And then there were four...
Four little lofts in Liberty Lofts development, one of downtown Ann Arbor's most significant projects in decades. The development, a model for urban redevelopment, has won awards for turning an old factory on the edge of downtown into a high-density residential complex. The 68-unit building has also experienced brisk sales with only four units left for sale.
Liberty Lofts is located in a six-story factory that housed an automotive-parts manufacturer since the 1920s. It's surrounded by Liberty, First, William and Second streets near the city's Old West Side, an old German immigrant enclave.
Approximately 70,000 of the structure's 110,000 square feet is part of the original building. The lofts range in size from 844 to 2,337 square feet. They emphasize the building’s industrial heritage with open floor plans, exposed mushroom-shaped concrete columns and burnished block concrete walls.
Construction workers have also recently finished renovating the single-story section of the plant at the corner of Liberty and First streets into commercial space, which is still available.
The Ann Arbor Historic District Commission gave Liberty Lofts an Adaptive Reuse Award as an outstanding example of sustainable development this spring because it mixes the old and new parts of the structure nicely and increases the housing density downtown. The developers were also lauded for efficiently using the land, effectively mixing retail and residential space and redeveloping a brown field site in a flood plain.
Chicago-based Morningside Group is the developer behind Liberty Lofts, along with other urban-based developments in Michigan and the Midwest.
Source: Sharlan Douglas, spokeswoman for Liberty Lofts.
Writer: Jon Zemke
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