A Detroit-based real estate ownership, management and development company is planning an approximately $7 million redevelopment of the Atlas Furniture Co. building near Eastern Market into 30 apartments.
Construction on the six-story building, which is to be rebranded as The Atlas Lofts, at 1440 Gratiot Ave. near Russell Street, is expected to begin in the first quarter next year, with the project finishing in 2022, according to a news release from Firm Real Estate.
Firm Real Estate 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.
It says the loft-style units will range from 400 to 1,300 square feet, and that affordable housing will be incorporated, but specifics of that were not available.
Seventeen units are slated to have 360-460 square feet, while the 11 medium-size units will be 620-900 square feet and the remaining two large units will be 1,200-1,300 square feet.
Affordable housing is based on the federally-designated Area Median Income. The AMI includes suburban Detroit, and is currently $76,300 for a family of four and $61,100 for a two-person household, meaning that 80 percent is $61,030 and $48,880, respectively. The use of AMI for determining what housing is affordable has been criticized because the suburban household incomes skew upward the city's household income.
Renovation will include the building's facade and health, fire and safety requirements "as the building has not received any property maintenance work or updates in several decades," Michael Leinweber, vice president of construction for Firm Real Estate, said in a statement.
Sanford Nelson, head of Firm Real Estate, was not made available for an interview.
Detroit-based Rossetti Associates Inc. is the architecture firm on the project.
An entity called 1440 Gratiot LLC bought the 28,000-square-foot building in 2018 as part of a bigger portfolio deal for $10.35 million, according to city of Detroit land records.
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 and his investors with Firm Real Estate, fix up properties that they and others say have suffered from years of deferred maintenance.
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.
Nelson, the son of serial entrepreneur Linden Nelson, and his investors who include Marvin Beatty and Don Foss are not the only new landlords in Eastern Market cut from a different cloth than those of old. Others are Detroit developers and economic development professionals Roger Basmajian and George Jackson and New York City-based developer ASH NYC, replacing the street-level business operators in Eastern Market that traditionally owned their properties (and sometimes others). Christos Moisides, executive member of Detroit-based 400 Monroe Associates LLC, also purchased property there in the last year or so.
There was also concern prompted last year when it was revealed that Nelson intended to tear down a vacant 15,000-square-foot building on Russell Street. He 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.
Crain's has asked the city for an update on where that process stands.
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September 18, 2020 at 02:10AM
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Firm Real Estate plans redevelopment of 6-story Eastern Market building into apartments - Crain's Detroit Business
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