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City Council Votes To Demolish Depot

Council Wants Owner To Pay For Demolition

POSTED: Tuesday, April 7, 2009
UPDATED: 6:47 pm EDT April 7, 2009

DETROIT -- It may finally be the end of the line for Detroit's old Michigan Central Train Station.

City, community and business leaders have debated for years what to do with the building, which is owned by billionaire businessman Manuel "Matty" Moroun.

Tuesday, the Detroit City Council voted to tear the building down and make Moroun pay for the demolition.

Council passed a resolution that calls for an emergency demolition order.

"I want it down now," said Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins. "It's obviously a public hazard."

The building was closed in 1988. Since then, it has been used to film several movies, but Council President Monica Conyers said, "it should've been down years ago." According to Conyers, the city can use its blight ordinance which would allow the city to take over the neglected property.

City attorneys have been asked to draft a report about how to enforce the resolution.

Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr. hopes to use $3.6 million in federal economic stimulus money to demolish the train depot. Several council members oppose the idea of using city or federal money for the project.

"The city should have no obligation whatsoever to tear it down," said Collins, who described Moroun as a "sweet person ...though he's a king of his own little kingdom."

Conyers, who is also against using federal money, said she is willing to give Moroun one final chance if he "came up with some type of plan to make it viable," like using the building as a shopping outlet.

Moroun, who owns the Ambassador Bridge, has been focused on a plan to build a second bridge next to the Ambassador Bridge. He has 30 days to respond to council's emergency demolition resolution on the train depot.
more comments; http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19120317/detail.html

2 reasons why they cannot tear it down:
Michigan Historical Register: Listed September 17, 1974
National Historical Register: Listed April 16, 1975
If the city is looking to "stomp out blight" how about cleaning up the burned houses and ruins from the riots.
Tear down the trash not the history.

Its been empty for 21 years so why the big rush now? Id say use the money towards tearing down vacant houses in neighborhoods but that wouldnt even put a dent in it.

If city council was really concerned with blight they would tear down vacant city owned or public school buildings first.

Put it this way guys there were many ways of preserving it and putting it to use, but all those plans were cancelled. Its been sitting dormant for years. Trainman2223 is right on the historic registers, but if the building has any structure deficiencies, then it can't be saved. For years I would of liked it being saved, but from the looks of things in Detroit, don't count on it.

Remodel it and turn it into the 'Michigan Works' building for Detroit.
Since unemployment is on the rise in Detroit they will need a building of this size to process claims and provide a waiting area for all the people.

Check out the new video from John Rich http://www.johnrich.com about Detroit.
Even if you are not a Country music fan the video is true to life.

I was under the impression that Maroun & Kilpatrick had a deal about 3 years ago whereby Maroun sold the depot to Kilpatrick/City Of Detroit to make into a police station/jail (also for Kilpatrick to convince his mother or sister who was the state rep for that area to vote no on the building of another tunnel to Windsor that would compete with Maroun's Ambassedor Bridge). You guys are about one thing though, the depot sits out in an area by itself, lets tear down the vacant bldgs in the inner city 1st!

Mr. Moroun has tried to tear it down already but can't becuase of its historic status.

Crow T Robot wrote:Mr. Moroun has tried to tear it down already but can't becuase of its historic status.

But with the cities declaration of structural issues, it will speed the process up. Dont let anyone fool you, the council is helping out Mr. Moroun with this declaration. No big surprise. It would help him out even more if they use stimulus money to do the project. Good old Detroit politics at work here.

The designation on the National Register of Historic Places only prevents federal dollars from being used in its demolition, thought a long process called Section 106 Review. If Matty wanted to use his own $$$, he could do it and I don't think anything could stop him. It is also on the State of Michigan Register of Historic Sites, but to my knowledge that also provides no real protection. Note that under both entries, the station is listed as Penn-Central Station, as that was the owner in the mid 1970s when it was added to both lists.

The whole deal is very complicated... the city doesn't have the money upfront to make demo possible. Federal Stimulus dollars could be obtained (though a demo of this sort in my mind really does not quality as a "stimulus"), but it is unclear is that would trigger the Federal Section 106 Review process. Demolishing MC with city of Detroit demolition would wipe out the city's demo budget for an entire fiscal year, money that really needs to be spent demolishing abandoned and un-salvagable structures near schools, for example. AND, if they do get stimulus money....well, that could be spent somewhere else in the city doing other projects that really are more important, like making sure streetlights work, for example. Nevermind the fact that no one has explained how they're going to demolish the station, considering a portion of the baggage and REA rooms exist under the roadbed of the line entering the Detroit River Tunnel....you can't just knock that stuff out!

That said, HOPEFULLY this announcement will lead to some arrangement where the station can be saved, either mothballed properly until something can be done with it, or adaptively reused/restored, even if a little at a time, to make it viable again. The structure is still sound despite all those broken windows, but with each passing day, the situation gets more dire.

