Illitch secretly buying up properties, again.

[casscorridor]

This is what I don't get. People want development and want to fancy themselves to Chicago or New York, but any building that is old, even if it doesn't have a grand history or any use, they want to save. It's not like the buildings even look good. We're not proposing to tear down the Penobscot or Guardian, but rather a slum. I'll give Illitch another chance. I don't see anyone else lining up to develop Detroit, Gilbert included.

What an incredibly naive statement. This has been the policy of Detroit for over half a century, to demolish any and everything deemed blight/slum... it has been an utter failure. These small buildings are what make a city. Penobscot building doesn't make a city, unless your idea of a city is a skyscraper skyline... something that has only existed for a little over a century. Please tell me what you know about real cities beyond their skyline and landmark buildings.

I'm also confused on how Illitch stadium = development, but Gilbert retail, residential, office development does not.

[Shollin]

What an incredibly naive statement. This has been the policy of Detroit for over half a century, to demolish any and everything deemed blight/slum... it has been an utter failure. These small buildings are what make a city. Penobscot building doesn't make a city, unless your idea of a city is a skyscraper skyline... something that has only existed for a little over a century. Please tell me what you know about real cities beyond their skyline and landmark buildings.

I'm also confused on how Illitch stadium = development, but Gilbert retail, residential, office development does not.

I didn't say Gilbert development didn't count. What I meant was that people aren't lining up even after Dan Gilbert has made major investment. Kind of ironic though that all these great historic small buildings in the city of Detroit, Gilbert choses to locate his main company, Quicken, in a couple floors of the nice new Compuware building. What I do know about real cities is they don't let buildings sit vacant for 30-40-50 years. Just go down any residential street in Wrigleyville or Lincoln Park and you'll seem some new 3 story condo building shoehorned into a lot that once hed some flat. Not too mention the gold coast and up the northern lake shore is chock full of new highrises. I don't know of much areas in Chicago where random old buildings are renovated and reused. Everything I have seen has been new condo development. The problem is Chicago in certain neighborhoods has a demand for the housing, Detroit does not.

[casscorridor]

I didn't say Gilbert development didn't count. What I meant was that people aren't lining up even after Dan Gilbert has made major investment. Kind of ironic though that all these great historic small buildings in the city of Detroit, Gilbert choses to locate his main company, Quicken, in a couple floors of the nice new Compuware building. What I do know about real cities is they don't let buildings sit vacant for 30-40-50 years. Just go down any residential street in Wrigleyville or Lincoln Park and you'll seem some new 3 story condo building shoehorned into a lot that once hed some flat. Not too mention the gold coast and up the northern lake shore is chock full of new highrises. I don't know of much areas in Chicago where random old buildings are renovated and reused. Everything I have seen has been new condo development. The problem is Chicago in certain neighborhoods has a demand for the housing, Detroit does not.

Yeah, they demolish old buildings to build something bigger, in a dense area with no vacant land. In Detroit, we demolish what few buildings are left, in a high-vacancy area, to build something that doesn't even have the same function [[residential).

I don't know much about Chicago, but I do know in Brooklyn there is a renovation boom going on in Bushwick and BedStuy areas, along with the condo boom closer in to Manhattan.

Still, point is... those cities, even with clearing the old to make way for the new... still have URBAN FABRIC... Detroit just demolishes shit and doesn't replace it with something denser. Instead, we replace with something more resembling a suburb than a city.

Not to mention the fact that sports stadiums are not good urban developers. Sure they can bring in some businesses on game day, but that is nothing compared to the business restaurants would be getting if there was a dense residential population.

Detroit does have demand for housing Downtown also. You should read the recent reports stating this as fact... why else would there be several new residential developments announced in the last few weeks?