Tall & Urban News

Detroit has a buyer for a 17-story, severely dilapidated high-rise that the city hopes to see restored.

Lee Plaza could be sold to Detroit-based Roxbury Group and Ethos Development Partners for $350,000 under a redevelopment plan for the 1.7-acre (0.68-hectare) site.

The city has been looking for a developer to buy and restore the building since May 2017.

The proposed redevelopment would include 180 residential units, 50 percent of which would be reserved for affordable housing, with construction starting as early as 2021.

The city estimates that the restoration of Lee Plaza could cost upwards of $50 million.

Built in 1927 on West Grand Boulevard, just west of Detroit’s New Center neighborhood, the Lee Plaza was described on postcards as “Detroit’s finest apartment hotel,” with 220 rooms.

Later, it served low-income seniors before being vacated in 1997.

In the 20 years since the Lee has been vacant, it has become popular with scrappers, and with urban explorers and photographers who ventured inside for sweeping views of the city’s skyline through gaping holes in the roof, where copper tiles were removed by thieves.

Every room and corridor of the building has been heavily damaged by scrappers, to the point where piles of concrete and glass have formed hills along its once ornate plaster walls.

In 2017, when the city transferred the property from Detroit Housing Commission stock to the Detroit Building Authority and the Detroit Land Bank, not a single window was left in the 17-story tower.

The Detroit Building Authority has since covered its windows with clear boarding to secure the building. It has also cleared hazardous materials from the lower floors and secured it from trespassers in preparation for development, according to the city.

The Roxbury Group is no stranger to long-vacant buildings, having renovated the David Whitney Building and most recently, the Metropolitan Building, which was abandoned for 40 years and had trees going from its rooftop.

“The Lee once represented the highest aspirations of the City and this neighborhood,” said David Di Rita, principal of the Roxbury Group, in a news release announcing the proposed purchase. “We plan to honor that legacy by restoring this magnificent property to its original beauty and making it a place all Detroiters are welcome.” Lee Plaza was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

For more on this story go to MLive.