One of Detroit’s most powerful families is displacing east side residents

[Body By Margo]

8 minute read
One of Detroit’s most powerful families is displacing east side residents article source: 9/2022
[[Bridge Detroit/Planet Detroit)

https://planetdetroit.org/2022/09/on...ide-residents/

[401don]

Too bad residents didn't get together and get a lawyer in the early going. They probably could have negotiated much better deals.

[Honky Tonk]

Too bad residents didn't get together and get a lawyer in the early going. They probably could have negotiated much better deals.

Don't know. Can't seem to get past the firewall that wants my personal information to sign up for their newsletter. Crown Enterprises is the name on the trucking warehouse on Jefferson just West of Connor. Lower income residents usually don't have the means or the know how to fight a corporation.

[night-timer]

Don't know. Can't seem to get past the firewall that wants my personal information to sign up for their newsletter. Crown Enterprises is the name on the trucking warehouse on Jefferson just West of Connor. Lower income residents usually don't have the means or the know how to fight a corporation.

Here's a copy-and-paste for you...

Co-published with BridgeDetroit.

In May, a representative for Crown Enterprises, a real estate firm owned by the Moroun family, knocked on Savannah Lewis’ door and offered her $90,000 to move out of the home she has lived in for six decades.

The 92-year-old said she was given three days’ notice to decide and 30 days to move out.

Since then, neighbors said, the company has continued its door-to-door visits in the Cadillac Heights neighborhood to present similar buyouts to Lewis’ neighbors. On either side of Lewis and across the street, neighbors said they have taken deals with the company. Soon, Lewis will be the last one left.

Lewis said she’s built a beautiful home and community for herself and was expecting to live there until she died. But she now argues she is being pushed out by the billionaire owners of the Ambassador Bridge, whose empire is buying up large swaths of land in Cadillac Heights and pressuring residents to move.

Crown Enterprises said that it has made “unsolicited offers” to residents with “proposed timelines” in an attempt to buy parcels to prevent trespassing and reduce blight. But beyond the construction of a concrete facility, there aren’t immediate plans for the other plots.

Lewis recounted to BridgeDetroit how she had told the Crown Enterprise representative ‘no,’ to the offer and said that he became short, telling her he didn’t care if she didn’t want to move, and they would just build around her. She said he told her that they were doing her a favor, offering an above-market rate price for her home.

“The nerve of him,” added Lewis’ daughter, Victoria Lewis Davis. “You can’t just go to this neighborhood and do this,” she said. “She doesn’t want to move. It’s just really unfair.”

At Lewis’ age, she and her daughter said they don’t feel it’s safe for her to stay in the neighborhood any longer with neighbors being bought out by the Morouns. Lewis plans to move out in the spring to live with her daughter on the west side.

“I’ve been here a long time. All my life is in here,” Lewis said. “I’m too old to be moving.”

The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center said the issue was brought to the firm’s attention and its lawyers plan to build a case against the Moroun family for dismantling the Cadillac Heights neighborhood.

Andrew Bashi, a staff attorney for the law center, said he received a call in August 2021 from a resident concerned about the new concrete facility being built and the impact it would have on air quality in the neighborhood.

Bashi said he went out to investigate and realized the “whole area is under assault” by Crown Enterprises, which, he argues, has actively intimidated residents to get them to leave.

Bashi discovered the concrete facility was on property owned by the Morouns, a family at the center of long standing controversy including purchasing numerous properties in southwest Detroit and then allowing them to fall into disrepair, the Ambassador Bridge war, and other backdoor attempts to buy land up in Detroit.

Analysis of parcel ownership between Conant, Jerome & McNichols. Courtesy Great Lakes Environmental Law Center.

Bashi said much of the surrounding land near the facility is now owned by the Crown Enterprises.

To date, the Morouns own 135 of 162 parcels stretching from the east side of Mitchell to the west side of Moran, according to the law center’s analysis.

“The community has been blindsided,” Bashi said. ”The Moroun family/Crown Enterprises are going door to door with offers telling people ‘you have three days to accept, and if you don’t we’re going to just build around you.’”

Esther Jentzen, a representative for Crown, confirmed in a Tuesday email that the company is making efforts to acquire land, but said it’s up to homeowners whether they want to take the deals.

