 
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6529
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 5:50 am: |    |
GHETTO ALERT!
The Old Kresge/Cunningham's Dept. Store Building on the corner of Woodward Ave. and Sears St. at Downtown Highland Park is on fire. Just as Downtown Highland Park is slowing coming back to life, a possible firebug or just a simple electrical problem or insurance money interferes. What the community is going to do? |
Douglasm
Member
Username: Douglasm
Post Number: 937
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 7:19 am: | |
Sad. I'm dealing with memory here, but the two stores were next to each other with Cunninghams on the corner, right? |
Livernoisyard
Member
Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 3970
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 7:25 am: | |
Isn't that fire near (or at) the Shopper's World store, whose entire chain bellied up recently? |
Eric_c
Member
Username: Eric_c
Post Number: 1038
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 8:19 am: | |
Yup. |
Charlottepaul
Member
Username: Charlottepaul
Post Number: 1710
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 10:20 am: | |
"Downtown Highland Park"
Never really thought that Highland Park had much of a downtown per se. Guess you learn something new everyday on DetroitYES! |
Lowell
Board Administrator
Username: Lowell
Post Number: 4153
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 11:09 am: | |
Downtown Highland Park [back in prime time] ran from the Davison Expressway to the Model T Plant and still does to some extent although it is marked by some very transient businesses. The new hub is the shopping center / strip malls in front of the Model T [Model T Plaza]. There is a fast food hub around Woodward and Davison now, but not much in between.
The Sears store was the great anchor with Kresges, Highland Appliance further south.
Development of the Sears lot is now underway. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6533
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 12:44 pm: | |
Now under way Mr. Boileau while that firebug is running amok. He won't stop burning houses abd buildings in Highland Park until its demands are met. |
Treelock
Member
Username: Treelock
Post Number: 220
Registered: 03-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 1:21 pm: | |
I'd almost cheer, so ugly was the empty Shopper's World building, except for the certainty that the burned-out hulk will likely stand indefinitely.
A note on the development of the adjacent Sears site: They are putting in yet another strip mall. Have the developers not noticed there are two empty or near-empty strip malls just a mile or so south in the same city? |
Chris_rohn
Member
Username: Chris_rohn
Post Number: 335
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 1:43 pm: | |
Yes but this strip mall has an Aldi Foods and the Highland Park Police Station |
Livernoisyard
Member
Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 3974
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 1:47 pm: | |
Does Aldi sell doughnuts> |
Cman710
Member
Username: Cman710
Post Number: 362
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 2:05 pm: | |
This is a picture of Shopper's World I took in August 2006.
This is what burned down, right? |
Douglasm
Member
Username: Douglasm
Post Number: 938
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 2:09 pm: | |
Lowell....
Ture, but the core of Downtown Highland Park was around Sears and to the south about a block to Manchester. I remember Mary Jane Shoes, Cunninghams, Kresge, Davidson Jewelry, with a couple other stores in that block. In the late '60's, it was a nifty place to both shop and/or work..... |
Jman
Member
Username: Jman
Post Number: 93
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 2:40 pm: | |
When I was a kid in the 40's and 50's we called it uptown. If we said downtown, we meant Detroit. |
Davetroit
Member
Username: Davetroit
Post Number: 21
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 8:18 pm: | |
Treelock, I wouldn't be so certain about the remains of this building sitting indefinitely (although I wouldn't fault you for this assumption given the norm in this city).
The owner of the property has a couple different preliminary site plans drawn up for a redevelopment - done prior to this mornings fire. |
Davetroit
Member
Username: Davetroit
Post Number: 22
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 8:22 pm: | |
The police station in the Aldi center next block up will not replace the vacant HP Police Dept, but will be a +/- 500 sf mini center similar to the one at Mack Alter Square - not that it's a bad thing though. They also have Community Arts Credit Union on the tenant roster so far. |
Mrsjdaniels
Member
Username: Mrsjdaniels
Post Number: 245
Registered: 08-2005
| | Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 11:54 am: | |
this burned down space looks awful now :-( |
Rocket_city
Member
Username: Rocket_city
Post Number: 403
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 2:02 pm: | |
Build a Woodward mass transit line and the fires will go away. Property values will go up and the arsonists will move to other abandoned areas.
I guess I should add having pressure in the hydrants will also play an important role in preventing complete destruction. |