Punch Palace on Edwards and Detroit to Open in 2019

[Bill Call]

Someone in the know told me that the deal is being pushed through in secret. I guess the people in the neighborhood will be the last to know.

They will just wake up one morning with a dozen or so food trucks on their street.

[michael gill]

I am curious about the secret deal, Bill.

[Bill Call]

I am curious about the secret deal, Bill.

Someone who has an ear at City Hall told me that the Mayor is pushing behind the scenes to "get it done".

You have a right to be skeptical about rumors and hearsay but the Hospital debacle showed us that what public officials tell us in public is not always what they say in private.

The public meetings of City Council and the various boards and commissions are mere window dressing. By the time the public meeting has been held the decision has been made and the unofficial vote has been taken.

In this case the decision has been made to approve the project with a slightly smaller footprint.

Of course, if you think that council and the boards and commissions never discuss issues in private, never mislead the public, never take the secret vote and always listen attentively to public concerns and act on them then you have nothing to worry about.

[michael gill]

I am curious because this was approved in public meetings months ago with a reduced amount of seating and a re-located building, and no outdoor projection TV, among other (more minor) changes.

Are there ongoing secret sessions?

[Bill Call]

I am curious because this was approved in public meetings months ago with a reduced amount of seating and a re-located building, and no outdoor projection TV, among other (more minor) changes.

Are there ongoing secret sessions?

Ahh. My secret source is not quite as reliable as he/she was. Let that be a lesson to me.

What do you think about the new proposal?

[michael gill]

I wish it were town homes. Or mixed use, like Rosewood place. Or a bank branch.

I am glad it is not fast food.

I think by their mobility that food trucks are a way to skirt the regulations that apply to billboards.

I think even with the scaled back design there are some points on which this does not fit within the city's regulation for "sidewalk dining."

However, the revised plan is quite a bit better than the original proposal.

[Bridget Conant]

I wish it were town homes. Or mixed use, like Rosewood place. Or a bank branch.

I am glad it is not fast food.

I think by their mobility that food trucks are a way to skirt the regulations that apply to billboards.

I think even with the scaled back design there are some points on which this does not fit within the city's regulation for "sidewalk dining."

However, the revised plan is quite a bit better than the original proposal.

It’s really a bummer reading this because it conveys much the same sense of resignation so common amongst residents in regard to much of the “development” decisions made by this administration.

The idea that it’s not what we want but we have no choice and hey, it could be worse.

Why do we accept that from our elected officials? Why do we let them proceed with decisions and choices that negatively impact us and just say “Oh well, what can I do?”

Another prime example of why you need to GET OUT AND VOTE!

[Michael Loje]

Does this project include the long-abandoned house immediately north of the empty lot? This house was one of the most beautiful on the street when it was abandoned about six years ago. During that time, it's front porch was used to collect junk, and lately someone's been conducting some sort of weekend sales from the place. Anyone know why such a beautiful house was abandoned, and who was responsible for everything thats gone on there since?

[Bridget Conant]

I heard that house was being torn down.

Someone who knows for sure will post, I hope.

[michael gill]

That house has been vacant for I bet more like ten or twelve years.

The previous owner first invested a bunch of money--new windows, new electricity, all new interior surfaces, then changed his mind and disconnected it from utilities, expecting to level it for a parking lot.

Then the plan didn't get through, and the owner was left with a house without water, gas or electricity. So it sat vacant. Then the owner sold it--along with all the adjoining parcels. So that new owner, now owner of the whole block along the north side of Detroit has it.

To your earlier point about being disheartened or resigned, Bridget, what you should read is an understanding that we live in a place that has property rights. The city does not own that land. A private individual does. The city does not generate business ideas or run businesses. Other people do. The city does not decide, for example, whether this property owner wants to sell his property or lease it to someone--which is what he has chosen to do. That, of course, limits potential business owners on that vacant lot to people who would lease from him. So then the property owner lets it be known that the space is available. And along comes someone with an interest. At that point, as long as the business is not illegal or prohibited by zoning, and as long as it is not requesting public money, the city is somewhat limited in its ability to influence what kind of business goes there. That is what you should read into my post.

Michael, yes, the red house--the former Sinagra house--is included in this proposal and will be demolished.

Yes, it has been used as a storage shed for years. the inside is packed with salvaged stuff, which has spilled out onto the once gorgeous front porch, for years. And yes, someone has been conducting yard sales there for the last several months. Yes, the owner has been cited.

[Bridget Conant]

At that point, as long as the business is not illegal or prohibited by zoning, and as long as it is not requesting public money, the city is somewhat limited in its ability to influence what kind of business goes there.

It appears to me, and many others, that the city is actively promoting this use of the land.

[Michael Loje]

Michael, 12 years does sound right. Someone should have been sighted long ago, as a house like this should never have been allowed to deteriorate to the point of being a teardown. But, then again, thats what happened to the adjacent commercial building.

[michael gill]

Bridget, I agree that the planning department and administration in General, especially a couple of specific cheerleaders, are very enthusiastic and doing all they can to help the developer make it work. They didn't conceive or introduce the plan though. The business developer brought it to them, and as we know bars are not illegal, and neither is drinking on a patio.

Michael, agreed. As you know, demolition by neglect has been a long term concern of mine.

[michael gill]

Michael, I wrote this for my blog in 2012, which is when the building at the corner was demolished.

If you want to see pics of what that building looked like, follow the link at the end.

DETROIT AVENUE DEMOLITION DERBY

People who own buildings in Lakewood are not typically allowed to knock them down without having a replacement plan ready to go. That’s true if you want to knock down your garage, and it’s true if you own a commercial building on Detroit or Madison–or anywhere else in town, for that matter.

The reasons for that are simple: the buildings in the city provide both function and aesthetic value. Those things combine to make the city an attractive place to live and do business. And that adds up to money.

Nonetheless, despite the fact that there is no solid plan for the redevelopment of the property at Detroit and Edwards, that beige brick building –a building that was just months ago home to a chiropractor, a hair salon, and a guitar studio–is about to meet the wrecking ball. The demolition permit has been issued. The garage behind it is already gone, its broken bits hauled away in a 40-yard dumpster Buried utilities have been marked.

According to the Lakewood Building Department, the city is allowing this because the building has become a hazard. For years, under both the current and previous owner, it has been in court as the city attempted to motivate the owners to fix the problems. Citations were issued. The violations were copious. Nothing was done.

Those structural problems have made the building a hazard. The current owner—who I emphasize has owned the property less than one year—inherited the mess after his predecessors prodigiously ignored its decay.

My family has lived just a few doors away for more than a decade, and on morning walks around the block we’ve seen that chunks of the cast concrete window sill—chunks as big as a child’s leg sometimes–have fallen to the sidewalk. At least no one got hit in the head.

Again, it’s important to remember: the current owner has not ignored the problem for years. He just got stuck with the responsibility when he decided Lakewood is a good place to invest.

But how did the guy before him get away with this? A look along the east and south faces of the building gives a clue as to how long it’s been: the brick walls have buckled at the level of the second floor windows. They bulge out, looking like the entire wall could fall to the sidewalk at any minute. For proof that this has been long-ignored, look up at the vinyl-siding that covers the second floor window bays. It was carefully cut to form-fit around the buckle in the wall. That siding has been in place longer than we’ve lived in the neighborhood—which means the walls have been buckled like that for almost 13 years.

At this point, knocking this building down is probably the best anyone could hope for. It would take a historic preservationist with money to burn to make the kind of repairs it needs at this point. There may have been a time when straightening the walls would have been affordable and cost effective, but at least two owners waited far too long for that. If the building had tenants, and therefore a revenue stream, maybe a civic-minded owner might have invested the money. But all the tenants moved out amid rumors that a Taco Bell franchise would soon move there.

Maybe if some civic minded foundation built a pool of money for intervention in cases like this, some buildings that contribute to the city’s streetcar-era character could be saved. I think I’m not alone in believing that the city’s history is an important economic asset. This wasn’t a significant or distinguished building, just another minor part of the streetcar streetscape.

For all the folks who watch Lakewood commercial development, a Taco Bell at this location would have been just like the McDonalds / Detroit Theater deal: a net gain of zero businesses, with the Taco Bell just moving from its current location to the new spot, and the net loss of another streetcar era building that would have been viable if someone had taken care of it. For this particular neighborhood it would have meant a stream of late night drive through noise fueled by the bars.

But as I said before, we’re past fretting about the loss of an old building. At this point, the demolition can’t happen fast enough.

All this means Western Detroit Ave will soon have a big swath of vacant land—quite a bit larger, in fact, than the commercial building itself. The Civil War-era Hall house that once stood next to the building in question was already knocked down. Rumor has it that the old red Sinagra house North of the commercial building—which the same series of property owners have allowed to sit vacant for about a decade—will also come down soon. It’s not happening yet because it’s not a hazard to people walking by. But rest assured, as soon as a redevelopment plan materializes, that house will be gone, too.

All that’s left is A) to hope that the owner of the property finds a good business to build on what will soon be a big vacant lot; and B) that the city makes sure the new building looks like it belongs in the neighborhood.

The property owner has a tough job. There are no quaint little mom-and-pop shops with enough money for new construction on Detroit. And among businesses that seem to have enough money—the drugstore chains, the fast food giants–It’s hard to find a good fit for these densely packed neighborhoods.

That’s because all along Lakewood’s main streets there are people like me who like where they live specifically because the houses and businesses are packed in so close together. We like to walk up to the corner for some butter and eggs on a Sunday morning, or up to the other corner on a Friday night to pick up a bottle of wine. We like walking to independent restaurants and hair salons, and we like it if our kids can walk to get a popsicle. And of course, being packed in like that makes it especially important that the businesses respect the neighborhood. So if it seems like people in Lakewood are always giving the main street businesses a hard time, it’s because we care about the place we live.

The latest rumor about the corner of Edwards and Detroit is that the owner is courting a bank branch to build there. A bank wouldn’t be bad at all. The architectural review board has a good record of steering builders toward construction that fits the neighborhood.

But I’d really love to hear what other people in the neighborhood and around the city think. Imagine a big vacant space—the corner plus one parcel along detroit, and the corner plus one going north on Edwards? What would you support with your good will and money?

https://gyroscopethattakesyouplaces.wor ... ion-derby/

[Bill Call]

If five food trucks were to park at Edgewater and Homewood 5 nights a week would the City be as supportive?