Does anyone know what is happening at the Michigan Building/Theatre?

[Gistok]

Yesterday we had our sold out Preservation Detroit annual Historic Theatre Tours downtown, and one notable absence on the tour was the former Michigan Theatre.

We were told that the building was boarded up, due to city building code violations, thus forcing the last tenants to leave.

Drove by there after the tours, and the front of the building is covered in what appears to be first floor scaffolding covering the entire Bagley Ave. facade.

Does anyone know what is going on with this building? I Googled it, but no local news stories about what is going on.

[Richard]

They have not applied for or been approved for any tax credits historical or even tax capture,so that part takes out out of play for at least the next couple of years.

They may have boarded it up for liability reasons,not safe.

Its hard with Detroit because where I am at all the information concerning building safety and code enforcement is public record,including all of their emails,phone calls and texts and case history,so it makes research easy to get a window into what is going on.

Some cities are hell bent on providing prime examples of demolition by neglect while others not so much.

[Gistok]

I just sent an email to Kurt Pinho of Crain's Detroit Business, to ask about the Michigan closure.

Like DYES owner Lowell... I was a friend of the late Anthony Pieroni, who owned the building before he sold it to Dennis Keffalinos in 2015.

I remember back in 2005 when the Superbowl Building Facade Improvement funds became available, and Tony Pieroni's secretary [[of 20 years) had told me the story where she filled out all the paperwork to obtain some of those funds... but the city rejected the request, saying only that the paperwork was incorrectly filled out, without explanation., Tony, who was known as being "recreationally litigious" [[his words), told her not to bother sending them in again, because the city government was angry with him due to his blaming the Statler demolition crew for setting fire to his 5 story AAA Building on the Statler block [[he claimed that the welding sparks came down from the Statler demo, and set fire to the 5th floor roof of his building). Tony said that the Kwame Kilpatrick administration had denied his facade improvement request due to his lawsuit with the city, which is why the Michigan facade has not been cleaned in decades.

The reason I bring up the facade improvement anecdote is because it almost looks like the scaffolding is to keep people away from the building, as though pieces might fall off the building... but that is only a guess on my part.

[Gistok]

I had sent an Email to Kirk Pinho, the senior development editor at Crain's Detroit, asking about the Michigan Building... and this was his response...

"Thanks for reaching out. You’re actually the second person to do so on this building in the last couple days. I walked by it on Wednesday or Thursday and noticed the scaffolding as well, although to me it appeared that there was painting or some other minor kind of work going on. I had not noticed any blight or code violation tickets recorded online or posted on the property either.

I’ll check with the city tomorrow on this one. Thanks!"

[Richard]

Sometimes it is better to let sleeping dogs lay,if the city thinks people are bugged about it they may force the hand and then it gets demolished.

[Gistok]

^ The original focus of DetroitYES was the discussion about restoring the "Ruins of Detroit".

Anyway, I've been thru the Michigan Building and former theatre, and it is in far far better shape than the United Artists Building was next door. It is not going anywhere.

In fact the 13 story Michigan Building [1926] and the 20 story Leland Hotel [1927] next door were the only 2 buildings in downtown Detroit designed by famed Chicago theatre architects Rapp & Rapp [brothers Georg & C. W. Rapp], who preferred to build in the Italian Renaissance style. Their most famous high rise commission was the Paramount Building [1925] at 1501 Broadway in NYC Times Square.

Both the Michigan and Leland Buildings are the largest unrestored buildings downtown [if you exclude the Penobscot complex]. Both would make for excellent residential conversions, the Leland's oft delayed conversion has been halted due to the building owner [Michael Higgins] death recently.

[Richard]

^ pretty cool history,thanks for taking the time to create a long post to explain it.

Looks like the same base,I wonder if their intention was to add the extra floors and top on it at a later date?

That’s the difference back then,buildings were works of art.

[Zacha341]

I worked in this building for a company as a temp years back. It was great. The full glass door panels of some of the suites.

The few doors that still had gold writing for the numbers. Like being in a 1952 movie inside there.

[Gistok]

The situation with the Michigan Building/Theatre will be posted on Crain's today...

