Vacant West Dearborn Building Finally Comes Down
The former Brothers Tuxedo in downtown west Dearborn is now razed.
A dilapidated building in downtown west Dearborn that once was home to Brothers Tuxedo has finally been razed.
Crews began demolishing the building on Friday and by Saturday afternoon all that remained of the two-story brick building was a pile of rubble.
While it has taken years to remove this Dearborn eyesore, the good news is that it is now finally down. And with a clean plot of land on a prime corner of downtown Dearborn there comes hope that it will become something more than just another grassy space.
The building is the second of three dilapidated buildings that Dearborn developer Hakim Fakhoury agreed with city officials would come down. The third building, Bally’s Vic Tanny, is still being prepared for demolition.
The former Brothers Tuxedo building at Michigan and Howard before demolition.
As part of the agreement with the city and a way to save demolition costs, the foundation of the Brothers Tuxedo building, just like the former Giuliano’s, will remain until the property is ready to be developed.
The three buildings, all located between Mason and Military on Michigan Avenue, were being removed as part of a large-scale redevelopment proposed in 2005 by Fakhoury.
That particular development never occurred but clearing the area of these rotting buildings is a step in the right direction.
April 8th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Unfortunately, this ‘eyesore’ was a fine old building with character that could have been repurposed instead of rased as all of the other old buildings in downtown West Dearborn. Other cities, including Detroit thanks to Dan Gilbert, see the old buildings as an asset. And so we’ll have a vacant lot instead. It’s a shame.
April 8th, 2012 at 9:16 am
Very well put Deep!
It’s unfortunate that a classic older bldg. was left to decay and left to fall into such a condition. However, a clean plot of land does make it very attractive to potenital new development.
What I haven’t seen is is a stronger effort to resuse/recycle more of the material from these type of projects. Habitat for humanity is always eager to take anything of value from reuseable brick, interior wood, material etc. This is another way to save a large amount of $$ in removal costs, landfill space, and tax deductions. I lost count of how many pallets of brick that the former theater at Michigan Ave/Telegraph were reused in this method.
April 8th, 2012 at 10:42 am
Who paid for this?
April 8th, 2012 at 11:25 am
Hakim’s false promises that he has been making for years are all crumbling, like he should for lying to everyone in the past. The City fathers should also take some blame for being used,because they got hood-winked as they have many times in the past. Good riddance, and lets move on.
April 8th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Dearborn Guy: I agree 100 percent with you. When I first wrote about this plan in 2007, I said the same: find a way to preserve the building. Between then and now, the building was allowed to rot. It is unfortunate.
April 8th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
Maybe make it a Goodwill store, right Deep.
April 8th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Couldn’t agree with u more. Hakim has played Bluto and the Council long enough, I guess they finally had enough — better late than never.
April 9th, 2012 at 8:29 am
“And with a clean plot of land on a prime corner of downtown Dearborn there comes hope that it will become something more than just another grassy space.”
Kind of impossible for it to be a clean plot of land, or a grassy space when the foundation is still there. Unless you count the weeds that will sprout in the foundation over the next several years.
April 9th, 2012 at 10:16 pm
hey maybe the mayor can build his new CITY HALL there…just keep tearing down DEARBORN’S history!
April 16th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Foundation? What foundation? The one that isn’t there but was razed?
April 18th, 2012 at 9:03 am
This is an opportnity for Lynches to advertise to Michigan Avenue traffic. They should paint a cool graphic on the side of teir building that faces Michigan Ave. I think that was part of te problem with Dee’s Hallmark. They had no signage on Michigan Avenue that they were hidden back there. Just my two cents!