The building at 210-216 S. Fourth Ave. has had a tragic history, rife with fires, neglect, foreclosure, and at least one shady owner. The latest chapter in the story is beginning to look far more promising, however.
Built in 1928 as a Montgomery Ward department store, it shared its architect, and urns-and-swag facade, with the First National Building around the corner. But in 1950 and 1960, the store suffered devastating fires, emerging with a “modern” metal face. Ward’s moved to Arborland and eventually went out of business.
Renamed Town Center Plaza, the downtown building passed into the hands of campus slumlord Dale Newman, whose eccentric tenure ended in foreclosure (“Who Is Dale Newman,” April 2011). Detroit-area developer Joe Barbat bought it from the lender in 2013 and moved quickly to propose a dramatic expansion and renovation. Early in 2014, the city approved a plan by Barbat and local builder Todd Quatro to add four stories of condos to the two-story building. Last December, a Facebook post announced that only a few of the thirty-two planned condos at “Montgomery House” were still available at pre-construction pricing.
Nine months of silence followed. Finally, in September, a Facebook post announced a new name, Montgomery Houze–the z inspired by Barbat’s chain of phone stores, Wireless Toyz. Then, in October, a scaffolding crew arrived.
“Believe me, no one was more impatient to see progress than we were,” Quatro says. “The long delay was due to the structural changes we needed to make and the steel beams that had to be installed. We had to do some reengineering to shore up the building before we could start the additions.”
Exterior work will resume immediately. “The facade will replicate the original Montgomery Ward exterior,” Quatro says. Weather permitting, construction on the condos will begin in the first quarter of 2016.
“We’ve already sold eight units, and the others are up for sale now,” he adds. “We’ll have a building that will make the city proud.”
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The Home Sales Map will return next month.
