The city of Detroit is suing a Grosse Pointe Park nonprofit that has brazenly moved forward with construction of an arts center along a historic stretch of land without getting the proper permits and approvals.
The suit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court last week alleges the Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation violated city ordinances when it began demolishing a building last month that is partially located in Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park at the corner of East Jefferson Avenue and Alter Road.
The nonprofit failed to get a demolition permit and does not have authority from the city’s Historic District Commission (HDC) to build the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Center for the Performing Arts on the historic land, the lawsuit states.
In a report in 2021, Detroit’s Historic Preservation Director Garrick Landsberg recommended that the HDC reject the nonprofit’s proposal to build on the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, saying the project is “historically inappropriate” and “destroys the historic character of the property.”
After the report was issued, the Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation withdrew its proposal but continued to move forward with the plan, insisting that Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration was on board.
Duggan’s administration tells Metro Times that the mayor has not approved the project and can’t override HDC’s authority.
Raymond Cekauskas Architecture LLC/Smith Group
A rendering of the proposed A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Center for the Performing Arts along the Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park border.
Without permission from the commission, it’s illegal to modify the land.
Despite the failure to get the proper permits and approvals, a crew hired by the nonprofit “almost completely demolished” the former Grosse Pointe Park Department of Public Works building, which is partially in Detroit, according to the lawsuit.
The nonprofit’s decision to move forward is “in stark derogation of the law,” the suit states.
By continuing the work, the city warned in the suit, the nonprofit “is subject to a civil fine and may be ordered by a court to pay the costs to restore or replicate a historical property.”
Under the plan, the Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation would build the performing arts center and an adjacent art gallery, with a parking lot and loading dock on Detroit’s historic land.
The land is now bounded by a chain-link fence and blue tarp. Affixed to the fence is a rendering of the art center and gallery, with the words, “Opening: Fall 2025.”
Developed largely in the early 1900s, the commercial strip on Jefferson is one of the few remaining early 20th-century neighborhood commercial districts and contains architecturally significant buildings. It has been targeted for revitalization and is the site of the popular Jazz on Jefferson Festival. The district is surrounded by intact neighborhoods and includes more than 50 buildings, including two ballrooms, retail stores, banks, apartment buildings, and four churches.
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