Yes Section 106 applies to Stimulus funds. Every and all federal regulations apply. If a project doesn't have the required reviews complete or very close to being complete, there is no way the project will make the deadlines for having the money obligated ie under contract. (Dealing with the regulation issue on my employer's projects )

Future Of Detroit Train Depot Debated
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19130672/detail.html

POSTED: Wednesday, April 8, 2009
UPDATED: 6:33 pm EDT April 8, 2009

DETROIT -- It may finally be the end of the line for Detroit's old Michigan Central Train Station.

City, community and business leaders have debated for years what to do with the building, which was built in 1913 and has been vacant for 20 years.

Tuesday, the Detroit City Council voted to tear the building down. But after hearing of the council's plan, others Wednesday vowed to save it.

Groups, Council Debate Depot's Future (video) http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/19130786/index.html


The same company who owns the Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit International Bridge Company, owns the depot. And company president, Dan Stamper, said there shouldn't be a rush to demolish the building.

"We're not asking anyone for money to tear it down. It would have been better if they had called us and said, 'Hey Dan, what can we do to get together and do something about this piece of property?'"

When asked if there were any projects in the works to revive the depot, Stamper said there's been offers.

"We have a couple proponents who want to come and make presentations to us on ideas they have to save it," he said. "Don't know if any of them are more than pie in the sky, but if they are, we want to pursue them."

A member of the Corktown Development Group said even if the depot stands vacant for 20 more years, it would still offer economic development.

"That's our Ellis Island. We can honor it as a vacant space," said group member Jim McKay. "Without putting any into the interior, it can be opened up and used."

McKay said money needs to be spent on abandoned buildings, but thinks the focus on the depot is "ridiculous" and that the money should be spent on going into neighborhoods.

"It's easy to destroy things and hard to save them," Stamper said.


Previous Stories:
April 8, 2009: City Council Votes To Demolish Depot
April 8, 2009: History Of Train Depot

I say open back to rail Traffic.... Thats OUR Union Station..... Technically.... its the only origional station downtown left if I am correct. This new Amtrak run Local services should go back to using, after heavy renovation, the station....

The simple truth is that if it isn't "black history", it's got to go! Just like Hudsons, Briggs Stadium, the Monroe Block, The Olympia, and other Detroit historic buildings. These were all symbols, and constant reminders of what Detroit once was, and never will be again!
The simple fact is that nobody wants to invest any money in Detroit. Both Comerica Park, and Ford Field, should more properly be called "Taxpayer Park"!

One of the problems with the MC Depot was that it wasn't located "downtown" - early years Mich Ave had streetcars, who wants to ride a Detroit bus?????!!!!!!!!

i say tear it down, the building was way too inefficient and impractical.

OK, Trying to take an objective look at this.

The Michigan Central Depot in Detroit was, in it's heyday, one of the grandest railroad depots in history. I left from there in the early sixties to go into the military, and disembarked from the Cannonball when I returned a few years later. Based on that, it is part of my history and the history of the city of Detroit. Once upon a time it was the greatest.

Taking a look at it today, and seeing that it has gone to rack and ruin in the hands of the owner of the Ambassador Bridge-Matty Maroun- who bought it cheap for back taxes, tells me the building is not worth the cost of renovating. Corporations are deserting Michigan because of taxes, so it's not likely any of them would be interested in a building of that vintage. The depot has been robbed of it's grandeur by thieves looking for scrap metal, and vandalized to the point of uselessness. What is the point in trying to save it when there is no money to do so or no return on that money if it is so spent?

Indeed, it saddens me to see it demolished. If it had been kept in good repair, it may have stood a chance. We have seen our cities decay, and that's not a problem unique to America. It's happening all over the world.

Just my two cents worth,

I was down there today it's only 4 walls and a kinda sorta roof.... Not worth saving (at a boat load of money to help it) and hard to look at...... I hate to see it happen but it's got to be torn down..... it is SAD...... and there are no doors not really any windows either and of course the inside is gutted more or less....

People get old and are sent into exile to waste away and die.

Horses get old and are sent to the glue factory.

Buildings get old and abandoned and burn, fall down or are destroyed.

The Historical Regeitry should be nothing more than a book in a library.

Stories and photos should be stored in safe, dry places to be read or looked at
by grandchildren. Nothing more.

I was in the depot a few years ago and it made me sick to see the condition it was in. Like many of you I too boarded many a train out of that station between 1958 and 1985, I also worked in that depot from 1968 until 1985 so much of my life was spent there, but it has to go - it is too far gone to save.

Is it practical to tear it down though? Aside from the rooms under the approach to the tunnel under the river, are there other parts of the foundation which, if removed, would require expensive infrastructure changes to non-station structures? It seems that if demolishing the station would cause significant expenses to be incurred by entities not affiliated with the demolition of the station, the city would have to remedy those expenses before condemning the structure under the blight laws...