[Gistok]

The story about the Michigan Theatre Building, and why the city is going to court to have it closed... behind a paywall... paging Airforceguy....

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...chigan-theatre

[Zads07]

The story about the Michigan Theatre Building, and why the city is going to court to have it closed... behind a paywall... paging Airforceguy....

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...chigan-theatre

Here's a summary of what's going on

The city is seeking a court order to close the it due to unsafe conditions, including crumbling exterior walls and fire hazards. Despite multiple emergency orders to address the building's safety, Kefallinos has not fully complied.

The city is asking the court to require Kefallinos to repair the building at his own expense, hire an engineering firm, and bring the property up to code, but nothing has happened.

[gnome]

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...e/75087862007/

scroll down to the last paragraph, Conrad Mallet is talking about selective demolition.

obviously that’s a shot across the bow of any fan of history, architecture or just common sense; one made with the intention to raise the ire of preservationists and maybe made to increase public pressure on Dennis K, however, we know that Dennis K doesn’t care about anything, especially Detoiters.

[Gistok]

The irony is that they cannot take out the former theatre alone. Structural engineers nixed that idea back in 1977, when the initial plan to raze the theatre portion of the building was rejected as affecting the integrity of the 13 story office portion of the building.

That is unlike the United Artists Building next door, when the theatre was virtually standalone, only connected to the office building by the rotunda lobby, and therefore was razed.

[Gistok]

One other thing of interest about the Michigan Building has to do with Detroit theatre architect C. Howard Crane. When the Michigan Building opened up in 1926, one of the earlier tenants was Crane's Architectural Firm. This was ironic because this theatre was designed by Rapp & Rapp theatre architects of Chicago. So Crane likely checked out the circulation space for the extremely large [4050 seat] Michigan Theatre.

When Crane's architectural offices were in the Michigan Building for a short period of time, he designed his 3 enormous Fox flagship theatres [Detroit, St. Louis, Brooklyn], which were finished in 1928-29.

Here is a dozen year old Hall of Fame thread about Detroit Theatres...

https://www.detroityes.com/mb/showth...C-Howard-Crane

[MotownNoir]

Hi all, this is my first post!
I visited there last in 2018, there was a receptionist person who let us in for $5 and we got to take some cool photos. Obviously the venue is in major disrepair, but the safety concerns are real- including 10+ ft high ledges a visitor could mistakenly fall from. More recently I went back there in May of this year to check the walk-in status. When we tried to access the building interior but the doors we once used were locked. There was only an outdoor attendant who said they are "no longer offering viewings". I have however seen private events held there in the recent past, so maybe it's by appointment only? Good luck!

[Lowell]

^Welcome to the forum and great first post.

From an article in the Free Press yesterday, the main issue and concern is with pieces of the exterior facade of the Michigan Building falling onto the sidewalks. As for the Michigan Theater / parking lot interior, I'm sure they could write a book of violations on that, but at least it is not a threat to the public [unless they find way to sneak in].

[13606Cedargrove]

What a shame. This hits me personally because my uncle, Art Ruth, was the maintenance manager of that building from 20's or 30's until he passed away in 1962. RIP Uncle Art, please don't be sad looking down on all of this.

[Jimaz]

City of Detroit sues historic Michigan Theater building owner for blight violations

[Richard]

Might as well pay your last respects to it,even the public wants it to demolish it.

Like the guy said as long as the city has the resources [[infrastructure money from the Feds ) we will deal with it.

The pile of money,spend it or lose it,that the city has is for demolitions,it’s not for fixing anything,so they are going to knock out the major projects first.The high dollar demolitions.

[Zads07]

Might as well pay your last respects to it,even the public wants it to demolish it.

Like the guy said as long as the city has the resources [[infrastructure money from the Feds ) we will deal with it.

The pile of money,spend it or lose it,that the city has is for demolitions,it’s not for fixing anything,so they are going to knock out the major projects first.The high dollar demolitions.

No one in that news clip had stated "the public" wants to demolish it.

If you've followed Kefallinos throughout his time as an owner of buildings in the city, you'd know this is not unusual for him to neglect the buildings he owns.

