Detroit City Council to vote on preserving Ilitch-owned, blighted Cass buildings

Allie Gross | Detroit Free Press

The future of seven buildings in Detroit — including two windowless, blighted properties owned by the Ilitch family — could be determined as soon as Tuesday, after City Council's Planning and Economic Development Committee voted Thursday to move the fate of the properties as a proposed historic district to formal council consideration.

Since June 2017, the block at Cass and Henry just south of the new Little Caesars Arena has been in limbo. The Ilitches — the owners of at least three buildings on the block — wanted to demolish several of the properties and turn them into parking lots.

Preservationists and residents wanted to see the buildings — which were built between the 1900 and 1920 — refurbished, and ideally turned into affordable housing. As tension grew over the block’s future — specifically after the Ilitches requested permits to demolish 2447 Cass Ave., 2467 Cass Ave. and 427 Henry St. — City Council stepped in.

A temporary historical designation was granted to stop the demolitions. The Ilitches canceled their demolition permits. City Council commissioned a study to determine if, in fact, the block deserved a historic designation. And then, for a year, everyone waited — the block, a segment of the city that has become ground zero for old and new visions of Detroit, was in purgatory.

On Thursday, almost a year to the day of its commissioning, the report, which supported the creation of the Cass-Henry Historic District, was presented by the City of Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board.

"The proposed Cass Henry Historic District is a mostly intact streetscape of early 20th century apartment buildings, one of only a few such blocks remaining in the Cass Corridor … due to numerous demolitions over the past few decades, the Cass Henry district stands as the best remaining depiction of the form, scale and density that once predominated throughout the area,” said the report — which was presented by Janese Chapman, senior historic planner with the city Historic Designation Advisory Board, and James Young, a community representative on the board.

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In addition to the presentation of the report, members of the public were given an opportunity to comment.

“Cass Corridor is in danger of going the way of Black Bottom or the original Chinatown,” said Eric Kehoe, president of Preservation Detroit, imploring council to vote in favor of the Cass-Henry Historic District. “It is in danger of being completely paved over, suburbanized, sanitized. The undoing of density has dropped the neighborhood's population, but you can stop that trend. What do we want to preserve about this neighborhood? Who do we want to preserve it for? This is a vote for the people’s history and future of Detroit.”

Council members James Tate, Scott Benson, Gabe Leland and Raquel Castaneda-Lopez voted to move conversation of the proposed Cass-Henry Historic District to formal council.

“I thought it went really well,” Castaneda-Lopez said after the meeting, “I think it’s great the community turned out and made really valid points about wanting to preserve the historic buildings, the importance of the history and how that adds to the vibrancy of communities and just how important it is that people have affordable housing options around the hockey arena and in the Cass Corridor, Midtown neighborhood.”

Castaneda-Lopez is confident that the proposed historic district will ultimately pass.

City officials said the next formal council is scheduled for July 3, at which point the vote on the Cass-Henry Historic District could come up.

“I don’t think there will be any opposition,” she said, noting that were there any concerns or objections they would have already come up. “I think the only viable option for us is to preserve it. I can’t think of anything that would discourage us from doing so.”

The optimism was reiterated by others.

“The Neighborhood Advisory Committee is very pleased that the committee moved the Cass Henry Block to full council for consideration. We look forward to this important part of Detroit history playing an important role in Detroit’s future,” said Francis Grunow chair of the NAC in the Arena District.

Representatives from Olympia Development, which is owned by the Ilitch family, were not present at the meeting. The Free Press reached out to the organization to get a comment on council’s decision, but hadn't heard back.

Should the block turn into a historic district, any developments would have to be reviewed by the Historic District Committee, which strives to preserve historic and architectural integrity.

Issues, such as blight, however, would remain under the purview of the Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering & Environmental Department. Two of the buildings that could be part of the historic district — the former Hotel Ansonia at 2247 Cass Ave. and the former Atlanta Apartments at 2467 Cass Ave. — are windowless and therefore violating city code. Still, despite these issues, they have not received a blight violation since 2009 when the Ilitches purchased the buildings.On May 21, following question from the Free Press, the building received a notice demanding a series of corrections be made by May 30. The Ilitches were subsequently given an extension. They have, now, until July 9 to make the corrections.

David Bell, BSEED director, said the extension was not because the city was waiting to see what would happen with the historical-designation vote.