“We have made unsolicited offers to residents of occupied houses. When making these offers, it is customary in real estate to include parameters around the agreement, including proposed timelines,” she wrote.

“However, residents do not have to agree or respond to our offers and several have renegotiated the terms to adjust the move-out time, value, etc. Crown does not have an interest in forcing residents to sell who are not interested.”

John Roach, a spokesman for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, said the administration has “not received any harassment complaints,” but said anyone who feels that they may have been, should reach out to Ray Solomon with the mayor’s Department of Neighborhoods.

Jentzen noted that Crown has owned property in Cadillac Heights since the 1960s.

“Crown owns the vast majority of the “6 Mile Triangle” site, bounded by Moran, Jerome, Joseph Campau, E. McNichols, and has been taking steps to acquire the remaining parcels as they become available,” she said.

“The goal is to secure these properties against trespassing and dumping. We are in the process of demolishing all blighted structures within the site and plan to continue to clean up the property, making the neighborhood safer and more secure.”

There are no immediate plans, Jentzen said, for development on the properties besides the concrete plant, which she said was built to provide materials for local infrastructure projects.

But some residents argue that the Morouns – known for acquiring large swaths of land in the city and being fined for code and blight violations – have been contributing to blight in Cadillac Heights. Lewis said she recently learned that several of the overgrown plots she had been mowing for years belonged to the Morouns.

“My mother should be compensated in some kind of way [[for taking care of that land) if she’s got to uproot,” Lewis Davis said.
Historically, the Morouns have bought or secured many pieces of land and have let some of them fall into disrepair.

In one case, the company fenced off community-stewarded land it received as part of the FCA/Stellantis land swap with barbed wire in southwest Detroit.

Crown Enterprise – owned parcels showing in red. The company owns 427 land parcels across the city, concentrated on the east side and in southwest Detroit according to parcel data accessed via the City of Detroit Open Data Portal 9/21/2022. Hover over parcels to see more information on each parcel.

In 2018, the company struck a $90 million deal with Ford Motor Co. for the sale of the Michigan Central Depot after the deteriorating building sat vacant for decades. The family sold the City of Detroit acres of land in recent years for the east side expansion of a Chrysler plant, and the Morouns acquired acres of prime riverfront land in exchange for the rejuvenation of Riverside Park in a controversial land swap with Detroit.

The Morouns have waged a lengthy battle over the construction of a twin span of the Ambassador Bridge and have pushed back on the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

“There are definitely some concerning practices with the level of pressure they’re putting on residents – this brings up a lot of questions about the political influence of speculators like the Morouns,” Bashi said.

A quarter of the Crown Enterprises properties in Cadillac Heights were obtained through a controversial land swap with the city. In 2019, Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis, made plans to expand its east side automotive plant. To do so, the automaker needed 215 acres. The city then facilitated a series of land swaps, with the Morouns receiving $43.5 million and 261 parcels, including some in Cadillac Heights.

In 2019, Councilmember Scott Benson, who represents District 3, which covers Cadillac Heights, voted in favor of the FCA land swap. Lewis told BridgeDetroit that when she went to Benson for help, she was only able to reach a representative from his office.

“It didn’t do any good,” Lewis Davis said.

Benson told BridgeDetroit on Wednesday that his office wasn’t aware of Lewis’ contact attempts, and has not received any complaints from residents.

“If people are intimidating people to try to sell property that’s problematic,” said Benson, adding his office has been closely following Crown’s work “to make sure that our residents are protected.”

Benson said one challenge for the neighborhood is that decades ago it was zoned as heavily industrial, yet it’s located right next to a residential area. The councilman said that his office would be looking into any reports of intimidation.

On one of the Moroun-owned plots, the concrete facility, a Moroun subsidiary Hercules Materials Holdings LLC, is painted down the side in red letters reading “Kronos.” The plant is the company’s fifth and began operating earlier this month.

The cement industry is the third-largest industrial polluter in the country, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, emitting large quantities of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon monoxide.

Cement plants are a “significant source” of harmful-to-human-health pollutants associated with damage to lungs, respiratory issues, cardiovascular disease, and visual impairment. Emissions from concrete facilities can travel up to two miles meaning it could reach the nearby neighborhoods of Conant Gardens, Davison, and Greenfield Park.

