Basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson has planned on developing at the State Fair Grounds near 8 Mile Road for years, but nothing has ever materialized. In March 2018, he finally bought a tiny portion of the 142-acre site, though hasn’t released any plans. The city of Detroit bought the rest of the land from the Michigan Land Bank but has yet to issue any RFPs.

This extravagant Art Deco building on West Grand Boulevard has been the subject of development rumors for years. In 2019, the city of Detroit sold the building to developers who presented a $50 million plan to turn it into 180 apartment units, many of which would be for low-income renters. We haven’t heard a peep since.

Developers The Platform announced this ambitious $30 million luxury condo development near New Center in early 2018. By early 2019, it had already been scrapped due to rising construction costs.

A development long in the making that’s never gotten off the ground. Formerly The Mondrian, then changed to Woodward @ Midtown, the most recent iteration of this mixed-use structure called for a five-story building with 104 apartments and ground-floor retail. Today, a “Coming Soon” sign sits at the edge of this grassy site.

One of many properties in the lower Cass Corridor owned by Olympia Development of Michigan, the Alhambra was supposed to converted into 46 apartments as part of its so-called District Detroit, which has any many surface parking lots as buildings. The Ilitch-owned develpment firm missed a deadline in 2018 and there’s been no movement since.

Many sites in District Detroit remain undeveloped, including historic structures like the Hotel Eddystone, Hotel Fort Wayne, and Detroit Creamery Co. Building.

This site was once speculated to be a destination for a Target, but then plans emerged for a multi-building office and retail project. But the “South of Mack” development has been stalled ever since. An article in the Detroit Free Press from 2019 said that the project “is gradually taking shape,” but we haven’t heard any definite news.

“The Last Dangerous Building Downtown” was falling apart (literally) in April 2018. Soon after, it found a new owner, Rino Soave, who announced an approximately $10 million renovation. There’s been no update since and it’s unclear how much work has been done.

In 2016, a development team proposed three mixed-use apartment buildings on a 3.4-acre site at the southern edge of Brush Park. But the city never sold the land to the development team of RHEAL Capital Management LLC and Schostak Bros. & Co. because rising construction costs made the project untenable.

In 2016, the Capitol Park Partnership announced construction of two buildings with eye-catching designs, including this 11-story apartment building behind the Book Cadillac. They never came to fruition.

Plans to redevelop the last remaining building in the Brewster-Douglass housing project were announced way back in 2015. Developers KC Crain and Curt Catallo wanted to convert the building into 150-units of housing with a restaurant component. According to the Detroit Free Press, the city eventually sold the site in 2018, and the developers have spent money prepping it, but a full-scale redevelopment has not begun.

Hiram Jackson and Paradise Valley Real Estate Holdings II announced plans to build 60-unit apartment building as part of a huge push to redevelop Paradise Valley. Today, the sites remain surface parking lots.

This mega-development from Bedrock Detroit is expected to bring 847,000 square feet of office space, an estimated 482 residential units, and 117,000 square feet of retail space. After breaking ground in December 2018, however, little work has taken place at the site. The project is currently undergoing a redesign and has been pushed back in Bedrock’s development pipeline.

Renovation of this dormant warehouse building was announced in 2017 as part of the redevelopment of the East Riverfront. After an RFP, a developer was announced (Banyan), as well as a $35 million plan to build 63 residential units. But by May last year, bricks were falling off the building and no major work had been done.

Is it fair to say that plans have stalled on a project that seemed too ambitious to begin with? Peruvian developer Fernando Palazuelo bought the crumbling, enormous plant and planned to redevelop it in phases. The first $17 million phase broke ground in 2017. Since then, the iconic bridge across East Grand has collapsed and news broke that the developer owed $185,000 in overdue taxes. Not great signs.