Bridge Company moves ahead with MCS Renovation

[1KielsonDrive]

Maroun is stealing a page from Higgins Eaton Tower stalling tactics. Just a morsel to keep City hall off his tail. If it was a serious deal construction gear would already be there, the fence would be secured and rfps would be buzzing. If it was even a mildly serious plan a min wage guard would be guarding.

Boy oh boy, your analogy is smack on the money.

[barnesfoto]

Maroun didn't own the building until 1995...

My mistake. I'm referring to a restoration that was announced by the Bridge Company...
It would have been 1995....I remember the earlier efforts to rehab the building, there was the group that started rehab [[one of my friends worked on the elevators for them) but lost their shirt in the 87 stock market crash...then there was the "downriver real estate developer who saw casinos coming but went bankrupt and lost the place due to unpaid bills for security...
Anyway, it was a joke. A sign out front and a small dumpster. As another poster pointed out, this seems like a page from the Higgins Text.... Hopefully they will at least mothball it enough to preserve it. I lived in its shadow for years, and found it beautiful even as a ruin, but it sure would look nicer with some windows and a proper roof.

[Meddle]

Maroun is stealing a page from Higgins Eaton Tower stalling tactics. Just a morsel to keep City hall off his tail. If it was a serious deal construction gear would already be there, the fence would be secured and rfps would be buzzing. If it was even a mildly serious plan a min wage guard would be guarding.

That's about it in a nutshell.

[mcsdetroitfriend]

That's about it in a nutshell.

Thing is remember how long it took to get that project started? FOREVER! We were all saying the same thing "It's never gonna happen" "the website is there but it hasn't been updated since..."

Then it finally did happen, I'm trying to have a little faith, good things can and do happen in Detroit, and I hope this is one of the good things that will happen

[Wesley Mouch]

...I hope this is one of the good things that will happen

I hope so to, but relying on hope is foolhardy.

Does anyone have any copies of his charter for the bridge? Original agreements that state what he [[the bridge) must do. Not a lawyer, but I think there'd be some fascinating requirements there that might be ammo in guns pointed at Manny. The most bullets flying his way, the more he's likely to do some follow-thru on MCS.

[Gistok]

Um.... I think that the bridge ownership and MCS ownership are mutually exclusive. Didn't Matty own the bridge before he owned the MCS? So any bridge charter would be a moot point as far as the MCS is concerned...

[mcsdetroitfriend]

Um.... I think that the bridge ownership and MCS ownership are mutually exclusive. Didn't Matty own the bridge before he owned the MCS? So any bridge charter would be a moot point as far as the MCS is concerned...

That's correct

[Wesley Mouch]

Um.... I think that the bridge ownership and MCS ownership are mutually exclusive. Didn't Matty own the bridge before he owned the MCS? So any bridge charter would be a moot point as far as the MCS is concerned...

Me thinks you underestimate the man.

I don't remember the details, but I thought the purchase had to do with rail rights, and some ability to thwart turning the train tunnel into a truck tunnel, or the ability to argue that he was a railroad, and can use their eminent domain powers. His moves are very utilitarian and well planned. To deny a connection with the bridge is a strategic mistake.

[1KielsonDrive]

Me thinks you underestimate the man.

I don't remember the details, but I thought the purchase had to do with rail rights, and some ability to thwart turning the train tunnel into a truck tunnel, or the ability to argue that he was a railroad, and can use their eminent domain powers. His moves are very utilitarian and well planned. To deny a connection with the bridge is a strategic mistake.

Good Point WM. Matty used that arcane legal trick to keep the old McLouth Steel plant in Trenton under his control when all surrounding communities wanted to remediate the site and turn it into a park and development. And the hulks of the old steel mill still stand there reminding everyone everyday that Matty gets his way more often than not no matter what the majority of citizens want. Hopefully, there's someone posting here who might have a more informed and/or legal take on this.

[Magnatomicflux]

Me thinks you underestimate the man.

I don't remember the details, but I thought the purchase had to do with rail rights, and some ability to thwart turning the train tunnel into a truck tunnel, or the ability to argue that he was a railroad, and can use their eminent domain powers. His moves are very utilitarian and well planned. To deny a connection with the bridge is a strategic mistake.

That can't be right, can it? Canadian Pacific owns the right-of-way, not Matty. He may own where the platforms were, but not the area where the tracks still run. Canadian Pacific can do what they please with that tunnel, Matty can't say boo about it....as far as I know. Matty also shouldn't be able to call himself a railroad because he owns a former station.

[mcsdetroitfriend]

That can't be right, can it? Canadian Pacific owns the right-of-way, not Matty. He may own where the platforms were, but not the area where the tracks still run. Canadian Pacific can do what they please with that tunnel, Matty can't say boo about it....as far as I know. Matty also shouldn't be able to call himself a railroad because he owns a former station.

Matty doesn't own anything other than the building and the former train yard across the street...He owns none of the area where the tracks used to be or the freight tracks...

The space is still owned by Amtrak and leased by Canadian Pacific

[Wesley Mouch]

Matty doesn't own anything other than the building and the former train yard across the street...He owns none of the area where the tracks used to be or the freight tracks...

From an April 11th post by Tony Codfish... which of course doesn't make it true...

Through sheer bending of the legal process with money and lawyers, he managed to successfully claim to be a railroad because he had found some unused railroad tracks on the property. Railroads get many exemptions from local control, and his stated intentions at the time were to use the enormous piece of riverside property as a truck depot and potentially as a deep water port to bring Canadian garbage into the U.S. by ship.

[Gistok]

Yes, there are archaic railroad laws that helped Matty in keeping that land downriver. And he might be able to prevent the city from doing anything to try to tear down the MCS based on some of those archaic laws. But the bridge and MCS are still 2 separate issues that are not connected. And since he cannot enforce USA laws onto Canada... they will be the major roadblock in his building a 2nd span at that location.

But as for securing the MCS roof and windows... I hope he does so. But it won't change anything as far as getting a 2nd bridge goes....

[Magnatomicflux]

From an April 11th post by Tony Codfish... which of course doesn't make it true...

Who's Tony Codfish? All I get on google is someone on Facebook. I don't subscribe so I can't see what he has to say.

But yeah....I don't think it is true anyways. Doesn't some kind of Act have to be passed by the State or Federal gov, in order to establish a railroad?

[mcsdetroitfriend]

From an April 11th post by Tony Codfish... which of course doesn't make it true...

I have a chart somewhere that DIBC sent me showing the three different owners and only what I mentioned in the above post was highlighted...

MCS Building: DIBC
Freight and Passenger distribution area [[platform, underground garage and rail): City of Detroit
Active Tracks on top of Platform: Canadian Pacific Railway