Buzz

Detroit 2020: Midtown rolling with momentum

Detroit 2020 Tuesday, May 07, 2013

It was nice to see Channel 7's Detroit 2020 focus on the recent successes of Midtown and, in particular, the dedicated vision and leadership of Midtown Inc. president Sue Mosey.

An excerpt: It takes a quick pace to keep up with Sue Mosey.

She’s the dynamo leading the redevelopment of Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood. "It’s taken a very long time to get to the point where acceleration is moving very quickly, but I think we’ve reached that point now," Mosey says.

Read on and watch the segment here.

NYT: Late artist Mike Kelley's mobile homestead coming to MOCAD

New York Times Tuesday, April 23, 2013

We were saddened to hear of the death of Los Angeles-based Mike Kelley, an artist with Detroit roots. Kelley had been working with the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit on his mobile homestead project for several years prior to his passing.

We've been following the project, still in the works with a launch planned this spring, as has the New York Times.

An excerpt:

The New York The house is a faithful replica of the suburban Detroit childhood home of the artist Mike Kelley, who shepherded the details of its creation up to the final days of his life in January 2012, when he committed suicide at his home in South Pasadena, Calif. Kelley was one of the most influential artists of the last several decades. And though he made his name in the Los Angeles art world, much of the look and feel of his art came from his working-class, Irish Catholic upbringing here, in a city whose affliction he seemed to embody.

Read on here.

Feds give final approval to 3.3-mile M-1 rail

M-1 Rail Tuesday, April 23, 2013

On Monday, the 3.3-mile circulating streetcar along Woodward Avenue received clearance to proceed from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Also, M-1 Rail President and CEO Matthew P. Cullen welcomed eight new members to the nonprofit’s board of directors and introduced Jeni Norman as Chief Financial Officer.

The FTA has completed the environmental clearance for the Woodward Avenue Streetcar Project. With the issuance of the Amended Record of Decision (ROD), the project is allowed to move forward to the next phases of design, right of way acquisition and construction. This is the last approval step under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.

Now that the process for approval of the Amended ROD has been completed, the M-1 Rail organization continues to strengthen its team with the hiring of a chief financial officer and by electing eight new members to its board of directors. These announcements come about two weeks after hiring a chief administrative officer and director of governmental & community affairs.

HuffPost Detroit: WSU looking for Midtown mixed use proposals

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Huffington Post editor Ashley Woods reports in a recent edition of the online mag that Wayne State University has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for new mixed-use residential and retail apartment buildings in Midtown, as part of its second phase of the South University Village District.

An excerpt:

Much like the Auburn, Wayne State is calling for a development that boasts energy-efficient features, bike storage and common spaces for resident in a pedestrian-friendly setting. It must also provide some parking for residents, with additional spaces made available by a WSU parking facility on Forest Avenue.

Much more here.

MOCAD hires new director with local roots

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Elysia Borowy-Reeder, 39, is the new executive director of Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, better known as MOCAD. She’ll take over the job, vacant since November 2011 when former director Luis Croquer left to take a job in Seattle, next week.

An excerpt:

Borowy-Reeder, who grew up in metro Detroit and East Lansing, has a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Antioch College and master’s degrees in art education and art history from Michigan State University.

She recalls how childhood visits to the Detroit Institute of Arts helped inspire her love for her chosen field. “You’d be on the floor of the Diego Rivera mural room drawing. ... That’s what got me hooked on museums,” she says.

Read more here.

Toledo Blade: Entrepreneurship key to Detroit recovery

Toledo Blade Tuesday, March 26, 2013

It's nice to see our Ohio friends to the immediate south in Toledo taking a deep dive into contemporary Detroit, interviewing enterprising people like Torya Blanchard, Josh Linkner, Shawn Geller (of Quikly), Kurt Metzger and others. Solid reporting, without pulling punches.

Check it out here.

NYT weighs in on public-private Detroit divide

New York Times Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A bit of a reality check from the latest report on Detroit by the New York Times, this piece examines the differences between what's happening in the private vs. public sectors.

An exerpt:

For all the talk of a private sector renaissance, demographers say that much of the economic growth remains mostly around the downtown and Midtown sections, a small fraction of a vast 139-square-mile city that is otherwise wrestling with vacant homes, empty blocks, darkened streetlights, crime fears and overburdened police officers. While businesses have returned to Detroit, some others have left, and this city’s most essential problem, its swiftly dipping population, demographers say, has yet to reverse itself.

More here

Whole Foods opening Midtown store in June

Whole Foods Market Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Yes, we knew it was coming. It is still impressive to note that Whole Food Market is opening its first Detroit store, at Mack Avenue and John R, on time.

An excerpt:

(WFM), the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket, will open a 21,650-square-foot store in Detroit, on Wednesday, June 5 at 9 a.m. The much-anticipated store will add to the vibrant, growing food scene in Detroit. The store joins more than 345 other Whole Foods Market stores in North America and the United Kingdom.

More here.

Richard Florida reacts to 7.2 greater downtown study

Atlantic Cities Tuesday, February 26, 2013

In a piece last week in Atlantic Cities, Richard Florida tackles the recently released 7.2 study that shows greater downtown to be better educated and more diverse than the city at large. There is much complexity to this finding, such that we plan on following what it all means in a variety of ways in the near future.

