Start of Uniroyal cleanup sharpens riverfront vision
26 years after factory demolition, plans for housing, retail in focus
By JOHN GALLAGHER FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Promises made, promises kept.
Detroit’s once-industrialized east riverfront took another huge step toward a hoped-for future Friday as a long-awaited environmental cleanup began on the old Uniroyal site near Belle Isle.
The Uniroyal work is part of the decades-long transition of the riverfront from a place of factories and smokestacks to a place of recreational, residential and retail uses.
That transition remains a work in progress, as it will for many years to come. But cleaning up the Uniroyal eyesore marks a huge milestone. It will allow for the future expansion of the city’s RiverWalk and the eventual development of shops and waterfront housing on one of the most prominent sites in the region.
“Detroit has been fortunate in recent years to experience several developments that are considered both transformational and historic,” George Jackson, president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said Friday. “But this development could be the granddaddy of them all.”
“This was an eyesore for so many years,” added Detroit native and former NFL star Jerome Bettis, who will help redevelop the site. “We feel this can be a flagship site.”
MIKE BROOKBANK/Detroit Free Press
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, right, greets Gladys Bettis, mother of Detroit native and former NFL star Jerome Bettis, center. Jerome Bettis will help develop the site of the former Uniroyal factory on Detroit’s riverfront and was on hand Friday as Bing announced the $20-million cleanup.
WILLIAM ARCHIE/Detroit Free Press
The factory was demolished in 1985, but a long dispute over who would pay for a cleanup delayed it. Now, many trees and scrub vegetation are overgrowing at the site. The cleanup will remove contaminated soil.
City hopes to make eyesore a gem
Long-delayed cleanup starts as big riverfront plans lie ahead
By JOHN GALLAGHER FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
A quarter century after the old Uniroyal tire factory came tumbling down in the mid-1980s, an environmental cleanup of the prized riverfront site has finally begun.
Mayor Dave Bing and other civic leaders announced the $20-million cleanup Friday morning at Mt. Elliott Park, on the edge of the 42-acre Uniroyal site, which is just west of the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle.
Long delayed by disputes over paying for the work, the cleanup will unlock the potential to redevelop a site that, like Michigan Central Station, has become one of the symbols of Detroit’s decline.
The cleanup will remove huge volumes of contaminated soil and otherwise prepare the site for redevelopment. Mich-Con, Michelin — which bought Uniroyal — and other corporations that once did business on the site or owned companies that did are paying for the cleanup.
“Our riverfront real estate is some of the most valuable land that I think we have in the city of Detroit, and for years and years it’s been totally underutilized,” Bing said. “But I’m pleased today that we’re taking a major step forward to clean up the prime example of promises that have been made over a long period of time.”
“It took a long time and a lot of work for us to get here,” said George Jackson, president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., who over several years brokered the cleanup agreement with the corporations.
The cleanup of the western third of the site will take about 18 months. Jackson said the DEGC is negotiating for the cleanup of the rest of the site.
Faye Alexander Nelson, president and CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, said she expects to begin construction next spring to extend the Detroit RiverWalk from Mt. Elliott Park across the Uniroyal site to link up with the piece of the River-Walk at Gabriel Richard Park, just east of the MacArthur Bridge.
Meanwhile, former NFL star and Detroit native Jerome Bettis — working with Pittsburgh-based developer Charles Betters — has been planning to redevelop the site as a series of mixed-used residential and retail projects.
The Bettis-Betters plan for the site was announced seven years ago by then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Known as Belleview, the plan at one point called for as many as 2,000 residential units to be built along with retail. But the plan fell apart in the recession and real estate crash.
Jackson said Friday that Bettis and Betters still will control the site in exchange for working to get the cleanup going and for working with other developers to take on pieces of the site. Jackson said it is likely now that several developments will rise there.
Despite the long delays, Jackson expressed confidence that the Uniroyal site will one day become a great asset for the city.
“I think this site will sell itself. A 42-acre site on the waterfront I think will be attractive to a number of investment” groups, he said.
“This has been a long time coming,” he added. “When I started this project, my kids were in middle school. Now they’re college graduates.”
Although known primarily for the old Uniroyal tire factory that once stood on the site, the now-vacant parcel saw a wide variety of industry operate there. The contamination and debris left by a century or more of industrial use is a brew of ammonia, mercury and cyanide, all of which are in the groundwater at the site, as well as other industrial by-products.
Besides the chemical contamination, debris from the demolished tire factory was buried, rather than hauled away, creating further complications for future use.
After the Uniroyal factory was demolished in 1985, hopes for the site surged repeatedly. When Donald Trump inspected the site by helicopter in the mid-’80s, Detroiters buzzed for months with speculation that he would build a hotel or casino there.
In recent years, nature has begun to take back the land, with many trees and scrub vegetation overgrowing the site now.
• CONTACT JOHN GALLAGHER: 313-222-5173 OR GALLAGHER99@FREEPRESS.COM
1985 Free Press photo
The site is primarily known for the Uniroyal tire factory that once stood there, but it was home to a variety of industry.
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