Lower Cass Corridor retail, restaurant scene poised to blossom

[DetroitArmy]

Can anyone provide some history/context to this story ie regarding this area and/or the specific buildings mentioned?

"Cass Avenue south of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard is slowly gaining momentum as a commercial corridor ... and current businesses in the district -- including Canine to Five, Mantra, Showcase Collectibles and the Burton Theatre at the Burton School -- may very well be getting some neighbors if developer Joel Landy has anything to do with it. He has purchased the buildings that housed the Charlotte Lounge, Chung's, the Gold Dollar and the Chinese On-Leong Assoc. and has plans to renovate them into viable structures and then lease them.

Landy, whose other projects in the area include the Addison Building and the Burton, is currently meeting with funders and potential tenants, including restaurateurs, for the buildings. "There is a tremendous interest in retail, and I'm willing to work with new business owners," he says, adding wryly, "I'm like a business incubator not funded by any government agency."

Momentum from the strip's existing businesses is key to Landy's vision. "All of them are great businesses," he says. "It's a great little start of a retail district.""

http://www.modeldmedia.com/devnews/cass011910.aspx

[dookie joe]

I'm not sure what you're asking, but I'll try to help. This area was at one time Detroit's Chinatown. Chung's was there, as were other restaurants such as Forbidden City and the Shanghai. That section was established in the early 1960s, after the city destroyed the old Chinatown on Michigan Ave., near the old Skid Row, which also was demolished at that time.

Most of the other businesses mentioned in this release are north of Peterboro, across Cass from Burton School. Birdtown Pet Store was there for many years. There used to be a Chinese Dry Goods store called Bow Wa or Wah Lee [[can't remember which was the dry goods and which was the restaurant).

On the east side of Cass south of Peterboro there used to be an Indian restaurant called Maharishi, which had a cheesy hand-painted sign.

The Charlotte Lounge, on the north side of Peterboro just west of Cass, used to be the Gaiety Bar. And everyone knows about the Gold Dollar, which used to be a transvestite bar and turned into a rock club in the mid-1990s.

btw, does anyone remember the tunnel that used to run beneath Cass at Peterboro? It was there until the mid-1970s and then they closed it; the rumor was, it was sealed because a woman got raped in there. I don't know if that's true, but it's a fact that there used to be an underground tunnel that allowed schoolkids to cross Cass. I remember it well.

p.s. Thank you for not calling the neighborhood "Midtown." That's a bs made-up name by overwrought public-relations types -- the same as calling Downriver "Metro Shores." Horsecrap -- the Cass Corridor by any other name is still the Cass Corridor!!!

[Detroitnerd]

Skipper's Rule

[DetroitArmy]

thanks dookie. im not looking for anything specifically so your response is exactly the kind of information im looking for. anything to put the area, the buildings, or even the developer into context. just a conversation starter.

Dnerd, you might be right. nothing of substance to this article, but interesting nontheless.

[dookie joe]

DetroitArmy, as far as the developer goes, I know Joel Landy has been a fixture in the area for many years. He lives in the neighborhood, and did a great job renovating the old Addison Hotel on Woodward, turning a piece of crap into a beautiful building. He also owns a foreign car dealership on the east side of Cass, just south of Peterboro, and used to host haunted houses in one of the old Victorian homes he owned in the 'hood.

[kryptonite]

do any of you realize that if Cass Corridor starts to become trendy that it is a sign we have lived too long??

[RickBeall]

For some colorful history of that area, check out the "Old Detroit Bars" thread,

http://detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=3838

which is a page back on Detroit Yes. DookieJoe was a great contributor to that thread also.

[detroitbob66]

Attachment 4906

Its great to see some life coming to the corridor, but I still fear that the reputation of the cass corridor will stop people from coming. Any of us who have been into the cass, know that it really isnt so bad after all.

[DetroitZack]

^So long, Cass Tech