The Parade Co. will ask Detroit City Council on Tuesday morning for another deadline extension to buy a long-vacant naval armory near Belle Isle, this time in the afterglow of its Ford Fireworks show.
The nonprofit organization, which put on the annual fireworks show Monday night in Detroit and also handles the yearly Thanksgiving Day parade, is seeking a one-year extension to its June 30 deadline for closing on the planned $300,000 sale of the old R. Thornton Brodhead Naval Armory, 600 E. Jefferson Ave.
The Parade Co. intends to rehab the armory to be its new headquarters and parade float storage.
The request — if granted — would be the Parade Co.’s third deadline extension to its 2021 development deal with the city. The original deadline in September 2022 was extended through September 2023, then again to June 30 of this year.
In a phone interview Monday, Parade Co. President and CEO Tony Michaels said his organization has so far raised $14.5 million toward its ultimate $45 million goal. Yet if it can hit $36 million, that would be enough to sign the purchase agreement for the armory, he said.
The proposed extension calls for a June 30, 2025, deadline for closing the sale, an Oct. 1, 2025, deadline for The Parade Co. to start construction work and an Aug. 1, 2027, deadline to complete construction.
“We’re supposed to know some really good information probably in the next two or three weeks, give or take, so we need an extension,” Michaels said. “This project is a great project, we just need some more time.”
The Parade Co.’s redevelopment plan would save and rehab the front portion of the armory that is 34,900 square feet in size. The back portion would be razed and replaced with a 127,400-square-foot building expansion.
The armory — now vacant for close to 20 years — dates to 1930 and was once a training facility for sailors and Marines and the site of boxer Joe Louis’ first amateur fight. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and features interior murals and carvings made during the Great Depression that the Parade Co. intends to preserve, although some of the artwork has already been destroyed by vandals.
The Parade Co. redevelopment plan faced initial opposition from a veterans’ group known as the Brodhead Association that had its own idea for restoring the armory. The Parade Co.’s latest redevelopment plan includes an office in the building for military veterans.
“Hopefully, we get the extension and we can stay on the path to doing something pretty darn cool for kids, families, the city,” Michaels said.
Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield previously sent an information request to Mayor Mike Duggan’s office regarding the redevelopment project and inquired whether the city would rebid the armory if the Parade Co. sale doesn’t move forward.
The organization is currently situated in a building on Mount Elliott Street near Coleman A. Young International Airport.
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Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or [email protected]. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Organization behind Detroit fireworks seeks more time for armory deal
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