Prince Concepts

The Grand River Block serves as the commercial center and public square for Core City.

The block contains 32,700 SF of totally renovated industrial buildings converted into commercial spaces and 10,000 SF of public space. The block is home to:

• Core City Park - the conversion of an asphalt parking lot into a public square and neighborhood meeting point. Completed April 2019.

• The Pie - the conversion of a 6,200 SF pie shaped building from 1910 into creative office and studio spaces. Completed July 2019.

• The Sawtooth - the conversion of 12,000 SF abandoned industrial building into four hospitality spaces opening to the park on the ground floor and three commercial spaces on the second floor. Completed January 2019.

• Magnet -> Barda - Conversion of a 2,100 SF radiator shop into a restaurant. Completed September 2019.

• The Powerplant - the conversion, renovation, and addition to a 10,000 SF formerly industrial building that was a 3,000 SF annex and a 7,000 SF two story building. Phase 1 - completed May 2020. Phase 2 - completed June 2022.

The block is one large project, comprised of five distinct projects, that come together to make a place.

Pre WW2, this block and corridor was bustling. Commerce created vitality. We wanted to bring the block back to this.

We first purchased the Magnet -> Barda building in March of 2014.

The Pie, Sawtooth, Powerplant and Park properties followed in April of 2014.

At purchase, 9,000 of the 32,700 SF we're occupied and not with people, it was mostly packed to the brim with salvaged building materials.

Our renovations were more than that, they were more of a "genetic reengineering" of the properties. It wasn't just updated roofs, systems, and structures, we had to but totally transform who and what the buildings were created to do.

We approached the block in steps. No master plan, just action plans (as our landscape architect, Julie Bargmann, always likes to say).

Step 1: Core City Park.

It was going to be difficult to convince commercial tenants to pioneer into a territory that hadn't seen much commerce since the late 1960's. If we wanted others to believe in this place, we had to express our belief in it, first.

Acquisition doesn't communicate belief. Action does. Actively working to make a place better is how we wanted to express our belief in the place; nothing communicates a belief in the future like planting trees.

So, with Core City Park, we replaced an exhausted asphalt parking lot with a public space containing 110 trees. Architecture makes a place relevant - marking a moment in time and connecting that place and time to the World and history - but landscape and space is what make a place somewhere humans want to actually be.

And because of this, the block started with a Park and Public space.

For information on the idea behind the park, visit the dedicated Core City Park project page.

Step 2: Genetically Reengineer the Sawtooth and Pie Buildings.

The Sawtooth building, named for the beautiful skylights on the second floor, was originally built as a tent and awning factory; they say Jeep seats for the army, during WW2, were upholstered here.

The Pie Building, named for its awkward shape, was originally built as a bank (the walls from the old vault are used as benches in Core City Park).

Both of these buildings are brick structures and were designed to face, and have retail on, Grand River.

When we purchased the buildings, there really wasn't a front to them, every facade on the street had been mostly bricked up.

These buildings needed more than a renovation and all new systems, they needed to be reoriented towards the park we were building, and their Grand River and Warren facades needed to be opened up for natural light in the grand old spaces.

After reorienting the exterior of the buildings, we moved to the interiors.

The Pie Building

The building was originally built around 1920, and was vacant and run-down when Prince Concepts purchased it.

We converted this "roomed" structure into one retail space and two loft style work spaces. We started with the upstairs loft-style space and then occupied it, as Prince, so we could oversee the rest of the work we'd be doing on the block.

The once dark building is now penetrated by natural light while retaining the integrity and warmth of its original wood, brick and concrete structure.

Pictures of the Pie building date back to 1929, it was home to a variety of uses - originally built with a bank vault, we imagine it started as a bank, we know it then eventually became a restaurant and stovetop wholesale shop in the late 1930s.

The bones of this building were significant, but the shape, awkward. We brought the building back to life by opening up its floor-plan, installing new systems and rethinking how people would access and enter it.

Although the Pie building doesn't front the park, we made the entrance to it off the park. To achieve this, we removed a roof from an old storage closet, wedge between where the Pie and Sawtooth buildings met - an entry courtyard and ran a hallway through the Sawtooth building into the charming little outdoor space between the buildings. From there, we removed the 100+ year old, 14" thick concrete walls that were the bank vault and reused these pieces os wall as benches in our Park.

Then, the Sawtooth Building.

The Sawtooth building, named for the beautiful skylights on the second floor of this former factor, was originally built as a dry cleaning facility in the 1920s, then was converted into an upholstery factory before the war; they say Jeep seats for the army were upholstered here.

We purchased the Sawtooth as a 12,000 square foot building with one large 6,000 SF space upstairs, a 3,500 SF space facing Grand River and a 2,500 off the back ally, downstairs The building was empty.

We converted the downstairs into a Cafe, Bagel Shop, Bakery, and Restaurant - all facing the park. The upstairs was converted into three commercial spaces. What was a vacant, run-down industrial shell, is now bright, renovated, activated and vibrant.

This building has served as a vessel and catalyst for the majority of the new commerce in the neighborhood.

Step 3: Open our own restaurant to bring our audience from TAKOI to Core City.

We love old garages. If the car is king in Detroit, garages are their castles.

TAKOI began as a garage that we converted into a restaurant. The MAGNET building (now BARDA) shared many characteristics with the property that became TAKOI - a single story block building, about 2,000 SF, formerly servicing cars.

We purchased the MAGNET building in 2014, directly from the owners of the actual Magnet Radiator shop - a business that had roots in Detroit since 1917 and at this location since 1951.

When we first entered the property, it looked as if the doors had been locked one night after work and no-one ever returned. A roll of fresh (but dusty) paper was still on the fax machine. A bar of soap was still in the bathroom. Another Detroit story - a business and building left to fend for itself. It didn’t matter, we knew the building was something special.

The building was destined to be the restaurant anchoring Core City Park.

When we began working on the building, the existing roof caved in. We started over.

We preserved the original character of the building and left it a mysterious box, from the street, but opened up the entire facade facing the Park.

For more information on this project, certainly visit the MAGNET -> BARDA page and the RESTAURANTS PAGE.

Step 4: Activate the crown jewel of the block, the Powerplant Building.

A conversion, renovation and addition to a 10,000 SF formerly industrial building that has a 3,000 SF annex and a 7,000 two story building. Phase 1 - completed May 2020. Phase 2 - completed June 2022.

For more information on this project, please visit the POWERPLANT PROJECT Page.

BRIEF OVERVIEW:

The Powerplant building (named for the civic style brick and design which resembles early 20th century power plants) sits on the Northwestern boundary of Core City Park. The final building to be renovated on the block, it works with the Sawtooth, Pie, and Magnet buildings to fully activate the corridor and serve as the capstone on the Grand River Block project.

This building was completed in two phases:

Phase 1 renovated the 3,000 SF, 1-story annex of the building into Core City Fitness; this took place May, 2020.

Phase 2 was completed in June of 2022, and added a 3,000 SF second story above the annex, renovated the existing 6,000 SF two story building and also converted the ally in between the annex and two story building into a lobby and communal kitchen for the company that occupies the entire second story, Duolingo.

This conversion is pivotal for Core City and will invigorate an already active public park and commercial corridor.

The Grand River Block For more information on each specific project please visit project pages:

CORE CITY PARK

MAGNET -> BARDA

POWERPLANT BUILDING