Here are a few of the stories we've been reading this month.
The owners of the demolished church site
A month ago, St. Patrick's Church was demolished on a lovely fall Friday in Midtown. The demo was a stipulation of the sale of the building, previously owned by the Archdiocese. We now know that the new owner of the site is the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, as many thought. Linda Lutz, vice president and CFO of the DSO, tells Crain's that keeping and rehabbing the church, "was not under consideration, because that space is really not part of our operating plans." The DSO owns many properties around the area, and it's still to be determined what will happen to the site of the old church. Crain's Detroit Business
Suburban office-to-residential conversions
Since many of us have changed how we work in the last few years, owners of office buildings have considered whether it's worth it to convert unused space into apartments. One large suburb where that's happening a lot is Troy, with a couple underway currently. But Troy itself has over 8,000 apartments either in construction or planned across the city to address the need for more housing. Brent Savidant the community development director for the City of Troy, says,
...The “stranded assets” of vacant office units in combination with high housing demand create a “critical storm of opportunity” for the community to create a greater number of units that are sustainable, conserve time and have the potential to benefit the community and renters economically with the potential to make money off of unused space.
Another round for the neighborhoods
The Strategic Neighborhood Fund started in 2016 as a public/private partnership to improve specific neighborhoods around the city. It started with three - the Villages, Southwest Detroit, and Livernois - and has spread to 10 neighborhoods. Now, it looks like there will be a phase three. Invest Detroit and the city are looking for funders for this next phase, which would still focus on the 10 neighborhoods, but expand the efforts (the example would be moving further down McNichols from Livernois). Axios Detroit
