12 signs of growing interest in Milwaukee Junction
A famous Berlin techno impresario has talked about converting the crumbling, city-owned Fisher Body plant on Piquette into a techno club. (Bridge photo by Bill McGraw)1) The popular Bucharest Grill is opening its third Detroit location, at John R and Piquette.
2) Jordan Wolfe, co-owner of the renovated Claridge House apartments on Washington Boulevard, and partners purchased the Chap Lofts on E. Grand Boulevard last July.
3) Three students from the University of Michigan business school and their instructor hope to close soon on a two-story building at East Baltimore and Woodward upon which they plan to add a floor and create seven to 14 apartments. The development is called Baltimore Station.
4) In the most recent Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction, all Milwaukee Junction properties were sold ‒ the first time that had happened. There were about three dozen parcels available.
5) Midtown Detroit Inc., the nonprofit powerhouse that helped fuel development north of downtown, has made small investments in two Milwaukee Junction projects. Midtown czarina Susan Mosey says interest is the Junction is “starting to pick up.”
6) JacobsStreet, a small real estate development firm, hopes to break ground soon on an apartment project at 207 East Baltimore.
7) JacobsStreet also is developing a creative campus around its Baltimore Gallery at 314 East Baltimore, formerly known as The Untitled Bottega. The Knight Foundation awarded the project $100,000 to create an outdoor theater and cultural hub.
8) Dave Biskner, a real estate developer and president of the board of directors of the Friends of Milwaukee Junction, purchased the 120-year-old Art Stove Co. building at East Milwaukee and Russell and plans to turn it into work areas for small-scale entrepreneurs and an event space.
9) Carlo Liburdi, who grew up in Troy and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., controls an interest in a crumbling building at Beaubien and East Milwaukee and said his goal is to build several residential units and a bar.
10) Dennis Kefallinos, who owns a number of Detroit properties, including the Russell Industrial Center, says he will start building lofts in the deteriorating Fairmont Creamery building on East Milwaukee, which he has owned for several years.
11) Berlin-based Dimitri Hegemann – founder of Berlin’s Tresor, one of the world’s most famous techno-music clubs – has said he is looking at the massive Fisher Body plant on Piquette for a possible location for a techno club and community project.
12) Alex Pereira, a 35-year-old real estate developer, paid $25,000 for a derelict residential building on the Edsel Ford Freeway service drive that he’s slowly converting to a six-unit condo.
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