  Aiw Member Username: Aiw Post Number: 5674 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 64.228.201.159 |
Sleaze in Dearborn. P.D.J. | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 596 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.189.188.28 |
I understand the problems involved with the purchase, but it would be interesting to see what kind of development proposals come out of this. Large downtown stores like this are the pits to redevelop, although the trend is turning in their favor. This store has one major advantage. We've got a number of downtown J.C. Penney stores in my area that would require a fair amount of work because of the clading the company put on their buildings in the 50's to give them a common look. Wards never went for the "moderanization" trend and their buildings are better off for it. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 335 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 24.192.25.47 |
I used to live in a mid-sized town in Central Illinois that had a downtown Sears which, bucking the trend, lasted well into the 90s before moving to the mall. The building was a pretty unremarkable two-story concrete mid-century "modern" building. Eventually, the location was remodeled and turned into the new city library...the design and layout of which is still pretty unremarkable, but the former library location was also renovated and turned into something else, so everyone wins. | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 309 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.55.51 |
Detroit had an exact duplicate of that Montgomery Wards building at Gratiot and 7 Mile. It was demolished a few years ago and replaced by a Kroger. Kroger pulled out after a couple of years because they weren't making the profit that the Kroger store a couple of miles away was making. The building is now known as Mike's Fresh Market, the only thing fresh in the store being the manager, who ogles the female shoppers. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2660 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.123.28 |
This is a smaller version of the metro detroit ward;s anchor store at GR/Greenfield. The dearborn store remained open for a few years longer than the GR greenfield store but since closing it has remained empty. The GR greenfield building went through a few rounds of adaptive reuse of varying success. I was suprised that the AA museum didn;t go into the Dearborn wards site instead of into a smaller site kitty corner. Dearborn has a history of strongarming and sleaze in it's commercial strip along Michigan ... recall the calvin theater fires and the shennigans re the jacobsons site in westborn or the mothballing of the MI/schaeffer intersection for a decade and a half (while surrounding east dearborn boomed) and, of course, the topless bars in east dearborn. | ||
7milekid Member Username: 7milekid Post Number: 134 Registered: 01-2006 Posted From: 68.61.161.193 |
Ed, Mikes fresh market is sweet, so quit talkin schitt | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 311 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.55.51 |
Are you the manager? | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4083 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.171.136.201 |
Montgomery Ward was a great merchant. Too bad, his legacy is so fouled. His huge monster regional warehouse in Portland, Oregon is called Montgomery Park now, redone by the Naito Family into office space. They did a wonderful restoration of a huge volume of a building. The RR tracks between the two bldgs. was removed and covered over by a giant multi-storey atrium with open elevator cars, Hyatt style. The atrium connects the two bldgs. jjaba. | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 597 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.189.188.28 |
Anybody have a guess at the first rehab job done on an old "downtown" style department store? I think the Wards in Royal Oak was converted into the National Bank Of Royal Oak offices in what, '67 or so...... |
