  Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 1212 Registered: 07-2007 |
"...and at least I spell the name right." That's the only thing you got right. | ||
Leland_palmer Member Username: Leland_palmer Post Number: 547 Registered: 08-2004 |
Uh, Chin Tiki isn't getting demolished, at least not yet. The equipment is for the building ACROSS the empty lot to the North of Chin Tiki and 4 other buildings in the area. Maybe Bookies will be good BY Chin Tiki? (Message edited by leland_palmer on March 07, 2009) | ||
Leannam1989 Member Username: Leannam1989 Post Number: 209 Registered: 06-2008 |
Joe Louis will probably need replacing eventually. That's the American way right? Buildings turn 40 and they're obsolete. Granted, Joe Louis is about 30 years old, right? Not many cities you see 3 Pro Sports teams venues within a mile of each other. In St. Louis they're all within a mile of each other, though. KC's interesting because the MLB and NFL Stadiums are together (share a parking lot) and they are 6 miles from Downtown, where the Sprint Center is. There's nothing in the Sprint Center yet. Chicago's 2 MLB stadiums, NHL stadium, and NFL stadium are each like 4-6 miles apart. The Cell to Wrigley is 10 miles. Shame to see the buildings around the area demolished. It sounds like a new arena is in the plans, though maybe not until the economy recovers. Any guesses who it will be named after? | ||
Gotdetroit Member Username: Gotdetroit Post Number: 198 Registered: 12-2005 |
Leland: The Chin Tiki is already down (it was down by the time I got home last night) The parking garage (vintage car parking) has all the windows out (except the south side) and there is equipment parked between it and the old Charlevoix Hotel. It is certainly demo equipment. There was another building right around the corner from the Chin Tiki that was torn down days earlier. On a final note, I've also noticed (while driving around town) burned out houses being torn down. Perhaps the city is finally getting aggressive with demolition. Now, if they would only start getting aggressive with fining slumlords like the AAA building owner, the Broderick owner, the Michigan Central Owner, etc., things would be swell. | ||
Detourdetroit Member Username: Detourdetroit Post Number: 367 Registered: 10-2003 |
gotdetroit must discern a finer grain of building demolition criteria. burned out houses =not= broderick tower. | ||
Gotdetroit Member Username: Gotdetroit Post Number: 200 Registered: 12-2005 |
gotdetroit knows shit (and slumlords) when he sees them. Higgins sure does a swell job of keeping that place up! For what, 15-20 years even! That must take some skill. Fine his ass. Daily. | ||
Chub Member Username: Chub Post Number: 267 Registered: 11-2003 |
Here it is in the old days. R.I.P. Chin Tiki  | ||
Ferntruth Member Username: Ferntruth Post Number: 767 Registered: 11-2006 |
"...and at least I spell the name right." "That's the only thing you got right." I think the maturity level of this thread just dropped 10 years... | ||
Leland_palmer Member Username: Leland_palmer Post Number: 549 Registered: 08-2004 |
Thanks for the correction. The Chin wasn't on the original list. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 6201 Registered: 08-2004 |
quote: As does being an armchair city planner... yeah just because you don't like the owner... lets tear the building down... | ||
Hockeycox1966 Member Username: Hockeycox1966 Post Number: 5 Registered: 03-2009 |
I know everyone thinks the new arena is going up behind the Fox, but from everyone I've talked to, it's going up around the Cass/Temple area. That's where the new Slows is going and the properties that are for sale in that area all have asking prices that are outrageous because of it. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 6202 Registered: 08-2004 |
Hockeycox1966... welcome to the Forum... I've heard several rumors about where Ilitch is going to put the new arena... near Masonic, near MotorCity Casino, and behind the Fox. Ilitch is buying property in all 3 areas... and may decide to build the arena based on where he can acquire enough property... since Eminent Domain is no longer an option. Plus having 3 options available, it may (lower case "may") give him some leverage with holdout landowners to sell at less than outrageous prices. I bet there's a few landowners in Rivertown that probably are still kicking themselves for not selling their land to the casinos in the 1990s... | ||
Gotdetroit Member Username: Gotdetroit Post Number: 201 Registered: 12-2005 |
Gistok: For the record, I am not suggesting tearing down the Broderick Tower. Only fining the guy - and others like him - who do, and have done, absolutely nothing with their properties other than leave them wide open, and in a perpetual state of decay. If you find Higgins' (and those like him) position defensible, you are part of the problem. The City should never let this stand, and, as I've said, should be fining these slumlords on a daily basis. Yet the City tolerates it, and even defends it (as do you?). Oh, and it's not armchair city planning. It's called "common sense" - by putting the good of your community and neighborhood first, and the idiocy and incompetence of slumlords last. | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1756 Registered: 11-2005 |
Hey Chub, where did you get that old photo of the Chin Tiki? | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1757 Registered: 11-2005 |
And is it totally gone now? I missed this thread Friday. Would have been nice to get some pictures. | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1758 Registered: 11-2005 |
Went up there today, and it's nothing but a pile of rubble. Snagged two bricks. They're doing some sort of work inside that 2-story building at Columbia and Cass that Ilitch also got money to raze. Couldn't tell if it was asbestos abatement or what. Needless to say, between the Chin Tiki, the building on the corner of Grand River and the one at Columbia, that area will be NOTHING but parking lots and the G.A.R. Building. (And the Moose Lodge, but there's a death fence around that, too.) | ||
Leland_palmer Member Username: Leland_palmer Post Number: 551 Registered: 08-2004 |
I grabbed a photo this afternoon. I'll try to have some coverage of the other buildings in the area posted tonight. http://fadeddetroit.blogspot.c om/2009/03/chin-tiki-no-more.h tml | ||
