Dearborn’s Montgomery Ward project ready to move forward

The Montgomery Ward redevelopment project in Dearborn‘s east downtown is the closest it has ever been to becoming a reality.

City Council has approved a development agreement with Southfield-based Redico to raze the building and replace it with a 125,000-square-foot, mixed-use building in its place. The city has until July to close the deal and begin tearing down the historic structure at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road.

The building must be gone by Sept. 1 so Redico can begin construction. The project is expected to create hundreds of new jobs, thousands of square feet of new retail space and dozens of new homes in the city’s core.

“If all goes as planned,” says Barry Murray, economic and community development director for the city of Dearborn.

The city determined it must raze the old Montgomery Ward building last year because the structure, originally planned to be saved, couldn’t accommodate the new $45 million home for Oakwood Healthcare System and Midwest Health Services.

Montgomery Ward opened the store in 1937. Over the years the business expanded into 93,000 square feet until it went belly up in 2001. It has been vacant ever since. The new three-story, brick-and-stone façade structure will go up in its place. Murray expects to save the old building’s clog and some ornamentation, and incorporating them into the new building.

About 22,000 square feet of ground floor retail space will also be added to the corner and along Schaefer. A 500 to 625 space parking deck will be built behind the new building as well as 100 to 120 units of senior citizen apartments, which will be constructed to meld  with the surrounding neighborhood of single-family homes. Work on the main structure is expected to wrap up by the end of 2009. The senior-citizen housing is expected to be done by June of 2010.

Source: Barry Murray, economic and community development director for the city of Dearborn
Writer: Jon Zemke