Here's Model D's look at moving downtown. Also check out our guides to opening a business in and visiting downtown Detroit.Picture waking up and going to breakfast at the city’s hottest breakfast spot (
Detroit Breakfast House & Grill). You go to work at your job at a major corporation (Compuware), and on your lunch break, you fill up at an Indian buffet (
Sizzl-n-Spice), then stop for a coffee (
Au Bon Pain), taking a minute for some fresh air in the park (
Campus Martius). After work, you stop to browse and buy a magazine at the bookstore (
Borders), then head over to the bar (
Pulse) where you meet friends for a drink. On the way home, you grab a few necessities at the pharmacy (CVS).
Now imagine doing all of this by only walking a couple city blocks, without starting your car, without sitting in traffic, and doing it all in downtown Detroit.
A development boom has transformed the face of downtown Detroit, and it’s meant that the city’s grand old buildings are becoming home sweet home for a growing number of Detroiters.
Whether they live in lofts, condos or apartments, whether their places sit on the river’s edge or along Woodward, whether they’ve got tricked-out luxury penthouses or intimate lofts, these Downtown dwellers are choosing a quintessential city lifestyle — a walkable, urban life in the center of the city’s business and entertainment district.
Places to live Set amid the city’s high-rises, downtown Detroit’s residential offerings include mostly lofts, condos and apartments. About 440 new residential units have hit the market downtown in the past few years, and more will be added as new buildings get renovated — meaning the Central Business District is becoming a bona fide neighborhood.
Model D has comprehensive listings for places to live downtown. The
Downtown Detroit Partnership’s Web site also has listings. Sue Krause, who lives in a loft at
Merchants Row, recommends taking a few walking tours through
Preservation Wayne. The tours, she says, helped get the lay of the land and see the range of developments.
Prices and amenities vary. A one-bedroom condo off Jefferson with a view of the Detroit River starts at about $120,000 in the recently renovated
Riverfront Condominiums. Apartments in the
Kales Building rent for about $1,100 a month for a two-bedroom unit overlooking Grand Circus Park, and include utilities and parking. Lofts rent for $750 to $3,000 a month for 600 to 3,000 square feet at
Merchants Row on Woodward, and offer retail and restaurants right below.
As more planned rehabs are completed — including lofts and condos in
1001 Woodward,
Broderick Tower, the
Iodent Building and the
Elliott Building — more rooftops will come downtown, and likely more businesses will follow.
Already, though, there’s a critical mass of people living downtown, and a real community has formed, says Jeanette Pierce, who lives in Trolley Plaza. “That’s one of the benefits of living downtown,” she says. “I can’t walk somewhere without seeing someone I know."
Walkable lifestyleOver the past year and a half, Sue Krause has realized another benefit. She estimates she drives her car about three times a month. She works at Compuware and lives just a few steps across the street in a loft at Merchants Row.
“I never have to leave. I was actually thinking about getting rid of my car,” says Krause, a mother of three grown-up kids in their 20s who’ve all left the nest. She moved downtown a couple years ago from Shelby Township.
Car-less in the Motor City? Krause and others who live downtown say being able to have most of their daily needs merely steps from their front doors is one of the perks of living in the heart of the city.
Aaron Alston is an entrepreneur and developer who will move from Birmingham to the
Vinton Building when it’s complete later this year. He says the 24-hour-city lifestyle isn’t for everybody, but he looks forward to “just being able to grab something from
Vincentes, and go to the
Detroit Beer Company and make your way to the stadiums for a game, and then be able to walk back to your place.”
When you live downtown, he says, “your life takes place right outside your door.”
Still, there are those who live downtown who still have to start their engines now and then. Alok Sharma needs his car to make it to Dearborn for his job, but the drive is no big deal from his new apartment in the Kales Building off Grand Circus Park. Plus, the 25-year-old says, he no longer has to commute downtown from Sterling Heights for his entertainment. “Pretty much every weekend I’d be down here at least one night. Why make that commute?”
As for safety, residents say they walk all over downtown, day and night. They use caution street smarts, of course. A city is a city after all, but crime rates in the Central Business District are some of the lowest in the city.
“I feel extremely safe down here,” says Krause. “I’ve walked all different times of day and night, but usually with friends at night. But Woodward is so well-lit, and there are always police or other people around.”
Krause says that when she tells some family or friends in the burbs she walks alone, they react with disbelief. “Some people will say, ‘Oh, you live downtown there? You’re by yourself? You’re really courageous.’ I say, ‘Not at all. I feel happy, really happy, that’s all. I made a choice that I’m really happy with.’”
Shopping and amenities If city dwellers hear it once, they hear it a thousand times: “But where do you shop?”