The concrete facility didn’t require a permit to be built, Bashi said, because the area is already zoned for industrial use.

The law center, he added, is building a case against the company, but he declined to give specific details. It also is working with a real estate company to offer services to affected residents in the community, free of charge.

“They basically haven’t had any voice in the future,” he said.

‘Everything is gone’

Lewis’ neighbor, Eric Sanders, has lived in the neighborhood since 1997 and said he also has contributed to the community, cutting empty lots, including ones owned by the Morouns.

But when the company approached him about buying his properties, one directly next to Lewis, and one across from her, for a total of $175,000, he said, he took the deal.

“You do have mixed emotions,” he said. “Where’s our City Council? They sure enough broke our necks to get our votes. They did all this publicity and stuff.”

The neighborhood is close, with everyone looking out for each other, Sanders said, and it’s a community he cares about deeply. But with the price Crown offered and his own personal situation, he felt the deal was for the best.

Sanders said he didn’t feel pressured or intimidated into moving and was able to negotiate more time to move out. He expects to leave sometime in October.

Bashi said for Black communities in Detroit, the pathway to building wealth is hard to come by.

“People buy homes, being told that this is part of the American dream. It’s the pathway to building wealth, it’s a pathway out of poverty. And that’s true for a lot of people. It’s not true for Black communities in Detroit,” he said. “You don’t know whether they’re gonna decide to change zoning on you, they’re gonna make some ridiculous deal to swap over all the land around you to someone as unscrupulous as the Morouns and if they do that, you basically own a property that may not be worth anything.”

When Lewis moved into her home in 1962 it was a modest single-story. In the years since, she’s turned it into a 2-story, complete with a garage, paved backyard, and an enclosed front porch. Over the decades, she said, she has spent countless hours beautifying the neighborhood by maintaining the lawns of blighted properties and picking up trash, heading the neighborhood block club association, and even painting the curb.

“My mother has cut these lots for years, taking her pension money and trying to keep it clean around here,” Lewis Davis said, “when all along the Moroun family owned all this territory, and they wouldn’t even do anything about it.”

Awards for her service to the community decorate the walls of her living room, including a1993 honor from the office of the city’s first African American mayor, Coleman A. Young; a 1996 award from the
Michael Lee Searcy Community and Development Center; and another from former Detroit mayor Dennis W. Archer.

Lewis said she had moved near Palmer Park in the 1960s after several instances where she was in a house, fixed it up, and was forced to move for one reason or another. After the fifth time, she said she figured moving out as far as Palmer Park would spare her from relocating again.

“I can’t leave her here,” Lewis Davis said of her mother. “There’s nothing behind you, nothing in front of you. Everything is gone, and she’s hurt.”

[canuck]

Classic Morounic.

[Henry Whalley]

Is Crown positioning itself to be the hegemon of infrastructure concrete?

[K-slice]

Merits of Crown's intentions with the property aside, this story is very disingenuous using the word "displacing". Sounds to me like the majority of people in the area willingly took the buyout and moved elsewhere. No eminent domain being used, and the lots Crown owns are just fields, no neglected or decrepit housing left to encourage residents to leave.

You have the right to keep your property, and others have the right to purchase property and do what they like with it within the law.

[Gistok]

^The 800 lb. gorilla in the room is "rezoning".

[Richard]

^The 800 lb. gorilla in the room is "rezoning".

Benson said one challenge for the neighborhood is that decades ago it was zoned as heavily industrial, yet it’s located right next to a residential area.

When was it zoned heavy industrial?

Was not a large part of Detroit built with heavy industrial right next to residential neighborhoods?

I do not think it matters who is purchasing the land but they throw in the history of the purchaser.

Poletown was bought out in a not so nice way,the residential for the new bridge was mass bought out ,the city is taking Packard so it is not like it does not happen.

Interesting that they are also in the concrete business,explains the coke piles.

At least it is owned by Americans,CEMEX bought out a majority of the concrete plants,which is owned by the Mexican government.