He should be forced to pay to fix it and/or forced to sell. Just because he neglects his building doesn't seem someone else will - especially on a corridor where the neighboring building is actually being renovated into apartments. There's no excuse anymore to force demolition. Anything is possible.

Continue citing him for violations, give him a timeline to fix it or force a sale. Simple as that.

[Richard]

No one in that news clip had stated "the public" wants to demolish it.

If you've followed Kefallinos throughout his time as an owner of buildings in the city, you'd know this is not unusual for him to neglect the buildings he owns.

He should be forced to pay to fix it and/or forced to sell. Just because he neglects his building doesn't seem someone else will - especially on a corridor where the neighboring building is actually being renovated into apartments. There's no excuse anymore to force demolition. Anything is possible.

Continue citing him for violations, give him a timeline to fix it or force a sale. Simple as that.

It’s literally in the first 20 words of the video,I guess you have to listen to it.

Demolition by neglect does not only happen in Detroit and her speculators,as a city you can site or threaten anybody but you still have to have the resources to follow through.

As a city you cannot force somebody to sell their private property without due clause and even if they said - sell it all they have to do is list it for $7 billion and they would be in compliance because they are trying to sell it,it’s totally irrelevant that nobody in the world would pay that.

As a city you cannot let things slide for 50 years then just because you got a little federal cheese that will not last long start to play hard ball with property owners that you let slide for all of that time,

You just spent and still are with demolishing Packard - now what ?

That walkway that fell into the street,that was owned by the city,the unsecured crumbling open to the elements building it was attached to is owned by the city,as were many of the other buildings they are demolishing there.

Any attempts by the city in the past to secure them ? Or did the city also partake in demolition by neglect and hold themselves a less standard then they hold others?

The city owned the Fisher factory that after decades of neglect is being converted to housing,did they ever secure that ?

Its easy to take the high ground,but it’s expensive and that little pile of cheese is not going to last forever and it will be right back to sq1,the community does not win by playing hardball.

Poletown ?

If it was as simple as that,the city would not be having these issues.

One would think that because the taxpayer base is living in the neighborhoods,that would be the focus before they decide screw it and leave,because once they are gone nothing else really matters does it ?

[K-slice]

The fact that demolition is even mentioned is absurd. Just the city playing hard ball. minus the theater, this is a small building compared to it's neighbors and is still occupied to some degree from what I understand. It's narrow structure would make it a prime candidate for residential development.

[Gistok]

^ Correct... the 13 story Michigan Building is not as large as the Bagley facade seems to suggest. The "L" shaped office block is only 155,000 sq. ft., with the majority of the building being the voluminous 8 story former Michigan Theatre. These are actually 2 buildings, but are structurally connected.

Former Michigan Building owner Tony Pieroni took me on a tour of much of the former theatre, and the 2 basement levels are separate from the basement of the office block, and the lower basement of the theatre requires a sump pump to keep water out of it. However the two buildings are proverbially "joined at the hip" from floors 1-5, which is why the former theatre space was only gutted [for a parking structure] and not razed back in 1977.

The former owner also maintained the roof of both buildings, and told me that although some plaster did occasionally fall from the surviving ornate ceiling of the former auditorium, that the pieces were always small and light weight. Either this changed in recent years, requiring the closure of the top [3rd] floor of the parking structure, or the building insurance company requested it be closed, for parked car liability reasons.

Interestingly enough, although current building owner Dennis Keffalinos is known for his frugality, he did do some work on the former theatre space, such as install railings and addressed other safety issues, so that it could be used for some entertainment pursuits [visitor safety].

The office portion would make for excellent residential use. The former building owner even had an apartment installed for the building supervisor, who lived in a suite on the 2nd floor [corner of Bagley & Clifford] during the week, and went home to the suburbs on the weekend.

[preserve]

Dennis is busy right now, the old cold storage building on Bagley is getting some attention. Must have money from the old Southwest General Hospital soon to be a soccer stadium.
Hope there's enough left over to do something with the Michigan Theater and maybe even the Roosevelt Hotel???