This post was authored by Curbed contributor MJ Galbraith.



Photo courtesy of Trisha Patterson.

A new Cooley brothers restaurant, a new bakehouse for a Detroit institution, and a planned Dequindre Cut-style greenway on the westside: It's been a busy couple of days. The Detroit Regional News Hub threw its third Transformation Detroit media event this week and, probably against their better judgement, we were invited. Ryan Cooley, owner of O'Connor Real Estate and co-owner of Slow's BarBQ, was one of many local luminaries with news to share. The ownership team behind Slow's is opening a new restaurant at the other end of its block/empire, at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Wabash. The building, a former pawn shop unmistakable for its *ahem* unique paint job, was purchased two years ago from relatives of Detroit's other famous pawn shop, that at the focus of the TV reality program 'Hardcore Pawn'. Cooley's honoring the building's past by naming his new restaurant Gold Cash Gold.

· Cooley says Gold Cash Gold should be open by the end of summer 2013. Above the restaurant will be 6 residential units, available in the spring. Slow's expansion efforts are on track as well, with a bigger barroom and a private banquet area planned for the space next door. There's no set date, but the private banquet room is already booked for Media Week of the North American International Auto Show, so, "It'll have to be done by then," says Cooley.

· Dan Patterson of Avalon International Breads announced that in addition to its new retail operation in Henry Ford Hospital, a second retail spot will open on nearby Canfield. The company is also moving its baking operations to a large bakehouse on Bellvue Street, possible through the strength of a $1.9 million loan to expand manufacturing.

· Southwest Solutions has all sorts of plans for what it calls the Vernor/Bagley Vista, a 20-block area that includes Honey Bee Market on one end and Clark Park on the other. Details are still being finalized, but Program Manager Dan Loacano assures us that a greenway--a la the Dequindre Cut--connecting the Detroit riverfront (and its eventual western wing of the Riverwalk) to the viaduct behind Michigan Central Station happening is "very realistic."

Why would you want to ride your bike all the way from Belle Isle to that dank, slightly terrifying tunnel? Because Southwest Solutions has secured funding to clean and light the viaduct, commissioning local artists to art it up a bit. He even mentioned a working "chandelier on the passive side of the viaduct," modeled after the one in the train station. All of this is made possible through the cooperation of Canadian Pacific Railway, who owns the viaduct structure.

· Jim Pellerito, President of E&B Development, says that his E&B Brewery Lofts at 1551 Winder will be expanding from 17 to 36 lofts sometime early next year. The E&B Brewery Lofts are located in Eastern Market.

· The Detroit Regional News Hub [Official]

· Gold Cash Gold: Another restaurant planned for growing block in Detroit's Corktown [MLive]

· Detroit's Newest Gallery Hides in a Former Brewery's Basement [Curbed Detroit]