When they built the Amalie arena in downtown Orlando,the last holdout was a 80 yo African American woman that owned a derelict flop house that had been vacant for 30 years,when they wanted to buy her out the cry became they were trying to take her property because she was an elderly black woman,they offered her $500,000 for the property that was only worth $40,000,in order to stop the city from being racist and trying to steal her property,she walked away with 5 million because she had the public support of the people against trying to throw a little old lady off of her property that she had never even lived in,it was the people,taxpayers,that had to pay the 5 million.

Lots of examples of holdout vendettas across the country where the new was built around the last holdout,she’s 90 if that is what it is really about and the house is not in a critical spot,pay her off and allow her to live there until she passes,I have acquired properties like that before.

Being surrounded by a concrete plant it will keep her busy dusting all of the time.

[canuck]

Benson said one challenge for the neighborhood is that decades ago it was zoned as heavily industrial, yet it’s located right next to a residential area.

When was it zoned heavy industrial?

Was not a large part of Detroit built with heavy industrial right next to residential neighborhoods?

I do not think it matters who is purchasing the land but they throw in the history of the purchaser.

Poletown was bought out in a not so nice way,the residential for the new bridge was mass bought out ,the city is taking Packard so it is not like it does not happen.

Interesting that they are also in the concrete business,explains the coke piles.

At least it is owned by Americans,CEMEX bought out a majority of the concrete plants,which is owned by the Mexican government.

When they built the Amalie arena in downtown Orlando,the last holdout was a 80 yo African American woman that owned a derelict flop house that had been vacant for 30 years,when they wanted to buy her out the cry became they were trying to take her property because she was an elderly black woman,they offered her $500,000 for the property that was only worth $40,000,in order to stop the city from being racist and trying to steal her property,she walked away with 5 million because she had the public support of the people against trying to throw a little old lady off of her property that she had never even lived in,it was the people,taxpayers,that had to pay the 5 million.

Lots of examples of holdout vendettas across the country where the new was built around the last holdout,she’s 90 if that is what it is really about and the house is not in a critical spot,pay her off and allow her to live there until she passes,I have acquired properties like that before.

Being surrounded by a concrete plant it will keep her busy dusting all of the time.

Hey Richard, Marlboroughs, or Camel lights? How’s the old ticker?

[Richard]

Hey Richard, Marlboroughs, or Camel lights? How’s the old ticker?

Well,I have resigned to the fact that I am not buying some fancy sports car and hooking up with a 22 yo blond,because I definitely would not be able to keep up with her.

Camel lights,dropped Marlborough’s when I was like 16 or 17,the pills to stop smoking are more expensive then it is to smoke until you factor in hospital costs.

Jan 2020 1st stent $68,000
Jan 2022 2nd stent $89,000
July 2022 3rd stent $105,000

One would think that they would give a frequent visitor discount after awhile,but it is and has been my only health issue for 62 years,build up of bad colesterol and it’s not like I have led a healthy lifestyle,never heavy drinker though.

Do not know about all of this health stuff,there are so many things that we injest and then find out years later that it was bad for you.

Its like this with concrete,I know or have known many in the concrete business they died from concrete poisoning,spending a lifetime of breathing in the dust and getting it absorbed through their skin and making them blind.

I just find it kinda weird where health issues effect everybody different,i tried to get them to narrow down to what extent the smoking actually had on the heart but they could not say,I can definitely feel it in my lungs but I have dropped down to working 1/2 days and no weekends and just picking and choosing.

It’s the heat though,I may have to seriously look at moving to a more cooler climate,summer months cannot barely do anything with the heat and humidity,it will drain you quick.

Maybe start a reverse snowbird trend ?

Meh

You guys look like you got cooler weather coming in soon and I hope Mother Nature takes it easy on you guys during the winter and everybody stays safe and healthy.

[Meddle]

The Maroons need to be dealt with. Harshly.

[canuck]

Well,I have resigned to the fact that I am not buying some fancy sports car and hooking up with a 22 yo blond,because I definitely would not be able to keep up with her.

Camel lights,dropped Marlborough’s when I was like 16 or 17,the pills to stop smoking are more expensive then it is to smoke until you factor in hospital costs.

