dnast

In the Flint Journal article it said they're only replacing the neon lighting and the old face on the sign will be replaced with a picture of the new owner.

I don't know why I didn't provide a link. Here you go. All I can tell is that they're on Stone St. I really should resubscribe to the Flint Journal because there's a good chance there's a map included with the print version. Maybe one day Mlive will actually include pictures with the articles.

Downtown has been able to attract a few suburban companies recently. They are mostly small (10-20 employees) or just branch offices, but except for First Street Lofts, most of the recent projects (Atwood, Economy, and the Land Bank Center) have included office space and I believe are fully leased. The most noteworthy newcomer is Rowe Incorported, an engineering company, which will be moving into the "500 block entertainment complex". They're bringing about 100 employees downtown. Bank branches aren't too scarce downtown. There are even a couple of local headquarters and Citizens Bank's main headquarters is located in the CBD. That's not to say that a few more wouldn't be gladly welcomed. The fact that downtown is slowly becoming a viable location to lease office space again makes me hopeful about the downtown's future office market. It'd be nice to one day see Genesee Towers fully renovated with high occupancy once again.

Well, hopefully the 2 blocks that the Land Bank plans on redeveloping are near enough to this project that potential home owners won't feel they have the need for that area to be gated.

There's a cool drawing of a reclad Genesee Towers made by wolverine in this thread. Something similar to that would almost seem like a miracle. Ha, what a coincidence - the second one's mine.

There was an article the other day where Vemulapalli says he's considering selling the building for $3.5 million. I truly hope he sells it and the new owner actually has plans for the building (other than demolition).

Wow, where'd all these people come from? It's great to see this thread revived again. It looks like things are picking up steam again downtown. There hadn't been much news at all for the past couple of months, but just looking for this past weekend there were several articles about downtown. I can't believe I drove right past the Mad Hatter without noticing the difference. I was too busy looking at the 500-block and First St. Lofts, I guess. I hear the weather will be pretty good this weekend, so hopefully I can put my camera back to use, too. By the way, nice pics, Bob!

I saw the lofts while they were still in-progress. They looked great! JC Beal did an amazing job with that building. It's hard to imagine it being the ugly Hughes & Hatcher building that it used to be.

They're going to be apartments. The price range is $590 - $960/month.

I just wanted to point out my mistake. It was actually percent instead of percentage points. But officials still disagree since this is about Genesee County as a whole and is based on just 800 returned surveys in the county.

Seems kinda unreliable. According to them Flint's poverty rate jumped 20 percentage points higher in that same year. If the poverty rate wasn't already very high and there were big layoffs or something it might be believable. Not that I doubt it's rising, but I find that big of a jump a little hard to believe. Edit: I misread and was wrong about percentage points. It's "just" percent, but local officials seem to strongly disagree since this is talking about Genesee County as a whole.

Was browsing the web and came across this: That's an event on the riverfront in 2003. I had never heard about it. There's lots more pics in their gallery The address for the site is http://www.sidehop.com/

So, did The Michigan Times give up on their website? It's been broken for almost five months...

I'm probably just blind, but do you have a link to the article on MLive? I think there's a good chance that most of this will come to fruition, but it will likely take several years at best. I'm not sure how the city will get funding to restore the riverbanks, but the rest looks more feasible as long as the areas where the factories used to be aren't too contaminated. Hey, next time you guys do downtown take a peek into the Brown Sugar Cafe. It looks pretty much finished. The dining area is cozy and looks very nice! Even though I really don't drink coffee I can't wait until it's open.

Thanks! The atrium stops above the second floor, giving natural light to the 2nd - 4th floors. I really wish I had more space and a wider lens to get better photos. It was really hard to capture how these places really looked (I didn't do that great of a job). I didn't want to post too many people's faces on my site, either, so that took out a lot of photos, too...

I finally added some photos for the buildings UC on my page here. I guess I'll have to go back on another tour and get some "clean" pictures without people in them. I hope what they said is true about Brown Sugar Cafe possibly being opened by the end of the month. Things have been seeming very for the past month or so. Interior demolision is supposed to start on the Rowe building next month.

Wyatt: I'm glad you and your wife are enjoying the city. I hope the idea of people moving back to the city becomes a trend. If it's not too personal, where part of Flint did you two end up moving to? Like most inner cities, Flint's schools on average have lower scores than most of the suburban districts. But the schools have been improving in terms of AYP (average yearly progress) every year for the past few years, and I hope it continues. Flint is divided by the river just like Saginaw. Most of the major crime occurs on the north side, especially the parts near Saginaw St. and MLK. The murder rate had been steadily dropping until last year when it went up a bit. I'm not sure what the count is so far this year, but it seems comparable to last year, unfortunately. Good question. I can't think of anywhere where there is much concentration of 19th century commercial buildings. Carriage Town has a lot of 19th century houses, but Flint seemed to be very much into destroying and building new even before it started declining.

Yeah, I got some shots. It was pretty crowded, though, so most of them have tons of people in them blocking out half the view

Yeah, I went on the tour. It was great to see how some of these buildings look on the inside. I only got to see the 7th floor of First Street Lofts, which was the least complete, so it was a little difficult to picture the final result. There was definitely a lot of work going on there when I was there. The Brown Sugar Cafe building is coming along nicely, too. It has exposed brick walls, and new hardwood floors. I believe there is only one 1,500 sq ft. loft on top, and it's already leased. It looked nice, though. Work could finish as soon as the end of the month. I like the Land Bank Center's design the best. It looks even better on inside than out! I like the atrium and open area in the middle of the building. It lets in natural light to the 2-4 floors and partially serves as a "back porch" for one of the lofts. I also like how the lofts are multi-level and have huge windows. Yeah, VeeFan, the south view is kind of drab. I think the "Mott block" has a lot to do with that, but it would be nice to see a garden or three.

Yeah, Roglins opened a couple of weeks ago. Years ago there was a location on Clio Rd. It seemed pretty popular, so I'm not sure why it closed. I'd like to see this building filled up soon, too. That stretch of Saginaw St. could really use the new businesses! BTW, I haven't really went through them yet, but I figured I'd share a couple of shots showing the views from First Street Lofts. Other pics will eventually make their way to my site (too tired right now), but I thought some of you might be interested.

The design looks good! - especially for an Athlete's Foot. Is the DJ booth an everyday thing or was it just for that day?

They've been having meetings all along. I hope things go well and we finally get a nice skatepark. I'm no skater but it would be great place for quite a few teens and young adults. Flint desperately needs more options for entertainment and recreation - especially for younger generations.

I haven't been by there in a while. I'll have to remember next time I'm downtown.

Sounds good. Do you know what the name of the place is?

Cool, can't wait. It's harder to judge how things are improving when you see downtown several days a week. It's better hearing it from somebody who used to explore downtown Flint a lot and took a long break before coming back.