1. March 2005 • Scott Trudeau
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Sunday’s Ann Arbor News front page proclaims Massive downtown complex planned. The story leads:
McKinley, a national real estate firm based in downtown Ann Arbor, is buying TCF Bank’s local headquarters and three nearby parcels, planning a new, massive complex that will change the northeast end of downtown Ann Arbor.
The changes in store include the eventual vacation of long time tenant TCF, the conversion of the first floor of the building (and some parking spots) to retail and/or restaurant space, the conversion of the TCF single story training center to a restaurant, new landscaping and a paint job on the building.
So, basically, they’re banking on the increased State & Liberty population (due to the new dorm, Corner House Lofts and the “we’re really hip, really” LoFT 322) to drive up first-floor rents to the recent heights of South State Street. But does a paint job, some landscaping and a change in tenants a “massive downtown complex” make?
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Unless they’re planning on knocking holes in the walls that face the streets, though, I don’t think it’ll work out. I can see a chance that they’ll try to make it an enclosed mall area, but I’m assuming McKinley knows better than to think that’s a good idea.
And if they move the bank out and make pedestrian oriented retail/restaurant spaces and small office spaces, I definitely see that as “changing the northeast end of downtown”; Liberty is the most likely corridor for building a strong link between downtown and campus – William seems a totally lost cause*, and Washington only slightly better. Increasing linkages between areas is definitely something that needs to be worked on.
*We’ll see what happens when the Y gets redeveloped, though, to really make William a viable corridor, the library needs to be razed and rebuilt in not-a-warehouse style, and the UMCU razed and rebuilt in a not-suburban-crap style, and the ground floor of the 4th/William parking structure converted into useful space, and the Palio’s parking lot converted into something – so, yeah, William needs some work.
—Murph Mar. 1 '05 - 01:26AM #
Also, part of the plan includes creating a sort of outdoor patio on the first floor of the existing TCF building, so hopefully that’ll help alleviate the fortified feeling of the building and do a better job of connecting it to the street…
—Scott Mar. 1 '05 - 01:35AM #
The column is speculating that this will help bridge the gap between the State and Main downtown clusters, but I’m not sure there’s anything good you can do with the TCF building’s architecture. . .
—Murph Mar. 11 '05 - 07:49PM #