Curbed Cup Elite Eight: (8) New Center vs. (16) Jefferson-Chalmers

The Curbed Cup is our annual award for the neighborhood of the year. We’re starting with 16 neighborhoods (with some close ones combined), and we’ll vote over the next few weeks until we’re down to one. Week one had a few upsets; how will week two turn out? Polls are open for 24 hours. Let the voting commence!

New Center

Anchored by the Fisher Building, which has added much-needed retail to the neighborhood this year, development in New Center continues to take off. The Pistons training facility broke ground recently, Third & Grand is rising, and more residential is in the pipeline for the neighborhood at the end of the QLine. In the coming years, we’ll see more storefronts renovated along Woodward, plus residential at Baltimore Station. Single-family homes and condos are selling quickly in the neighborhood, and we’re starting to see more real estate selling in La Salle Gardens to the west and in the North End to the east. Will it spread further north down Woodward next?

Jefferson-Chalmers

Photo by Michelle & Chris Gerard

The far east neighborhood of Jefferson Chalmers seems primed for a renovation take-off. Storefronts are starting to fill in on East Jefferson, including new restaurants that are in the works. Design firm Mutual Adoration recently opened their flagship store POST on Kercheval on the northern border of Jefferson-Chalmers. The neighborhood has rich housing stock filled with old homes, canals for kayaks and boats, and there’s hope (and signs) that the Vanity Ballroom could come back to life.

The neighborhood has a high-traffic commercial strip adjacent to a waterfront neighborhood and bordering Grosse Pointe; we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more development news here soon.