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Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Empty Detroit hospital building heading to auction
A vacant hospital building in northeast Detroit is up for grabs starting June 24 in an online auction. The building at 4777 East Outer Drive, less than a mile south of Eight Mile and near the Bel Air Luxury Cinema, opened in 1946 as Holy Cross Hospital and underwent several expansions over the years. It was purchased in 1996 by what was then St. John Health and renamed St. John NorthEast Hospital. St. John Health eventually closed the 295-bed hospital in 2004 amid dwindling patient counts. However, the building stayed open as a medical mall, hosting various clinics, social services entities and an urgent care. It most recently operated as the Conner Creek Health Center until shortly after September 2023, which is when the hospital site's owner, a limited liability company called Conner Creek Center, filed for bankruptcy. The company had bought the hospital property in 2015. A three-day auction for the hospital building and its 13.3-acre site is scheduled to begin Tuesday, June 24, and end Thursday, June 26. Bidding is to start at $400,000. The auction is marketed as a "lender owned redevelopment opportunity" being organized by the property's receiver, the Farmington Hills-based M. Shapiro Real Estate Group, which didn't return messages seeking comment for this article. The Conner Creek Health Center reportedly had nearly a dozen tenants as recently as 2020, including a residential substance abuse treatment facility. On the same day that Conner Creek Center filed for bankruptcy — Sept. 22, 2023 — the owner sold a roughly 3-acre portion of the hospital's parking lot to a group looking to build housing for low-income military veterans. More: Herman Kiefer developer has another property, an abandoned church, and it's for sale The group broke ground later that fall on the 50-unit Benjamin O. Davis Veterans Village, which is named for the first Black general officer in the U.S. Army. The city of Detroit is contributing $1.4 million in funding for the project from its share of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Bob Beale, general manager of the veterans village project, said they hope to finish construction soon and open the village to residents before the end of the year. The Conner Creek property's bankruptcy did present some challenges to its own project, Beale said, as it essentially opened a $1.6 million hole in the budget. "So we paid basically all of their outstanding debts," he said of the hospital property's owner, "at least the outstanding debts that would affect the part of the property we were trying to purchase, with the anticipation they would pay us back. And instead of paying us back, they filed bankruptcy." Beale said the old hospital building itself appeared to be in decent condition the last time he saw it from inside, which was 2023. 'I am hoping that someone comes along and does something good with that property," he said. An attorney for Conner Creek Center LLC couldn't be reached for comment the afternoon of Friday, June 20. U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents identify the owners of the limited liability company as 99% the Dorothy E. McLemore Trust and 1% Andrew Gene McLemore Sr. Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@ Follow him on X @jcreindl This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Empty Detroit hospital building heading to auction
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Detroit's RenCen: Historical photos of GM HQ take you back in time
Detroit's Renaissance Center has been a crowning gem of the city's skyline since the 1970s. But since General Motors announced plans to move its headquarters out of the towers, the RenCen has faced questions about its future, including the possibility of demolition. With the fate of the skyscrapers at stake, we decided to take a peek into the photographical archives, back to when the project was announced, its groundbreaking, big events and eventually, its status as a ghost-town, when COVID-19 temporarily cleared the building in favor of remote work and GM moved some employees to Warren. Scroll through the gallery below, for a look into the history of the iconic landmark. Here are some recent news stories to capture where the development discussions stand: Historic review: Detroit City Council shoots down RenCen historic review, paving way for GM, Bedrock plan Sound off: Detroiters feel mixed about RenCen demolition plan Neal Rubin: I explored the almost-vacant RenCen. Here's what I found. The RenCen consists of seven towers, of which GM owns the original five. The original structure opened in 1977 and consists of four 39-story office towers surrounding a central 73-story hotel, which is now a Marriott. The original plan for the RenCen was proposed in 1971 by auto magnate Henry Ford II, then chairman of Ford Motor Co. The architect was John Portman and the development's original ownership was a 49-member partnership spearheaded by Henry Ford II. The restaurant near the top of the central tower at one time featured a revolving floor. In 1981, two additional 21-story towers were built. Those two shorter towers were sold in 2023 by a New Jersey utility company, which had owned them for years, to Farmington Hills-based real estate firm Friedman Real Estate. One of those buildings houses Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The other is mostly vacant. GM bought the RenCen in 1996 to be its world headquarters. Previously, GM was located in Detroit's New Center area in what was then called the General Motors Building, now known as Cadillac Place. The automaker went on to spend over $500 million on renovations and upgrades to the RenCen in the late 1990s and early 2000s that were widely credited with making the center better, and its labyrinthine corridors somewhat easier to navigate. The weekday population in the RenCen plunged following the COVID-19 pandemic and the continued popularity of remote and hybrid work arrangements. GM also relocated a number of workers from the RenCen to its Technical Center in Warren. The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit's RenCen: Historical photos of GM HQ take you back in time Sign in to access your portfolio
