10 Before- and-After Images of Detroit’s Real Estate Progress through Demolition

Detroit has been coming down to have a chance at building back up. A massive amount of funding has been spent and earmarked to raze Motown properties to the ground, some because they were eyesores and endangered pedestrians, others to make room for larger redevelopment projects. It seems like nothing escaped the mighty bulldozers: not churches, not stadiums, not historic buildings, not even Eminem’s old house.

We turned to Google Street View and pulled out images of the city from 2007 to compare it with the Detroit of today. Here are some of the properties that were once a part of Detroit’s cityscape but have since been demolished. Simply drag the arrow bar back-and-forth to view the old and the new images.

1. Lafayette Building, Downtown

Once “Michigan’s finest office building,” the triangular Lafayette Building was demolished in 2009. To the left is the newly-constructed Michigan Avenue Garage at 150 Michigan Avenue at Griswold St. developed by the Downtown Development Authority. It includes 10,000 square feet of prime retail frontage and a 10-story, 545 space parking garage.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/1-Lafayette-Building.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

2. Charlevoix Building , Park Avenue Historic District, Downtown

Built in 1905, the Charlevoix Building was one of the city’s oldest surviving hotels. Developed as an office building, it instead opened as a hotel, spent a short time as an apartment building, and finally transformed into a commercial building in 1922. The property closed in the 1980s and sat neglected. In 2012 several bricks from the front facade fell, hitting a car below, commencing a back and forth between the courts and the building’s owner about its future. It was finally demolished in 2013.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/2-Charlevoix-Building.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

3. Devon Garages North Unit, Downtown

Built in 1926, next door to the Charlevoix, the Devon Garages North Unit was an 8 floor parking garage. It sat vacant for decades on an open swath of land that spanned four blocks. To create more parking for the NCCA Final Four basketball championship in 2009, the Detroit Downtown Development Authority used Super Bowl XL State grant money to tear down the garage along with five other structures at the request of its owners, Olympia Development.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/3-Devon-Garages.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

4. CARE Building /The AAA Building, Downtown

The five-story AAA building, constructed in 1935 at 139 Bagley Street, was nicknamed The CARE Building after being graffitied for a Kid Rock music video. The property was severely damaged from a fire during the demolition of the Statler Hotel in 2005. The city sued the owner and the judge ordered it demolished. For years legal disputes raged but it was finally razed in 2009. In its place the Detroit City Council approved Village Green’s plans to construct the Statler City Apartments, a $40 million mixed-use development with 235 apartments, but the owner is still fighting for the lot and damages.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/4-CARE-Building.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

5. Ford Auditorium, Hart Plaza, Downtown

Built in 1955 on the Detroit Riverfront at 130 Atwater St., the modern style, Ford Auditorium, served as a home to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for more than 33 years. The building was shuttered a year after the Orchestra left in 1989. With approval from Ford and the city, the building was demolished in 2011 as part of the city’s waterfront redesign plans. Today it is a dirt plot surrounded by wire fencing.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/5-Ford-Auditorium.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

6. Cass Technical High School, Midtown

The gothic style Cass Technical High School on Second Avenue was built in 1907. After building a new campus for Cass Tech in 2005, the old building stood empty for six more years. In 2007 there was a large fire in the old structure and in 2011 it was completely demolished. In its place are softball and baseball fields for the school.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/6-Cass-Technical-High-School.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

7. Frederick Douglass Apartments, Brush Park

The 14-story high-rise towers 306, 305, 302, 301 at 650 Alfred Street represent the last of a community demolished in 2014. They were part of the Brewster-Douglass Project, built for the “working poor”, between 1952 and 1955. Due to declining tenancy, a rise in crime, and increasing disrepair, the projects were only 36 percent occupied by 1990. Two of the six towers, 303 and 304, were demolished in 2003, to consolidate living space and reduce maintenance costs. By 2008, the housing complex was shut down completely and left abandoned. Currently, the 18 acre-tract sits empty.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/7-Frederick-Douglass-Apartments.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

8. First Unitarian Church of Detroit, Woodward, Midtown

Built in 1890, the 124-year-old Romanesque Revival style First Unitarian Church of Detroit was a state-designated historic building. The property went through various owners before finally being abandoned in the 2000s. A suspicious fire tore through the church in 2014 completely gutting the interior and collapsing the roof. The city sued the former owner over the cleanup but arson investigations were un- conclusive. Currently the lot sits empty.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/8-First-Unitarian-Church.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

9. Tiger Stadium, Corktown

Built in 1911 and nicknamed “The Corner” for its location, Tiger Stadium was home to the Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball team from 1912–99. After over a decade of sitting empty and several rejected redevelopment and preservation efforts, it was partially demolished in 2008. When a preservationist group failed to come up with funds, the stadium’s demolition was completed in 2009, leaving only the playing field at the corner.

A $33 million project by Larson Realty Group to redevelop the site was approved by Detroit’s Economic Development Corporation including a four-story mixed-use building with about 30,000 square-feet of retail space, 102 residential rental units, and 24 townhomes. The Detroit’s Police Athletic League will relocate to the site and maintain the field.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/9-Tiger-Stadium.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

10. Eminem’s Childhood Home, Osborn

Situated at 19946 Dresden, between 8 Mile and 7 Mile roads on Detroit’s east side, the orange bungalow on the left was Eminem’s childhood home. It sat on a street with more than 70 vacant dwellings. After it sustained substantial damage by fire, it was demolished by Michigan Land Bank in 2013. Before the blaze the house was up for sale by the Wayne County Tax Auction but a year later the land still sits vacant and off the market.

Link to Street View

Use the code below to embed the image on your website:

<iframe src=”https://www.rentcafe.com/Content/Marketing/timelapse/Detroit/10-Eminem.html” width=”100%” max-width=”570″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

What are your thoughts on Detroit’s real estate evolution? Are these demolitions for the best?

Contributor: Corie Bussell Paz, MPH is a writer in the real estate, travel, and women’s health niche. She loves researching real estate investments and has an unending hunger to travel.