An early 1900s fire-damaged apartment house in southwest Detroit is set to get a major rehab and spring back to life.
Local business owner Omar Hernandez, 65, whose properties include the Mexicantown Baker, is moving forward with a plan to fully restore and reoccupy the big 2 1/2-story house at 347 W. Grand Blvd. in the Hubbard Farms neighborhood.
The Greek Revival-style apartment house has been vacant since 2017, when all of its tenants left, reportedly due to a broken boiler that was never repaired. Hernandez said he bought the property a few years after it emptied out. Then last November, the house was damaged in a highly suspicious fire.
“It was an arsonist," he said in a phone interview. "They still have not found out who it is.”
Hernandez
said he is preparing to restore the house and expand the number of apartments inside to 18 from what had been 12.
His nearly $4 million rehab project took a step forward on Sept. 9, when members of the Detroit Historic District Commission voted unanimously to issue a "certificate of appropriateness" for the plan, which in addition to major structural repairs to the house, would turn the vacant lot next door at 355 W. Grand Blvd. into a parking lot for future tenants.
Hernandez said that assuming he can finalize the project's financing, the project could get underway by the first or second quarter of 2027.
"We’re keeping it as original as possible,” he said of the building. “High ceilings, hardwood floors throughout."
Hernandez said he has bought and restored numerous commercial buildings in Detroit since the late 1980s.
In addition to the Mexicantown Bakery at 4300 Vernor Highway, one of his higher-profile projects was the former Club International/Club Fantasy at 6060 Fort St., which was a nightclub and performance venue that hosted acts such as 2 Live Crew, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.
The club closed about 10 years ago and Hernandez said he sold the property to the Michigan Department of Transportation for the Gordie Howe International Bridge project.
Hernandez said he has also bought and rehabbed about a dozen single-family houses in Detroit over the years, although the Hubbard Farms house is the biggest of them all and his first multifamily building rehab.
He said he gets phone calls nearly every week from people interested in buying the property, but he always turns them down.
Documents submitted to the historic district commission say the house's building permit was issued in 1905 and that it was owned by the Christa family until 1958.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Owner of arson-damaged apartment house in Detroit unveils rehab plan
