Detroit’s most well known counterculture very hot spot is on the current market.
The former Grande Ballroom, at 8952 Grand River, has been detailed for sale at $5 million. The residence, which fell out of use in the early ’80s, is owned by nearby Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church, which ordered it in 2006 for $60,000.
A sale listing went reside Sunday from Detroit’s Dorsett Brokerage Progress & Management Group.
A church representative who spoke with the Free of charge Push declined to elaborate on particulars about the potential sale.
The prolonged-dilapidated developing has been a resource of some of Detroit rock’s most enduring mythology, extended immortalized in track and movie, including the 2012 documentary “Louder Than Enjoy.”
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From 1966 to 1972, the Grande reigned as Detroit’s foremost rock hall, the nerve center of hippie new music lifestyle in city. Touring visitors integrated Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Who, though homegrown functions these types of the MC5, the Stooges, the Frost and Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes had been regulars.
In Oct 1968, the MC5 — the venue’s residence band — recorded its explosive debut album, “Kick Out the Jams,” during a pair of Grande reveals. A 2,000-square-foot mural commemorating the MC5 was painted on the building’s east side in 2018, in conjunction with the album’s 50th anniversary.
For a prior generation of Detroiters, the Grande was best recognized as an exquisite west-aspect ballroom, dwelling to massive-band dances and socials. It was the sister venue of the east-aspect Vainness Ballroom, which has been eyed for in depth rehabilitation and progress in the Jefferson Chalmers district.
In 2018, the Grande secured a spot on the Countrywide Sign-up of Historic Areas, overseen by the National Park Company. However that position does not give the security afforded by some other point out and federal historic designations, it may offer some economic gain to a developer through Michigan’s new Condition Historic Tax Credit score Program, enacted in late 2020.
Longtime Grande Ballroom advocate Leo Early, creator of 2016’s “The Grande Ballroom: Detroit’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Palace,” said Chapel Hill Missionary officers have reviewed a achievable sale for several a long time.
But the church had also entertained the plan of restoring the idle, vacant developing alone — probably for blended household and business use — including a new location area on the next ground, internet site of the former ballroom.
Demolition was price-prohibitive, Early said.
This week’s sale listing asserts that “this is a major project for a severe minded developer who’s common with substantial scale jobs thus knowing the historical past affiliated with the making and possessing a eyesight to restore a monumental piece of genuine estate iconic to the town of Detroit.”
It also asks that the $5 million price tag tag not intimidate potential purchasers.
“The vendor will consider all clever officers,” the listing reads.
Call Detroit No cost Press music author Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or [email protected].