VeeFan

Just saw this on the news: the Land Bank has just about finalized its purchase on the Berridge Hotel, just a few details still to be worked out, but it sounds like it'll go through. And renovations could begin in the early half of 2007. I already have a good relationship with Salem Housing, it's just a matter of building the same between the Chancellor's Office and Salem; I'm going to have close to 2 years as President of PSA, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to see student housing happen for the university, and working along since Salem would accomplish this but would also be a huge way to start turning Flint around if a student village could be established near downtown. It'll be tricky since Salem is a nonprofit, but myself and the other officers think it's do-able.

If I have my way with PSA, I'm about to become The Don's worst nightmare by fostering a relationship between U of M and Salem Housing. Heaven forbid the unversity work with a nonprofit organization that he disapproves of.

Sorry, thought that LBC was pretty much a common knowledge abbreviation for the Land Bank by now.

News out of Flint today: the Crim offices are moving into the first floor of the LBC, and will include a museum in there as well. The first floor was the only floor left vacant in the LBC (good news for other projects in Flint if the building filled up that quickly).

I don't know if they just moved it in today, but there's a crane outside of the Rowe Building now. We wanted a sign that progress is being made, well there it is.

Then give it time for there to be more development news. Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, I thought I saw a sign in one of the corner buildings on Saginaw (can't remember now if it was First Street or Second Street) that said the Mega Coney Island was moving into it. But that didn't make sense, considering all the work they put into renovating the old McDonalds building on MLK. But there could still be something moving into one of those buildings.

Drove past the Rowe building today and although you can't see anything happening on the front, you can see there is work occurring further inside the structure. I hope there will be a more noticeable difference by the time classes start again in August.

I'm curious how the work is going on the Rowe building, and how close the First Street Lofts are to being finished. There was an article this past Sunday about the Lofts, and the interiors look so nice!

It is summer, you know.

I read over on Skyscraperpage.com that Quicken Loans might be building its HQ in downtown Detroit.

I don't remember the exact time frames now, but the White Building was built first and then the new press building for the Journal was built later on a brownfield; 2003-4 I believe for the Journal.

That was a new build as well.

So technically ahead of schedule, this is a good sign.

I wonder how long it will be before we see construction start on adding the new floors.

I was not prepared to see the 500 block like that! Now it really does look like it was hit by a bomb!

Thanks for the pictures. It does look like there is quite a ways to go if it really is going to be open within a month.

There is an article in the current issue of the Uncommon Sense that says the Stockton House is going to open on June 18th.

Thanks for the description. They better not be using that on the First Street Lofts...lol

What is EIFS? Is it a plaster?

This is what I was wondering about, so it's right real stonework, correct? What is it made of?

Thanks for the pictures once more! Did they let you get that close to take a picture of the cornice, or do you just have a really strong zoom? Is that one window going to be a door? That has to be too high off the ground for that to be a door.

Thanks for the pics, Bob. Looks like it didn't take them very long at all to get to the Jewelry World exterior. Maybe it was just me, but on my way to class this morning it seemed like the First Street Lofts suddenly appear to be much whiter, or cleaner at least. Has there been any power-washing or the exterior being painted?

Have you ever used Photo Bucket to host your pictures? I don't think there's a limit on how many pictures you can upload on it. http://www.photobucket.com

I hope it's not torn up as long as Pierson Road was, but yes, it looks like this could take awhile, especially if they do the same as with Pierson Road and replace water mains and such.

From the back-hoes that have almost hit my car the past few days trying to get home, I'm going to say they're reconstructing it. It's looking exactly how Pierson Road looked when they rebuilt it.