Here's an excerpt from Florida's story:

The Greater Downtown corridor has a population of 36,550 people or 5,076 people per square mile. It might not be not downtown Manhattan, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, or Philadelphia, but it compares favorably to other Midwest city-centers, like downtown Minneapolis, with 3.4 square miles and 28,811 people; downtown Pittsburgh at 1.3 square miles and 4,064 people; and downtown Cleveland at 3.2 square miles and 9,523 people. Of these downtowns, only Minneapolis has greater density than Greater Downtown Detroit.

Read more here.

MOCAD renovation winning awards even before construction begins

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Great news from the Museum of Contempory Art Detroit last week about MOCAD's upcoming redesign by Rice+Lipka Architects and urban design/landscape architects James Corner Field Operations.

This excerpt from HuffPost Detroit:

The design won the Architectural Review's 2013 Future Project award in the "Old and New" category.

The judges hailed the MOCAD design as "an inspirational project that combines past and present in a well resolved and convincing manner. It creates new space for new creativity in a post-industrial city."

The two firms will work to make the interior more energy-efficient. They'll also reconfigure exhibit, event and storage area. Exterior changes will also create a brand-new outdoor event space.

Read more here.

Study: Greater downtown growing in wealth, diversity

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, February 19, 2013

A report published today and to be shared with investors, developers and city planners, found that greater downtown residents are wealthier than Detroiters at large, but less affluent than the average for the full populations of cities such as Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, which some see as prime examples of successful urban rebirth.

John Gallagher of the Freep has the scoop. An excerpt:

(Data Driven Detroit's Kurt) Metzger pointed out that things are changing so rapidly in the areas that the report may already be slightly dated. For example, gains from the Live Downtown and Live Midtown incentive programs that have bought hundreds of new residents who work for participating businesses into the area in the last two years are not fully captured in this report.

Read the rest of the story (and the full report) here.

Kresge's Art X reloads for April Midtown return

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The second edition of Art X Detroit: Kresge Arts Experience will take over Midtown for five days starting April 10. The event, to be held in multiple locations, is free.

The Detroit Free Press has the scoop. An excerpt:

Event producer Midtown Detroit Inc., announced today that the cultural celebration, funded by the Kresge Foundation, will be held at more than two dozen venues. The inaugural Art X event was in 2011.

There will be visual artworks created by the 38 Kresge Eminent Artists and recipients of Kresge Artist Fellowships. A special visual arts exhibition will be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit. This year’s programming will also feature dance, musical and theatrical performances, literature readings, workshops and panel discussions.

The complete schedule of Art X events will be announced soon, organizers said. To learn more about the event, go here.

CCS photo show features Detroit entertainment icons

HuffPost Detroit Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Fashion photographer Jenny Risher, who graduated from College for Creative Studies in the late 1990s, has a show up now at CCS of her pictures of Detroit popular culture figures. It will be up there until March 2, before moving to the Detroit Historical Museum in July.

An excerpt:

Risher started working on the project in 2010. Talking to her friend and model Veronica Webb, who hails from Detroit, Risher started thinking about the many famous and interesting individuals who come from the city.

"I said to her, wouldn't it be cool if someone did a book of all the amazing people who have came out of Detroit," Risher said. "For three months the idea just kept bugging me and I couldn't let it go so I thought I would make a list of all the people I would love to photograph from the area and reach out to them, reach out to five and if they said no, leave it, but all those five said yes."

It snowballed from there. From Eminem to Lee Iacocca, Risher was pleased to see how many of the illustrious Detroiters agreed to participate in her project.

Read more here.

Gilbert thinking retail ahead of M-1 dig

Detroit News Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Our favorite extravagant but hardly reckless spender Dan Gilbert is ahead of the pack again, hinting that once the M-1 is fully developed (by 2016) more Woodward corridor retail will be waiting for it.

Excerpt from the Detroit News:

And Gilbert, one of downtown's major employers and private land owners, said his group has "definitely gotten commitments" from retailers who will be ready for business when the M-1 debuts.

"That's the goal as we work behind the scene, versus just taking a rough shot of opening one (retail store) at a time here and there," Gilbert said. He would not specify which retailers have made commitments.

Since August 2010, Gilbert's portfolio of companies has moved 7,000 workers downtown.

Rock Ventures owns 15 properties and is working on buying its 16th at 1001 Woodward, across the street from Campus Martius and Quicken Loans' headquarters in the Compuware Building.

For more, go here.

Freep turns focus to indie shops Hugh, Nora, Detroit Mercantile

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, January 22, 2013

It's always nice to see smart, new businesses get a nod in the dailies. We were happy to see the Freep catch up to three of our faves last week.

An excerpt:

Up this week? Three independent stores in Detroit.

Two are located in Midtown and the other is in Eastern Market.

Among them you can find Stormy Kromer wool hats, fabulous notecards and wrapping paper, cuff links made from Tiger baseballs, vintage Playboy magazines and barware, tablecloths and linens, and home accessories with a Scandinavian flair.

Read on here.

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