New plans emerge for Fisher, Kahn Buildings

Both the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are reporting today that we’re getting a clearer idea of what’s in store for both the Fisher Building and the neighboring Albert Kahn Building in New Center. More specific plans should be announced this week by The Platform, the development group led by Peter Cummings who is leading the project. Here’s what we know so far.

According to the Free Press,

"Office, residential, retail, restaurants, theater, and cultural exhibits all will play a role in the plans they announce today. This diversity of uses will give many different types of people reasons to be in the New Center district 24/7 — the starting point for a lively pedestrian-oriented urban environment."

For the Fisher Building, this means the reactivation of the lobby, or arcade, as a revolving art and photography showcase called the Beacon Project, which debuts this Thursday. Both the exterior and interior of the Fisher Building have been undergoing cleaning and maintenance for the past year.

The Albert Kahn Building will go retail, office, and residential, with major retail being planned in the form of a home good store. For a while, there have been rumors of a Restoration Hardware. According to Detroit News,

"In addition, the space from floors 3-11 of the Kahn building will be converted into 162 rental apartments. The existing Albert Kahn Associates architecture firm would remain in the building named after its famed founder."

The Platform recently broke ground on Third & Grand, a new apartment building with 231 units that should be ready in 2018.

Could New Center become the vibrant, walkable district we think it could be? There’s certainly a lot of room and opportunity for retail. We should have more details later this week and we’ll update as we learn more.

• Fisher, Kahn renovations to help create lively 24/7 district [Detroit Free Press]
• Fisher and Kahn buildings to get $100 million makeover [Detroit News]