DETROIT, MI - Henry Smith had lived in the Bretton Hall apartments at 439 Henry St. for 18 years when he received the note. It told him, quite simply, that he had one month to grab his things and get out.

“This took everybody so much by surprise that the finances weren’t there to relocate in 30 days,” he said.

Then, Smith, like his 150 neighbors in three buildings on the 400 block Henry St. in Detroit's Cass Corridor, got another letter a few days later. This one said he now has two months to leave, and in the meantime, rent would be free.

On Wednesday, Smith said he was still looking for a place to live.

“I’m applying for various assistance programs, and some of them, you know, you have to go through a whole process,” said the retiree.

Doug Abney, a 47-year-old barber, said he has lived at 439 Henry for three years.

“I spent everything I had on the spur of the moment getting out of here,” he said of what he thought would be an abrupt departure.

Abney and other tenants are still looking for a home for Edward Dorsey, a 62-year-old retiree who just moved into the building about four months ago.

“We trying to find a place Ilitch ain’t going to buy again,” Dorsey said, referring to Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch.

Dorsey, like other several residents, said he believed his soon-to-be-former home is in the footprint of a $650 million Detroit Red Wings Arena and entertainment district that has a yet-to-be-named location. That project was first revealed near the end of last year, when Ilitch Holdings said that that the development hinged on passage of state legislation that allows for use of Downtown Development Authority funds. Such legislation passed in December, indicating plans could move forward.

The Berwin Apartments at 489 Henry St.

A spokesman for the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation told MLive in April that the first chance the public is likely to get any more details on plans for the entertainment district will come when the Downtown Development Authority is ready to take action on it.

Regardless of where the new arena and district is going, the tension of having to find a new home for the residents at the buildings on the 400 block of Henry Street was evident Wednesday.

Every resident who spoke to MLive confirmed that they were originally told they had to move out in a month, and the final move-out date would have been May 9.

Residents said that the owner of the buildings, Peter Mercier of Grosse Pointe Farms, said it was the new buyer of the properties that at first insisted residents be cleared out by early May, then decided to allow them an extra month free-of-charge.

The new buyer is listed as a limited liability company, with no phone number. The Detroit News has reported that a similar LLC has left an "opaque" paper trail of purchases in the area, leaving no phone number and requiring sellers to sign confidentiality agreements.

A phone call to Mercier’s house in Grosse Pointe Wednesday afternoon has not been returned. A woman who answered the phone confirmed that he lived there, but said he was out of the house and that he was recovering from a recent heart operation.

Mercier bought the three buildings on the 400 block of Henry Street in 1983 for about $260,000, according to Detroit property tracking site WhyDontWeOwnThis.com.

Mike Jones, a 38 year-old part-time restaurant worker, said he is holding out hope that the tenants will get another extension. He is still unsure where he will move in the meantime.

“A lot of people are distressed,” he said.

Some tenants said they believe Geoffrey Fieger’s law firm was going to get involved to their benefit. A message left with Jeffrey Danzig, a partner at Fieger’s firm, was not returned Wednesday.

The Claridge apartments at 459 Henry St.

Bryan Compton, 28, at 489 Henry said he’s still looking around for a place, but has plenty of options. Compton, who works at Walgreens, said the apartment “was sort of like a transitional thing.”

He said that most of his neighbors are not taking it in a similar stride.

“They’re pretty bummed, you know, they’re annoyed with the whole thing,” he said.

For Smith, the notice is the latest in a lifetime of changes for the neighborhood where he grew up. Looking down the street at vacant lots and boarded up storefronts, he recalls a section of the city once packed with apartments, laundromats, a grocery store and even a bowling alley. He recalled walking down Henry Street - Henry walking down Henry - the old Cass High School that's been replaced by Cass Tech.

"This area used to be really hopping," he said.

Residents panicked the day notices were delivered to apartment doors, Smith said. People in the first building were running outside by the time the owners were delivering notices to the second building. "They couldn't go fast enough," he said about people handing out the letters telling people they had to leave.

Smith and other residents have organized meetings for the three buildings to review options. Residents hope they'll get some sort of assistance to find a new apartment. Smith said he's holding out for $2,500 per person, but didn't know if they'd get anything besides the free rent.

Smith scratches his head at it all, and said he wonders why they would move Vietnam War veterans into the building via Veterans Affairs if they knew a sale would be imminent.

Al Szubeczak is one such Vietnam veteran, though he said he has lived at 439 Henry for four years. Asked where he would be moving to, he joked that he is “going to the moon,” in between profanities directed at his current situation.

“You’re on your own, just like in the army,” he said. “Here’s your gun and a can of beans, go fight the war.”