Eastern Market and the surrounding shops and wholesalers (most of whom are open all week long) are a primary stop. The CVS on Woodward offers a pharmacy and many other necessities, and in the past year a day spa, dry cleaners, florists and other services have opened downtown. Plus there’s
shopping for clothes and specialty items in places like the
Guardian Building and the
Renaissance Center.For convenience and last-minute needs, Pierce says the
Trolley Plaza Market in her building has everything from cottage cheese to pretzels to fruit and is open until 9 p.m. Krause says she’s was surprised to find most everything she needs can be had at the Griswold Market around the block from her loft. One night after moving in she wanted to bake cookies and found baking soda, flour and brown sugar. “They even have a deli in there.”
For a big full-service supermarket, “we don’t have to drive much more than five or 10 minutes, just like you would in the suburbs,” Krause says.
Downtown residents do, however, have an enviable array of restaurants at their disposal. You could eat a different cuisine every night of the week.
Bahn Thai,
Jacoby's (German),
Andiamo’s (Italian),
Cypress Tavern (Greek),
Loco’s (Mexican),
Vincente’s (Cuban), and
Sweet Georgia Brown (Southern) are all within walking distance.
Pierce also has logged a hundred places within walking distance of her building to have a nightcap or a few —
(PROOF),
Cheli’s Chili Bar,
Bookies,
Pulse,
Centaur,
Town Pump, and so on. “There’s continuously something new. Just when you think you are getting tired, there’s a new one to go to.”
She really loves places like
Beaubien Street Saloon, a real corner bar. “There’s old people, young people, rich people, poor people. It’s the most interesting and eclectic group of folk,” Pierce says.
For singletons, the social scene is great, too. “Detroit is where everyone else comes to,” Pierce says. “There’s a constant influx of new people coming down for different events, or just to spend the night in the city. The 6,000 people who live in this one square mile are great, too.”
Downtown also has the region’s premier places to catch live music — including the
State Theatre, the
Fox and
St. Andrew’s Hall. Plus there’s entertainment at the
Opera House,
Joe Louis Arena,
Ford Field,
Comerica Park and the casinos. There’s the annual jazz festival, fireworks and electronic music festival. There’s green spaces like
Grand Circus Park, the
RiverWalk and
Campus Martius.
There are so many cool places and events, but Krause says the people truly make the downtown community so attractive.
“I love the suburbs, I love them,” says Krause. “To me, though, I could never move back. I love the people. I need people out on the street, and people just talk to you all the time. The people down here are amazing.”
Directions to Downtown
From the East:
Take I-94 West and merge onto I-75 South/Chrysler Fwy via Exit 261A toward Toledo. Continue onto I-375 South/Chrysler Fwy via Exit 51C on the left toward the Civic Center. Turn slight left onto Jefferson Ave. E and turn right onto Woodward, arrive Downtown.
From the North:
Take I-75 South and continue onto I-375 South/Chrysler Fwy via Exit 51C on the left toward the Civic Center. Turn slight left onto Jefferson Ave. E and turn right onto Woodward, arrive Downtown.
From the West:
Take I-96 East and take the I-75 North/M-10 exit on the left toward Flint/Civic Center. Continue to the M-10/Lodge Fwy exit toward Rosa Parks Blvd/Civic Center and then exit on the left toward M-10/Lodge Fwy/Civic Center. Take the M-10 South exit toward the Civic Center and then merge onto John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 South. John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 becomes Jefferson Ave. Turn left onto Woodward, arrive in Downtown.
From the South:
Take I-94 East toward Detroit and merge onto I-96 East/Jefferies Fwy via Exit 213B toward Canada. Continue to the I-75 North/M-10 exit on the left toward Flint/Civic Center. Take the M-10/Lodge Fwy exit toward Rosa Parks Blvd/Civic Center and then exit on the left toward M-10/Lodge Fwy/Civic Center. Take the M-10 South exit toward the Civic Center and then merge onto John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 South. John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 becomes Jefferson Ave. Turn left onto Woodward, arrive in Downtown.
Take I-75 North toward Detroit and continue to Exit 49 to M-10/Lodge Fwy/Rosa Parks Blvd/Civic Center. Exit on the left toward M-10/Lodge Fwy/Civic Center. Take the M-10 South exit toward the Civic Center and then merge onto John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 South. John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 becomes Jefferson Ave. Turn left onto Woodward, arrive in Downtown.
Photos:The Lofts of WoodwardThe Lofts of Merchant's RowThe Kales BuildingRiverfront CondominiumsThe Vinton BuildingEastern MarketThe Renaissance CenterThe Fox Theatre
All Photographs Copyright Dave Krieger