More worrisome downtown buildings news

**EastsideAl** · October-28-09, 12:28 PM

There seems to be some confusion here between the Lafayette Building and Lafayette Towers.

The Lafayette Building is a former office building on the block between Michigan and Lafayette [[the "coney islands" block), fronting on Shelby. It is owned by the city and is currently being demolished by city contractors.

The Lafayette Towers are 2 adjacent residential rental apartment buildings in Lafayette Park on Orleans north of Lafayette that are owned by the Northern Group. The Lafayette Towers, and other nearby buildings, were designed by one of the pioneers of modern architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and are on the National Register of Historic Places.

**OurNeighbors** · October-28-09, 02:38 PM

Thanks Eastside, I have been confused about that.

Do you think Dembitzer is just a slum lord to begin with? or do you think his aspirations to "make detroit a worldwide architectural destination" were genuine but just failed utterly?

I don't see where in the timeline plans for the Cadillac Centre fell through.. Just a year ago Kwame and Dembitzer were painting a picture of real outside backing for a real inside infrastructure.. Sure it's their job to paint us something nice, but was there any true potential behind it?

Did Dembitzer get Detroit or did Detroit get Dembitzer?

Also, who owned these buildings before Dembitzer?

crawford · November-03-09, 11:35 AM

Honigman is 100% definitely out of First National but there will be no real net loss for downtown, as they will keep HQ downtown.

I do not know what buildings they are looking at, but there are three main Class A complexes, so I would guess 150 W. Jefferson, Comerica Tower or RenCen.

**d.mcc** · November-03-09, 12:01 PM

Again, other Midwest Cities are doing everything they can to energize their economic bases, and attract new sectors and market growth opportunities into the inner city. Detroit sits on the sideline playing the "everything is so tough here" card.

Hey, maybe the newest Time article will make more people around the country feel sorry for us.

Hey! Help is NOT coming. Might be time to do something to help ourselves...

**EastsideAl** · November-03-09, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by d.mcc

Again, other Midwest Cities are doing everything they can to energize their economic bases, and attract new sectors and market growth opportunities into the inner city. Detroit sits on the sideline playing the "everything is so tough here" card.

Indeed, between that and the "auto companies must be coming back" card, the "Coleman Young and black people ruined my city" card, and the "everything will be OK as soon as we tear all that old shit down" card, there seems to be almost no concentration on our most fundamental problem: a glaring lack of economic diversity and economic development.

DetroitDad · November-03-09, 08:29 PM

I don't know, it seems like there are a number of people attempting to do things here, they either get hit with the reality of city corruption, or get turned down because they are "outsiders".

Transit, new business, better schools, etc., they are all just ingredients with no political pot to put them in. Corruption is what is holding Detroit back. Our oven [[will) has grown strong, but our political pot is full of cracks.

Our problem is corruption.

**MotownSpartan** · November-03-09, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

Indeed, between that and the "auto companies must be coming back" card, the "Coleman Young and black people ruined my city" card, and the "everything will be OK as soon as we tear all that old shit down" card, there seems to be almost no concentration on our most fundamental problem: a glaring lack of economic diversity and economic development.

You could probably add "'outsiders' are keeping us down" to that list.