Jan 2020 1st stent $68,000
Jan 2022 2nd stent $89,000
July 2022 3rd stent $105,000

One would think that they would give a frequent visitor discount after awhile,but it is and has been my only health issue for 62 years,build up of bad colesterol and it’s not like I have led a healthy lifestyle,never heavy drinker though.

Do not know about all of this health stuff,there are so many things that we injest and then find out years later that it was bad for you.

Its like this with concrete,I know or have known many in the concrete business they died from concrete poisoning,spending a lifetime of breathing in the dust and getting it absorbed through their skin and making them blind.

I just find it kinda weird where health issues effect everybody different,i tried to get them to narrow down to what extent the smoking actually had on the heart but they could not say,I can definitely feel it in my lungs but I have dropped down to working 1/2 days and no weekends and just picking and choosing.

It’s the heat though,I may have to seriously look at moving to a more cooler climate,summer months cannot barely do anything with the heat and humidity,it will drain you quick.

Maybe start a reverse snowbird trend ?

Meh

You guys look like you got cooler weather coming in soon and I hope Mother Nature takes it easy on you guys during the winter and everybody stays safe and healthy.

Yes, snow is coming our way wednesday, and the system is on its way from Texas!?!? Lol.

Your reference to a young ‘un, and fast car struck me as very à propos. Just saw this bit of news about a local girl doing all that and more I’m sure. Somebody sure gave a lot of medicine to afford that girl her low-slung ambulance. I checked out her instagram page, and her drawings page is kind of cheerful, in a depressing kinda way. Oh well…




https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/lamborghini-seized-following-numerous-noise-complaints-from-residents-mirabel-police-1.6116281

[Danny]

The Marouns are notorious is buying up land for what? So, they can build super industrial countries in the middle of our hoods. Even threatening them that " it's going to be noisy" when those machines clanking from your old torn up home. So, you all better leave!

Ridiculous.

[Richard]

The Maroons need to be dealt with. Harshly.

So when the city was buying up the land for the new bridge,the residents had 2 choices accept the offer or the city would take the property.

At the conference the mayor told manufacturers,If you want to set up a factory in the city of Detroit,I will make sure the land you need is available one way or another.

What do you think that ment?

How is the factory doing in Poletown,with the land that was cleared for that factory?

You cannot set the bed out and get mad because somebody sleeps in it,change the rules,that’s on the citizens,getting mad at the individuals,no matter who they are is counter productive,you are not mad at them,you are mad at yourself and deflecting the blame on them.

The only question here sense they posted that it was zoned heavy industrial decades ago,how many of the current residents purchased there while knowing full well what the zoning was and would be allowed at any given moment?

That’s like a few years back when somebody was complaining about after they bought an industrial loft as a residential unit the noise of all the industrial going’s on.

Or the people that buy houses in subdivisions that are located next to a train track then complain because the trains are noisy.

Every city has a future zoning plan that is free to view by the public,speculators use it all of the time but if you are going to invest in a piece of property if you look at the future plans it will tell you what is going to happen.

When the guy first bought Packard it was touted that it was going to be residential units,stores and all sorts of other things.

That property is zoned heavy industrial,the whole area is which tells you from square one,nothing was never going to happen unless it was industrial use.Which does not allow for residential.

[Richard]

Yes, snow is coming our way wednesday, and the system is on its way from Texas!?!? Lol.

Your reference to a young ‘un, and fast car struck me as very à propos. Just saw this bit of news about a local girl doing all that and more I’m sure. Somebody sure gave a lot of medicine to afford that girl her low-slung ambulance. I checked out her instagram page, and her drawings page is kind of cheerful, in a depressing kinda way. Oh well…




https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/lamborghini-seized-following-numerous-noise-complaints-from-residents-mirabel-police-1.6116281

Some cultures it is okay to have a wife and a mistress,I used to date a Chinese woman,her father had a mistress,when he was mad at his wife he would grab the mistress,hop on a private jet and fly to Las Vegas and blow 1 million in cash at the tables in a matter of hours then fly back home just to piss his wife off.

She did not get mad because he had a mistress,she got mad because he blew the million which kinda made the $10,000 flight irrelevant.

My friend in the UK was bored so he signed up on sugardaddys dot com,and would fly all over the world dating women who were looking to only be in the mistress role.

