Editorial: Owner should pay to tear down the blighted Michigan Central Station

The Detroit News

If Manuel "Matty" Maroun has $1 billion or so to build a new bridge across the Detroit River, as he wants to do, he ought to be able to come up with a few million dollars to tear down the Michigan Central Station, which he owns. It's Detroit's biggest eyesore, and Maroun owns it.

The Detroit City Council voted this week to tear down the depot and bill Maroun for the work.

As much as we share the City Council's frustration, a plan offered by Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. to wait for stimulus funds to come in, then demolish the building and bill Maroun, is the more prudent course.

Cockrel spokesman Daniel Cherrin says tearing the depot down at city expense would consume most of the city's demolition funds, leaving it unable to deal with its 45,000 other abandoned buildings.

None of this should be necessary.

Maroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge, should tear it down himself. He's been hiding behind the building's national historic designation. But even historically significant buildings can be torn down if they're a public nuisance, and this one most certainly is.

The building may attract out-of-town filmmakers and so-called "urban explorers," but it is also a derelict building -- with all of the risks that implies -- and a huge blemish on the landscape. It is a constant and unwelcome reminder of the decline of certain parts of the city.

A Maroun spokesman said he continues to weigh renovation proposals. But the depot has been empty for a quarter century and no one has stepped up with the funds to restore it.

It's not likely to happen during a deep recession.

The building should be knocked down, and its owners should pay the cost.