Sven Gustafson - Daily Detroit (Page 14)

Oprah Names Ferndale Author Michael Zadoorian’s ‘Beautiful Music’ A Top Summer Read

Oprah Winfrey has named “Beautiful Music,” the new novel from Ferndale-based writer Michael Zadoorian, a recent guest on the Daily Detroit Happy Hour podcast, to her Top Books of Summer list for 2018. On the Happy Hour, Zadoorian spoke about his previous novel, “The Leisure Seeker,” which was turned into a feature-length movie starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. He also spoke about “Beautiful Music” ahead of its official May 1 release from Akashic Books. The book takes place in e...

LISTEN: Economic Development Manager Todd Fenton Discusses Rethink Royal Oak Project

If you’ve been to downtown Royal Oak recently, you’ve probably noticed lots of construction, as the city grows upward, with several mixed-use, mid-rise buildings under way. One of the newer projects, located just east of Main Street, is actually being steered mostly by the city government itself. Rethink Royal Oak is the name of a project that encompasses several individual projects: * A privately owned 140,000 square-foot Class A office building * A 581-spot parking structure * New bu...

Albert Kahn Building In Detroit's New Center To Be Converted To Residential

The historic Albert Kahn Building in Detroit’s New Center has a new owner. The new owners are Adam Lutz, of Lutz Real Estate Investments and Matthew Sosin of Northern Equities Group. They plan to convert it into more than 200 apartments. They purchased the building from a joint venture including Detroit-based The Platform, which is redeveloping a number of nearby New Center properties. The purchase price was not disclosed. Plans are still being formulated, but the new owners say they also...

LISTEN: Democrat Shri Thanedar On His Proposals For Michigan, Answers Questions About Research Animals

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Shri Thanedar stopped by the Daily Detroit table during the Mackinac Policy Conference to talk about his campaign, his progressive views and respond to allegations that he left hundreds of research animals to die after his pharmaceutical company went bust in 2010. Thanedar has become arguably the most colorful character on either side of the political aisle in the race for governor this year. He’s an immigrant from India who came to the United States 39 ye...

Detroit Loses MLS Bid To FC Cincinnati

Detroit’s bid to win a Major League Soccer franchise suffered a setback when bidders settled on Ford Field as a venue. That’s the view of MLS commissioner Don Garber who said Detroit was a front-runner to get a new franchise until backers Dan Gilbert and Tom Gores abandoned plans for a soccer-specific stadium on the site of the stalled Wayne County Jail. Gilbert and Gores in November announced they were partnering with the Ford family and would instead retrofit Ford Field for soccer. Barbe...

Work Continues On The Rethinking Royal Oak Development

Workers will soon begin construction on a 581-space parking garage in downtown Royal Oak. It’s part of a larger development project dubbed Rethinking Royal Oak. It includes a new public park, police station, city hall, and a six-story office building. The project kicked off earlier this month with the groundbreaking for the six-story Royal Oak City Center in front of the current city hall. Officials say the north side of the Williams Street parking lot, near the city’s public library, will c...

Eastern Market

Detroit Residential Development Round Up

A long-vacant building that hulks over I-375 in downtown Detroit is set to be demolished so developers can build housing in its place. It’s part of a number of developments Crain’s reports are coming to the city’s near east side. The Lafayette West project envisions two buildings; one being twelve story and the other being five stories. It will be on the site of the former Wayne State University Shapero Hall. The site would become more than 300 apartments and 60 for-sale condominiums. Else...

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel Torpedoes RTA Plan Prior to Mackinac Policy Conference

Regional transit is one of the big issues overshadowing this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference, with a panel discussion slated for Thursday and the issue atop the wish list of many business and civic leaders in attendance. Wayne County Executive Warren Evans on Tuesday posted a video he made about the difficulties in using a bus to go from downtown Detroit to Novi. Evans is a key transit proponent and is scheduled to speak at the conference on Wednesday. But getting a Regional Transit Autho...

Artists in DetroitDetroit Murals

PODCAST: Meet The Man Chronicling All Of Detroit's Beautiful Street Murals, Viranel Clerard

Detroit is becoming a mecca for murals. Our guest on the Daily Detroit Happy Hour today is aiming to catalog it all. Viranel Clerard is the man behind the Detroit Mural Project, which you can find on the Internet machine at detroitmurals.com. The site organizes murals by neighborhood and includes a description of the artist and who it was commissioned by, when known, a link to the artist’s Instagram page, and location of the mural. He saves his commentary about the murals mostly fo...

Ford Begins Moving 200 Employees Into New Corktown Offices

Ford Motor Co. is beginning its new chapter in Detroit’s historic Corktown neighborhood. The Dearborn-based automaker has begun moving about 200 employees to a refurbished hosiery factory in Detroit. It’s the first step in what may become a much larger, consolidated urban campus housing the automaker’s electric and autonomous vehicle and mobility operations. Word is an announcement is coming in mid-June about the purchase of the long-empty and blighted Michigan Central Station. No deal...

Detroit City FC To Host Italian Club Frosinone Calcio July 31

If you listen to this show regularly, you know we are fans of the Detroit City FC soccer team and have a new weekly segment with soccer correspondent Fletcher Sharpe. On Thursday, the team announced it’s added a new international friendly — its third — for the 2018 season. Le Rouge will host Italian club Frosinone Calcio at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck on Tuesday, July 31. The match will be presented by DTE Energy. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m., and tickets start at $15. Frosinone Calcio...

Macomb Township

Detroit's Population Drops Again — But More Slowly

Despite all the new loft apartments and other development activity in certain core neighborhoods, the city of Detroit continues to lose population. An annual U.S. Census estimate released Thursday pegged Detroit’s population at 673,104 as of last summer. That’s a drop of about 2,300 people — a little lower than the previous year’s loss and a 10th of the rate of population loss of the 2000s. At its peak, Detroit had nearly 1.9 million people in 1950. The Detroit News reports that utility...

Caesars Windsor Postpones All Concerts and Cancels Hotel Reservations Through June 16

Checking in on news across the river, Caesars Windsor says it’s postponing all concerts and canceling hotel reservations through June 16th. The casino resort is locked in a labor dispute with the union that represents 23-hundred employees. The announcement affects performances by Blink-182 … Russell Peters … and Cole Swindell. Ticket holders will have their tickets honored when the shows are rescheduled. Hotel reservation-holders will be notified by email or phone. Caesars Windsor rem...

PODCAST: St. Pauli FC, U.S. Open Cup: This Week In Detroit City FC With Fletcher Sharpe

It was a big week for Detroit City FC, with a midweek loss to drop them out of the U.S. Open Cup and a weekend friendly against one of Germany’s most popular clubs. I checked in with Midfield Press correspondent Fletcher Sharpe for a rundown of all the action....

Bedrock Projects In Detroit Approved For $618 Million In Incentives

A state panel has approved hundreds of millions in tax incentives tied to four major projects planned by Dan Gilbert in downtown Detroit. The Michigan Strategic Fund today approved $618 million in tax incentives for four projects being undertaken by Gilbert’s Bedrock real estate arm. They are: * The redevelopment of the former Hudson’s site on Woodward * A multi-use redevelopment of the Monroe Block between Campus Martius and Greektown * Restoration of the historic Book Build...

$12/Hour Minimum Wage Initiative Submits Signatures, Could Go Before Michigan Voters

A group pushing to raise Michigan’s minimum wage has submitted signatures in a bid to get a proposal on the November ballot. The Michigan One Fair Wage group wants voters to decide whether Michigan’s minimum wage should be raised to $12 an hour by 2022. It turned in more than 370,000 signatures. That’s well above the roughly 250,000 that the Board of State Canvassers needs to certify. If it does, the proposal would go before the Legislature, which would have the option of passing it on it...

DevelopmentDon't Ferndale My Royal Oak Ferndale

In Ferndale, Angst Rises Alongside Housing Prices And New Developments

My wife and I talk a lot lately about what to do with our house. We just passed our 13th anniversary of buying our first home here in Ferndale. We’ve had two children in that time. Our home is, at long last, no longer under water, and we think we could probably turn a decent profit from selling it. Like anyone else, we’d like to upgrade to something a bit nicer. We want to stay in Ferndale. But we’re not sure we can afford to buy a home here anymore. Ferndale is in the midst of an incredib...

LISTEN: Could Highland Park Get A New High School? An Interview With School Board President Alexis Ramsey

Highland Park’s school district is a shadow of its former self following years of state emergency management, the closure of its high school in 2015 and its subsequent demolition. But the district is now out of financial oversight and looking to grow. Last week, while recording an episode of the Daily Detroit Happy Hour, we ran into Highland Park School Board President Alexis Ramsey. We spoke with her about what’s new with the struggling district … its relationship with a for-profit charter...