Most would be surprised how common it really is.

Like I posted before,when the monied is at a large social gathering and the wannabe mistresss are hanging about hoping for success,they have zero issues if somebody grabs them by the P***y because that is their objective,to be eye candy and a toy for the rich,they are not looking to land a rich husband.

[Henry Whalley]

^The 800 lb. gorilla in the room is "rezoning".

The Six Mile Triangle is best avoided regardless of its zoning. That being said, it's impossible to not dislike the Maroun crowd.

[Dumpling]

Okay, some were wondering where was City Council? For those of you who believe that a business friendly City Council candidate with the many, many glossy campaign mailers and more ads is preferable to the commie soshy unknown candidate with few mailers, this is why the business friendly candidate is often NOT the better one in Detroit. Business friendly means business friendly with the Moroun organization. Or towing firms. Or scrap yards that don't require ID. Check the businesses supporting the candidate, make sure the businesses are all resident friendly, before supporting that candidate.

There's actually more to this story involving disparities in policing as well but that's another dozen threads.

[JBMcB]

So when the city was buying up the land for the new bridge,the residents had 2 choices accept the offer or the city would take the property.

At the conference the mayor told manufacturers,If you want to set up a factory in the city of Detroit,I will make sure the land you need is available one way or another.

The mayor can say whatever he wants. In Michigan, you can't use eminent domain to take private land for private use.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/[[S[[g...cl-Article-X-2

[Richard]

The mayor can say whatever he wants. In Michigan, you can't use eminent domain to take private land for private use.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/[[S[[gsgtexabyzfvgmzvcvg1qpjy))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=mcl-Article-X-2

Yes but they have other methods

In 2014 the administration in charge at the federal level came up with a new Neighborhood initiative,the goal was to have diverse neighborhoods so you had to have equal races in each neighborhood.

If you as a city did not work in doing that the feds would not send anymore HUD money.

So if a neighborhood was a majority white the city was supposed to encourage the percentage to move.

HUD provided a whole list of ways or suggestions as to how the city could encourage the residents to relocate.

One of the ways listed was to have code enforcement and other city officials center in on a particular property in order to encourage the resident to leave.

In that quest to make every neighborhood racially diverse the ones that got hit the worst was low income African Americans who could not afford to fight it and many lost their long time homes.

It was not publicized much but if I remember correctly it was number 12 on the list of things that an immediate halt was put on the first day in office in 2017 when the administration changed.

To little to late for many.

[Richard]

Okay, some were wondering where was City Council? For those of you who believe that a business friendly City Council candidate with the many, many glossy campaign mailers and more ads is preferable to the commie soshy unknown candidate with few mailers, this is why the business friendly candidate is often NOT the better one in Detroit. Business friendly means business friendly with the Moroun organization. Or towing firms. Or scrap yards that don't require ID. Check the businesses supporting the candidate, make sure the businesses are all resident friendly, before supporting that candidate.

There's actually more to this story involving disparities in policing as well but that's another dozen threads.

Yes and no on business friendly politicians,yes they need to be business friendly and in tune with what it takes to encourage establish businesses within the city,no they do not need to sell the farm in the process,that would be on the citizens to keep them on a leash.

You cannot just elect city officials then go back to sleep and let them have the run of the city willy nilly,it’s your city,you live there,they are not your boss,you have to be a squeaky wheel.

Its not just Detroit,it’s everywhere,politicians look out for their own best interests as a rule,you hear from them at election time then crickets.

Politicians have a habit of acting like they are celebrities and that intimidates people,but they work for you,you are their boss and sometimes they need to be reminded of that.

They all have phone numbers and emails.

Remember this country is a constitutional republic,those politicians are not your leaders they are there to collect the voices of the citizens and use that knowledge in order to implement policy.

We are not a democracy,we are not a dictatorship,we are not a country run by rulers,as much as they like to think they are,they are elected to be your voice with a level of trust that they will do the right thing,but if you do not tell them what you want done,they are going to continue to do whatever they want,that is why we have so many problems in this country.

I can read contributions in this forum which is based on a small percentage of residents and get a feel of what they want for their city and where they want it to be,then I can watch the city council meetings and see the disconnect,that’s not how it is supposed to be.