Michigan Real Estate News

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Mystery Buyer Is Snagging Detroit Properties

An unknown entity or entities is purchasing well known Detroit properties. The Film Exchange Building at 2310 Cass Ave. and its parking lot sold for an estimated $8.75 million. The Bookie’s Bar & Grille building at 2208 Cass Ave. sold for an estimated $4.2 million. Both LLC buyers list their addresses as PO boxes, a tactic frequently used by the Illitches who are in talks with Stephen Ross for his Detroit Center for Innovation Project with the University of Michigan. Two other properties at 135 West Montcalm and 231 W. Elizabeth St. have also sold and list a Troy PO box address. All of these properties are within the footprint that Stephen Ross is targeting for his project.

Possible New Location for the Detroit Center for Innovation

 Billionaire Stephen Ross and Christopher Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, are in talks about building the Detroit Center for Innovation within District Detroit.  District Detroit is comprised of Ilitch-owned properties around Little Caesars Arena. This is a change from previous plans for a 14-acre Gratiot site where the half-built Wayne County jail once stood. The size and scope of the project at the new site is unknown. The project could be in within walking distance of a multifamily residential or mixed-use development that Ross has planned at Charlotte Street and Third Avenue.

Detroit Landlords Are Given An Ultimatum

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has given bad landlords an ultimatum. If they don’t clean, sanitize and restore damaged properties from last month’s flood, they’ll be fined $250 a day. The effort may not be enough in the face of the myriad of difficulties renters face. Year-long delays with home repair grants programs, mortgage challenges, over-assessed properties and a tax foreclosure operation have made things hard. For the first time in 50 years, renters outnumber homeowners, but with a high poverty rate and scarce renter’s insurance, renters are struggling after last month’s floods. They don’t qualify for most home repair programs, nor were they protected when their landlords were foreclosed and their homes were put on the auction block. Many Detroit landlords don’t keep their rental properties in good repair. Experts believe that renter-focused policies is the answer.