Latest news with #MikeEssian
Axios
26-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Chinatown revival reshapes Cass Corridor
The Chinatown revival that began two years ago has made significant progress, with freshly developed retail space, a new historical marker and a Cass Corridor block party planned next month. Why it matters: A new Pan-Asian neighborhood around Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street would honor the past while establishing new community bonds, neighborhood amenities and businesses that celebrate the region's Asian American community. State of play: Central to the neighborhood revitalization plan was the restoration of 3175 Cass Ave., better known as the former Chung's Restaurant, which fell into disrepair after closing in 2000. The developer is now seeking tenants to fill three spaces inside the building, which has already brightened up the Peterboro block with its new, bright red pagoda-style roof. What they're saying: A new Chinese restaurant ideally would occupy the building's primary space, with other businesses like Asian grocery stores and restaurants in the other two, Mike Essian, vice president of the local development company that bought the Chung's building, tells Axios. Flashback: The new Chinatown effort was sparked in 2023 by the demolition of a vacant 19th century Cass Corridor building that once housed the Chinese Merchants Association. The destruction inspired local leaders to restore the area's cultural heritage. Zoom out: The area envisioned as the new Pan-Asian district is within the lower Cass Corridor and loosely bound by Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Park Avenue, Temple Street and 3rd Avenue. Other businesses in the area include the Detroit Shipping Company, The Peterboro restaurant and Craig's Coffee. The latest: The city unveiled a new street sign on Monday at the corner of Peterboro and Cass to honor Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who died in 1982 after two white men beat him in Highland Park, blaming him for the Japanese auto industry's impact on American jobs. The big picture: Chang also serves on the Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee, which is driving the revitalization effort and planning next month's block party.
Boston Globe
12-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump administration halts $1 billion program that keeps aging affordable housing livable
The program has already awarded the money to projects that would upgrade at least 25,000 affordable units across the country, and details of how it will be wound down remain unclear. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A spokesperson for HUD did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But an internal document reviewed by the AP said that the program is being 'terminated' at the direction of DOGE. Two HUD workers, who have knowledge of the program and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, confirmed the directive to shutter it. Advertisement On it's face, the over $1 billion Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, passed by Congress in 2022, is intended for energy-efficiency improvements. It is distributed in grants and loans to owners of affordable housing in need of updating, including replacing or repairing heating and cooling systems, leaky roofs, aging insulation or windows, or undertaking floodproofing. But the money plays a much larger role in preserving affordable units. Projects that use the funds are required to keep their buildings affordable for up to 25 years. The money is also leveraged to pull in other investments for major repairs and renovations needed to keep the buildings livable. It's like building a Jenga tower, where one of the program's grants or loans — which range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars — is a bottom block and each new block is another investment, experts said. Advertisement This money 'was essential in order for the project to come together,' said Mike Essian, vice president at American Community Developers, Inc., which received funding for several affordable housing projects. 'Projects will fail and these are projects that are already difficult to finance.' The news has been a jolt to Al Hase and Joan Starr, tenants in an apartment building in Vancouver, Washington, full of other low-income seniors with few or no other options — most of whom live on less than $33,000 a year. The 170-unit Smith Tower Apartments, built in the 1960s, is in need of updates, including it's first building-wide sprinkler system. The $10 million award was a financial kickstart for its nearly $100 million project, and is cited in applications for other investments. The potential loss 'seriously jeopardizes our ability to be able to provide an upgrade to the current systems,' said Greg Franks, president of the property's management company, adding that the work is 'needed to sustain the livability of this building based on its age, and to keep it viable for another 60 years.' 'We are depending on that $10 million,' he said. So, too, are Hase and Starr, a retired couple in their 70s who have lived there for 16 years. They fill their balcony with geraniums and petunias, count the eagles at a nearby park and live off of meager Social Security incomes. They learned about the potential funding loss in a letter from the apartment's management company. 'It's kinda terrifying, it's almost like getting news from a doctor that something's going to take your life in six months or a year,' Hase told the AP in a phone call. 'We're from an era where the wages weren't there, so our Social Security ...' he said, pausing. 'Sucks,' pitched in Starr. Advertisement 'If I'd been born a rich man,' he said. Starr added: 'We're just regular people.' 'And we're the lucky ones because we've got two social securities coming in,' she said. But being lucky ones still doesn't count for much in today's rental market. 'Prices keep going up, I've looked, and there's no way,' she said. 'It's the difference between living and not being able to live,' he said. HUD's lack of communication about the program's future sent organizations in search of contingency plans, though roughly two dozen projects will still get funding, one HUD employee told the AP. The rest are in limbo. 'If these funds aren't reinstated, we will certainly seek other funding to fill that gap. The reality is that will take time and will inevitably make the project more expensive,' Travis Phillips of the Housing Development Center said of funding for Smith Tower. It's the position several hundred other affordable-housing projects now find themselves in across 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. 'In all honesty,' said Michelle Arevalos, Smith Tower's administrator, 'if this building were not here, a lot of our folks actually probably would be homeless.'
