Last week the West Grand Boulevard Collaborative (“WGBC” or “Collaborative”) celebrated eleven years of neighborhood activism with a “Breakfast On The Boulevard” event hosted at the Labor Union Local 1191 building. The gathering, business awards and breakfast was designed for the local residents, business community and local non-profit organizations. It was a sold out event that featured a silent auction, greetings from WBGC Founders, Tommie E. Robbins, Jr., Mildred Hunt Robbins and an update on some of the recent accomplishments of the Collaborative. Some of the supporting sponsors who made the event possible included Comerica Bank, Brazelton’s Florist, and Henry Ford Health Systems. Sue Sells along with a bevy of volunteers who secured the silent auction donations and all the other volunteers who had a hand in preparing the wonderful event are to be congratulated for their hard work in the programs’ success.
One of the main purposes of the event was to honor those individuals who have had the largest impact on the organization in the past year and this years’ Tribute Award went to Jeffrey Klein, ASLA for his outstanding contributions to WGBC in providing professional architectural skilled advice and landscaping services. Jeff installed Phase 2 of the Mary and Albert H. Mallory Reading Garden, a project sponsored by the WGBC at their local Duffield Branch Library, that includes many earth-friendly elements including drought-resistant plants and dry-river beds. The audience also heard a special report from Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, who shared information from UAW Ford. The main feature of the WGBC event, however, was to hear from Craig Sasser, developer of the historic and former elegant Charles Noble building, commonly referred to as the Lee Plaza Building.
Lee Plaza has been vacant since the Detroit Housing Commission abandoned it in 1993 and it has been completely stripped of most of its interior infrastructure and grandeur. Yet, the building still has “good bones” and based on Henry Ford Health Systems’ development plans for the area and current activity in New Center, Midtown and Downtown, Mr. Sasser believes the time is right to bring the building back to its former glory. After all, he indicated its all about “location”.
Sasser commented the redevelopment of the former 17 story hotel into 200 market rate luxury apartments will take around $34 Million but spoke of a more robust development plan for 2 adjacent lots and the surrounding area at approximately $200 Million. Most interestingly, due to Mr. Sassers’ interest in energy conservation as the Managing Member of Moneta Energy llc, he imagines a Net Zero Energy building with LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification from the United States Green Building Council. Such designation certifies a sustainable (i.e. smart) building that saves on energy, water, is located in a walkable neighborhood and provides resilience, comfort, lower energy and maintenance costs in a more valuable building to the owners, occupants and the city.
The project is slated to close next month, with work to begin in January and an expected occupancy date of October 2017. As one of many blighted neighborhoods in Detroit, such news is greeted with praise, pride and hope by the Collaborative that the development project will be a catalyst for transformation of this neighborhood on the comeback trail.
ROBERT E. MATTLER is Managing Director for PACE-Equity in Michigan. He speaks, writes and reports about emerging sustainable real estate and development issues in Michigan and elsewhere. Bob is a senior correspondent for www.greeningdetroit.com. For more information, contact Bob at PACE-Equity (248) 762-4370; or by e-mail: bmattler@pace-equity.com.