hur in 1959 in 3-D at the UA.

[Danny]

Horrible! just like the Oriental Theatre Building just across the street. Tear the theatre part down and leave the office building.

[Richard]

Good for you. The rest of us have still found this city compelling enough to live in or visit whenever we can.

The long term goal would be to encourage others to do the same thing,you can see cookie cutter buildings and parking lots anywhere in the country.

It’s when a city gives up its character is when people lose interest,sometimes it is the little simple things like fixing a water fountain that makes a difference.

If you do not mind,what is it about the city that makes it compelling for you to live there or visit it?

What is the tipping point that would compel you to leave or not visit?

What makes Detroit - Detroit ?

Every time you remove a piece of the history that defined Detroits past you are changing it for the future while erasing the past,what is the future of Detroit because as it’s identity is being erased it is being replaced as a suburb wannabe.

Not to sound disrespectful but in a city of innovation the parking lots have the same appeal as half of the new buildings they are throwing up.

Detroit became an international city,because it thought like an international city and set a higher bar in order to accomplish that.

Ray was compelled to move because that is what people do when they retire,to get away from the hustle and bustle,you cannot stop that but you can spend the same amount of time working on what compels others to move there which helps achieve the ultimate goal.

Its not the motor city no more,it’s not the music city anymore the only identity that is left is your roots as an international city that once was,and instead of capitalizing and building on that they keep destroying them and in the process losing your identity.

Little by little,give up belle isle,systematically destroying everything that made Detroit what it was,so okay out with the old and in with the new but along with the new you have to create a new identity that sets you apart from every other city in the country so it does not become a city where people simply exist.

Any thoughts on what this new identity is going to be ? Because actions taken today will impact that very thing for the rest of the city’s history,there is no going back,once they are gone,they are gone.

So what is the plan for Detroits future identity? It has to be one that compels people to move there.

Cities already learned that hard lesson back in the slash and burn urban renewal mistakes days when they tried to compete with the suburbs,but you are not a suburb and suburbs are just that,places with no identity’s,cities are not supposed to be like that.

[Vitalis]

[QUOTE=Former_Detroiter;628668]I saw Ben-Hur in 1959 in 3-D at the UA.[/QUOTE

Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember. - Joan Didion

My forum friend, at such a truly sad moment for the memory of Detroit movie palaces, I cannot let your remarks go without a correction - Ben-Hur was never released in 3-D. The Detroit premiere was February 16, 1960. The premiere was a benefit for Boys Town of Italy. ​Lest we forget.

[Vitalis]

Lest we forget...




Lest we forget...



Lest we forget...




Lest we forget...

The last roadshow feature at the UA - November 1969. It did not perform well at the box office.



Finally, and then you will all be done with me, unless duty calls -



Even the font for the theaters name was distinctive.

[royce]

It's sad when a piece of Detroit's history is torn down [[minus the Packard Plant demo). However, the United Artist's theater could not have been saved. The damage to it was too extensive. However, instead of a surface parking lot to replace it, the developers should have proposed a parking deck with ground floor retail along the northeast and southeast [[Tuller Hotel) corners of the entire lot. That's the true short-sightedness of this project. My two cents.

[casscorridor]

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I could have sworn the city had an ordinance against new surface parking in Downtown?

[sirrealone]

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I could have sworn the city had an ordinance against new surface parking in Downtown?

Like those rules would apply to the Illitches.

Funny stuff.

[kuuma]

It's sad when a piece of Detroit's history is torn down [[minus the Packard Plant demo). However, the United Artist's theater could not have been saved. The damage to it was too extensive. However, instead of a surface parking lot to replace it, the developers should have proposed a parking deck with ground floor retail along the northeast and southeast [[Tuller Hotel) corners of the entire lot. That's the true short-sightedness of this project. My two cents.

perhaps the theatre was too far gone today, but was it when it came under illitch ownership? my understanding is they squatted on it and let it die a slow painful death by dereliction.

i suppose it's not too late to build something else there but i'm just continually dismayed that the city doesn't bat an eyelash at these development decisions that are just atrocious for the city

[stasu1213]

Follow the money. Demolition contractors get contracts, parking lot owners get customers. Another elected official palm is probably greased

[expatriate]

The suburbanization of downtown continues and becomes less and less of a "city" in any traditional sense with every new parking lot.

[K-slice]

The city needs to tax surface parking out of existence. Make it so expensive to operate a surface lot in the 7.2 that owners will see more value in developing, or selling to someone who will. That's really our only recourse to fix this.

[Former_Detroiter]

[QUOTE=Vitalis;628673][QUOTE=Former_Detroiter;628668]I saw Ben-Hur in 1959 in 3-D at the UA.[/QUOTE

Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember. - Joan Didion

My forum friend, at such a truly sad moment for the memory of Detroit movie palaces, I cannot let your remarks go without a correction - Ben-Hur was never released in 3-D. The Detroit premiere was February 16, 1960. The premiere was a benefit for Boys Town of Italy. ​Lest we forget

I didn't say the movie was released in 3-D. I wore 3-D glasses.

[kuuma]

The city needs to tax surface parking out of existence. Make it so expensive to operate a surface lot in the 7.2 that owners will see more value in developing, or selling to someone who will. That's really our only recourse to fix this.

yes! this is the play. is this something to take up with our city council reps?

FYI this is where we're at with surface parking/undeveloped land [[purple). it's absolutely unhinged

[Lowell]

A peek inside from today...


Click^ image for larger view.

Also added to the OP above.

[Zacha341]

Loved those posters and the details about the font used for the UA logo. Thanks.

Lest we forget...

[royce]

Is it possible for a parking lot owner and a developer to come up with a workable solution where you can have parking and the development on the same site? For example, can the developer pay the parking lot owner the equivalent of parking sales he/she would make while the developer builds apartments/condos over the parking lot? Or, can the developer build a parking deck with apartments/condos above and give the parking lot owner ownership of parking spots equivalent to the spots that were originally on the parking lot?

I've always wondered why the Illitches and the parking lot owners that held out from selling their parking lots to the Illitches, so that Little Caesar's Arena could be built behind the Fox, couldn't just swap parking lots that were equal in size.

[Danny]

I even see the demolition of the UA Theatre part while the crew rehabbed the UA building while in my sleep.

[canuck]

@royce and kuuma/

The City of Montreal raised taxes on surface parking lots to spur development on those properties, and it worked in a number of instances.
Icone is a condo tower that was built by the owner of the parking lot it sits on about 5 years ago. A second tower is planned but not yet built. The parking lot is gone and a podium is there to slap the other tower onto it.

Detroit’s solution to revitalizing by eliminating surface lots is probably better served by incentives than outright punishment, though. The city administration can’t undo something that was deemed normal for many years. I’m still amazed at how much parking there is in Detroit, level and multi-level. The fact transit from suburban commuters is very low has a lot to do with it. The status quo seems to exist on those terms; demand for parking spots is high.