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The Himelhoch, a 116-year-old downtown building with empty ground-floor retail is under contract to be sold to a Detroit firm, The Detroit News reports. The new owners plan to keep part of the building as assisted senior housing while reviving the Woodward Avenue storefronts.
Louis Aguilar writes:
The Himelhoch, a seven-story building with entrances on Woodward Avenue and Washington Boulevard, is under contract to be sold to American Community Developers, Inc., according to representatives from both the seller and buyer. The current owners are a McLean, Virginia-based entity named after the building. The sale should close within 30 days, both sides said. The sales price wasn’t disclosed. The building is less than one block south of Grand Circus Park and next to the Aloft Detroit hotel and the David Whitney.
The Himelhoch is already partly used as rental apartments, including 36 units of affordable senior housing; 36 units are market rate. The new owners intend to keep the federal Section 8 senior housing at the building, along with the market rate units, said Michael Essian, vice president of Detroit-based American Community Developers. The firm specializes in buying and renovating affordable housing developments. The company has 90 properties and more than 12,000 residential units in 11 states.
“We are not looking to remove the current residents” who live in the senior housing units, Essian said. American Community Developers has already been awarded $385,500 in federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, LIHTC, issued by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, to renovate the Himelhoch.
