Quote:
Originally Posted by DCReid
While it seems to me that downtown Detroit has turned a corner although I haven't been there in at least 25 years, I don't see it 'booming' to the point that they need to consider demolishing the complex. It seems like an unwise thought given the challenging issues much of the city still faces. Renovation and possible residential conversion of one or two office towers makes more sense to me. They are also better off encouraging GM and Gilbert to redevelop any parking lots into small mixed use, sprucing up older buildings, and fixing up adjacent areas to the downtown. RenCen land can only get more valuable as it is on the river, so any idea to demolish can really wait.
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That's a catch-22. By developing the parking space around the Ren Cen, there will be less parking for the Ren Cen making it harder to market to tenants or having less spots for any would-be residents.
In other words, growth around the Ren Cen makes it more likely to sit empty.
Don't forget, the Ren Cen was designed to be a self-contained complex and not integrate with the surrounding neighborhood. The Wintergarden was an attempt to at least partly remedy this, but it's not enough to mask the Ren Cen's other flaws in its design.
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