1kielsondrive Member Username: 1kielsondrive Post Number: 983 Registered: 08-2008 |
Gistok, I've spoken to 2 of those former landowners in Rivertown in the last few days. The only thing they're kicking themselves for is having stayed in Detroit as long as they did. That's not to say they didn't want to stay, it's just to say when they look back they wish they'd gotten out much earlier, before the City of Detroit put them in that bad position and f*@k+d everything up. The point being; they liked Detroit but hated doing business with city government. They felt the city added insult to injury. I always felt the same. Almost every business transaction I ever had with Detroit was f*+k^d up: DPD, Health Department, Parking Enforcement, 36th District Court, BS&E, Tax Review Board, or what ever in the hell they call it. One of the first things Detroit could do to improve the city would be dismiss a bunch of bureaucrats, send the rest to every 'customer service' training program they can find and fire anyone who won't say 'How may I help you?' sincerely, and follow up on it. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 6206 Registered: 08-2004 |
1kielsondrive, I don't disagree with anything that you have to say about city services. I bet those 2 business owners (in hindsight) had gotten in on the $150 million that was spent to buy riverfront land for the casinos. Granted the entire Archer affair was a fiasco... but things in Rivertown have been moving along at a snails pace since then. But my point was... the holdouts in Foxtown, and near Masonic had better think twice if they think that a better offer is going to come along besides Ilitch. 3rdworldcity mentioned that that building on Grand River (that was razed last week) may have set a sales record on a per square foot basis. As you have seen for yourself... the owners in Rivertown waiting for a better offer... have had a long wait indeed... | ||
1kielsondrive Member Username: 1kielsondrive Post Number: 984 Registered: 08-2008 |
Gistok, point well taken. My experience with property in Detroit is asking prices are ridiculously high and getting higher the longer they sit, especially if they're vacant. Property in Detroit is usually considered by owners to be a lottery ticket - not much else. Cash out with a killing or let it sit and rot. That's a part of the reason so many buildings sit vacant for so long. I have friends who are losing their building, near downtown, in the near future. They succumbed to hype (contrary to my recommendation) and bought at the top of the market a couple of years ago. Now they're without usable space, tenants and cashflow to complete renovations. It's partially due to the most unusual economic times we're experiencing, but, at the price they paid their building wasn't going to be financially viable even in better times. I've seen (literally) buildings sit vacant for 30 years, going up in asking price over that time. One in particular comes to mind, on Michigan Avenue, near the Book Cadillac. I've watched it over 30 years. I'm not claiming to be an expert, just experienced. Back to city hall: they most often won't help in gathering information about buildings and properties. Only in recent years are they able, and occasionally willing, to track properties I've expressed interest in. I have great dislike for city hall because I always have to be on top of my game or I might (unintentionally) insult someone and pay the price. In recent dealings with the DPD and BS&E I've waited for HOURS with an appointment, to see someone. I'm belittling the subject now, so I'll leave it at that. | ||
1kielsondrive Member Username: 1kielsondrive Post Number: 985 Registered: 08-2008 |
PS: one of my friends in Rivertown (or the Warehouse District, as I like to call it) took an offer and sold their property to the city. But not until they felt they'd been intimidated and threatened by the city. They contend they'll never do busines in the city again, in spite of the fact that they care about Detroit. | ||
Wilus1mj Member Username: Wilus1mj Post Number: 304 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's the city that lets the slumlord landowners operate. Begin writing tickets for diapidated buildings and other code violations and eventually they'll sell. If the property behind the Fox was worth so much, why didn't the city fine the owners and bring in some revenue. | ||
Buckster1986 Member Username: Buckster1986 Post Number: 16 Registered: 08-2007 |
Any one know if any bricks are still there? Any one going down to get one? | ||
Michiman Member Username: Michiman Post Number: 2 Registered: 02-2009 |
Sad Detroit finds nothing worth saving of it's historical buildings. It gets old, it gets let go, it gets torn down. The architectural history will only live on in photos. Kind of sad IMHO. | ||
Otter Member Username: Otter Post Number: 669 Registered: 12-2007 |
Buckster, the whole building was still there in pile-of-rubble form when I rode by on Sunday evening, so you oughta be able to get yourself a brick if you want one. | ||
Urbanfisherman Member Username: Urbanfisherman Post Number: 113 Registered: 07-2008 |
How was this a historical building? | ||
Chub Member Username: Chub Post Number: 268 Registered: 11-2003 |
For fans of Tiki culture, the Chin Tiki and Mauna Loa were two places of historical interest in Detroit. | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 1642 Registered: 05-2008 |
In what year was Chin Tiki built? | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 6792 Registered: 11-2004 |
I still think about how friends of mine's parents would talk about how lavish the Chin Tiki was. I guess it was one of the premier places for people to go out and celebrate anniversaries, graduations, birthdays or other significant events. The building itself might not be deemed historical by some but I'm sure for a lot of people, important benchmarks in their lives were celebrated there. For the cultural interest folks I'm sure it heralded back to a time when Detroit had a vibrant Chinatown and it was also a different way of dining compared to today's standards. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 6035 Registered: 04-2005 |
I think it was started in 1965 and completed in 67, so I don't think it was ever part of any vibrant China Town. Also, it wasn't a Chinese restaurant. It was a Tiki bar. They served Polynesian food. Here's a link to an article by Metro Times from 2003 |
