DEGC highlights its record on historic preservation

George Jackson, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation’s CEO, talks about the DEGC’s track record after criticism received from the Lafayette Building debate.Excerpt:Following weeks of criticism after a Downtown Development Authority decision to raze the long-abandoned Lafayette Building, a petition drive and a pledge by Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. to re-evaluate the demolition decision, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.’s CEO has issued a fiery statement defending the DEGC’s historic preservation track record.“Compare our scorecard to the ‘successes’ of these self-described ‘preservationists’ and it becomes very clear who is actually saving buildings, and who is simply generating noise,” Jackson wrote.The DEGC has worked to preserve and protect 54 historic buildings, he wrote, including the Detroit Opera House, the Fort Shelby Hotel, the Kales Building and the Westin Book Cadillac, and has demolished two long-vacant city-owned buildings and part of Tiger Stadium in the last four years, while funding the demolition of 11 privately owned, blighted structures.Read the entire article here.