Capitol Park building designed by Kahn to add four oors, new facade

KIRK PINHO

e Capitol Park neighborhood in downtown Detroit is expected to see a roughly $13 million restoration and addition to one of the last vacant buildings there.

Karp and Associates, which has several projects in the tiny enclave west of Woodward Avenue, is planning to add four stories to the roughly 16,000-square-foot, seven-story building at 1133 Griswold St. and add a new facade.

“It took nearly a decade to acquire this building, which makes it ever more gratifying to both us and the community to turn what was rotting vacant blight into a beautiful, productive asset,” Richard Karp, who is principal of Karp and Associates, said in an emailed statement.

Karp is seeking Historic District Commission approval on March 8 to changes proposed to the Albert Kahn-designed building.

In all, the redevelopment would bring rst- and basement-level retail, a second- oor o ce and 25 apartments to oors three through 11, said Karp. ere would be 16 one-bedroom units, eight two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit, with 20 percent a ordable at 80 percent of the Area Median Income.

e building dates back to 1921 when it was built for the United Savings Bank of Detroit, according to a city history of the Capitol Park local historic district. Construction costs at the time were estimated to be $150,000.

A half-century later in 1971, it was bought by the Detroit and Northern Savings and Loan Association, which proceeded to remove the

Kahn limestone facade, in lling window bays with concrete and installing the largely windowless facade that remains in place today. ose changes also disquali ed the property from receiving historic tax credits.

In an email, Karp said his company plans to create a facade that is “a historically compatible design that is still wholly new and not falsely historic.”

Project financing comes both from a Commercial Rehabilitation Act, or PA 210, property tax freeze as well as $5 million in funding from a $13.74 million grant the Downtown Detroit Partnership received in September. A Detroit City Council briefing memo says the project funding sources include a $4.39 million senior-position loan from Farmers & Merchants Bank, the $5 million grant and $3.35 million in equity.

Contractors on the project are Karp’s BuildTech Ltd. as general contractor; and architecture rms Pappageorge Haymes, which is working on the facade, and Kraemer Design Group, which is the architect of record.

Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB