The Lofts of Merchants Row just finished their renovation project of the Valpey building, blending it into their existing development and adding 42 residential units as well as some retail space to downtown Detroit.
The retail space isn’t grabbed up yet, but all 42 loft-style apartments are all pre-leased with people already moving in. Wednesday evening we stopped through to take a look at what insides of a beautiful building on the outside that built approximately in 1896 and what it looks like now.
In the project are 630-square-foot studios; 780- to 950-square-foot one-bedroom units; and 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath units.
The project ran about a $10 million. The prices on these are on the higher end – the only loft in the complex currently available is not in the Valpey and it’s $1,360 for 864 square feet. But that includes amenities like 24-7 valet parking and they also have a shuttle service.
The first round of Lofts of Merchants Row places opened back in 2004.
First off, they cleaned up the exterior that had gotten some serious and wear and tear over a century plus of existence. They went with a white look all across the facade. Here are some shots of that.
The retail space where the reception was held was whiteboxed and had no architectural detail of note. They had their ceremonial ribbon-cutting with the developers, the Schotstak Brothers, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and then also a City of Detroit representative.
Let’s head upstairs. We saw a one bedroom and a two bedroom place, both with views that are very heart-of-a-city. First, the one bedroom.
Both units had washers and dryers in the unit, and the finishes were the same for either size unit, so we’ll spare you doubles but also share that none of the windows are designed to open in the place. Some will like that for sound purposes, others really won’t. Here’s the two bedroom, two bathroom unit.
Above is an example of the hallway – they all looked basically the same – and you can see into the neighboring buildings.
The Valpey is on Woodward between Grand River and Clifford streets in downtown Detroit.