A plan to tear down an Eastern Market property is moving forward as its owner looks to replace it with a new four-story retail and office building with a glass facade.
Firm Real Estate, the company headed up by Sanford Nelson, said in a press release that the building at 2701 Russell St. at Division Street next to Bert's Warehouse will be torn down soon after site preparation completes.
The existing building's mural by artist DENIAL that prominently spells "DOOM" is expected to be recreated, instead replacing the ominous word with the upbeat "DO!"
New art by Detroit artist Sheefy McFly is also going to adorn the upper half of the 40,000-square-foot building, the development cost of which was not disclosed.
The "DOOM" mural is being recreated and enlarged on the new building's glass facade and wrapping around the entire building.
"I feel that the physical integration of the original public artwork into the glass architecture of the building is about the permanent preservation of an idea for the future to experience as public art is more often than not, an ephemeral form of art," DENIAL said in the news release.
Detroit-based L.S. Brinker Co. is the contractor on the project, dubbed in the press release as Glass Mural, while Rotterdam, Netherlands-based MVRDV is the project architect.
The announcement comes two weeks after Firm Real Estate announced its plan to turn the former Atlas Furniture Co. building at 1440 Gratiot Ave. near Russell Street into 30 apartments in a $7 million project. Construction is expected to begin early next year and complete in 2022.
The company has been buying up a slew of Eastern Market properties the last couple of years, setting off controversy about rising rents and displaced longtime businesses.
Eastern Market's future has been the subject of discussion the last two years as new landlords buy occupied and vacant buildings there. There have been concerns about rising rents as the building owners, particularly Nelson, the son of serial entrepreneur Linden Nelson, and his investors with Firm Real Estate, fix up properties that they and others say have suffered from years of deferred maintenance.
He's not the only new landlord in Eastern Market, but he's drawn the most flak.
Nelson and Ben Hall, a co-owner of the now-shuttered Russell Street Deli, had a public falling out last year stemming from a building repair dispute. Other tenants including Mootown Ice Cream & Dessert Shoppe LLC, Farmers Restaurant, Adam's Meat LLC and Cultivation Station Inc. have closed. However, Jose's Tacos has opened as has Gettees, and Well Done Goods by Cyberoptix is moving from a Gratiot Avenue space Nelson owns into a larger, soon-to-be-renovated space in the area.
There was also concern prompted last year when it was revealed that Nelson intended to tear down the vacant 15,000-square-foot property on Russell Street, which is actually four buildings, including that one that housed Mike Coney Island. Nelson said at the time there was no timeline for doing so and that the building had fallen too far into disrepair to be saved.
Shortly after that was reported, the city began considering a local historic district for Eastern Market, which would have added another layer of approvals and oversight to modifications and demolitions in the area.
Under an interim local historic district or a designated/permanent local historic district, virtually any physical change outside of ordinary maintenance to any building in Eastern Market — ranging from things like masonry work to demolition — would have to be approved by the Historic District Commission.
The council is no longer actively considering one but did authorize a study of the issue last year.
Organized opposition to it began to coalesce, and in January of this year a website launched, empropertyowners.com, with a map and signatures of all the private property owners in the area that opposed such a designation. It was set up by multiple groups, according to a spokeswoman, and given to Detroit City Council members, members of the Historic District Advisory Board and planning department in February.
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October 01, 2020 at 05:42AM
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Eastern Market property coming down to clear way for colorful 4-story glass building - Crain's Detroit Business
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