A local developer is working to breathe new life into the husk of a popular Detroit restaurant that has sat dormant for the past two decades.
American Community Developers, a property acquisitions firm based in Harper Woods, recently sealed a deal to purchase the old Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine building at 3175 Cass Ave. in Midtown.
Chung’s was a beloved anchor business of what came to be regarded as Detroit’s second Chinatown ushered in by the urban renewal of the 1960s, according to Detroit Free Press. The restaurant closed its doors in 2000 and has been vacant ever since.
American Community Developers, or ACD, plans to restore some of the building’s old luster and prepare it for at least one Asian-themed restaurant to take occupancy as a new tenant.
“We were excited to get the opportunity to buy this building. It’s got quite a rich history and it was a very popular restaurant when it was open,” ACD Vice President Mike Essian told What Now Detroit. “Everybody has some kind of story or nostalgia about Chung’s building. So we’re really high on being part of the preservation and getting new businesses in there to operate.”
The 8,500 square-foot structure has been mired in disrepair since it’s glory days. Developers are working to replenish the deteriorated building, which sits along the Cass Avenue corridor at the corner of Peterboro Street. They’ll replace battered storefront signs, upgrade the utilities and other infrastructure and put a new roof on the building while preserving its signature red pagoda shingles.
The renovations will be part of a $3 million investment into the building, the Free Press reported. Essian said the structure could house multiple restaurants and ACD is currently looking for local Asian-owned and operated eateries that could move into the space. He expected the the overhaul to be completed within the next six months.
“Each restaurant operator will have to come in and fit it the way that they want. But we’ll have it ready them,” Essian said. “It’ll basically be a brand new space with all the modern fittings for a restaurant. But we’re keeping the iconic components of the building.”
ACD”s primary focus for the past 20 years has been affordable multi-family housing. But the developer also has mixed-use properties in the area that share quarters with restaurants. Grey Ghost and Bakersfield operate in the Crystal Lofts building near Brush Park and Condado Tacos occupies the ground level of an apartment building along Selden Street.
The Chung’s building will become the newest addition to a hub that already features the Peterboro, a Chinese restaurant across the street, and the Detroit Shipping Company, which operates a popular rotating food-court concept out of a shipping yard down the street.
Essian hopes to build upon that synergy in the local dining scene and acknowledged they will be operating from one of the last remaining vestiges of the city’s former Chinatown communities.
“That’s why we think it’s important to preserve the building and also to preserve the mission behind the businesses that occupied the neighborhood,” he said.
