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Committee advances CPA Building historic designation, sets public hearing
Summary
The Committee of the Whole voted to send an ordinance to formal session to designate the CPA (Conductor's Protective Assurance) Building on Michigan Avenue as a local historic district and to set a public hearing in February; staff said the designation protects the corner building from demolition and enables historic tax incentives.
The Committee of the Whole voted to send an ordinance to formal session that would add the Conductor's Protective Assurance (CPA) Building, at 2216–2200 Michigan Avenue, to Detroit's local historic districts and set a public hearing in February, Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero said.
Lisa De Quira, deputy director of the Historic Designation Advisory Board, told the committee the designation process began with a council member resolution in October 2024 and that the board had completed its final report and draft ordinance. "We are, at the very end of our process of the historic designation of this property," De Quira said, noting the nomination had followed the board's procedures and would next move to council for a formal introduction and a public hearing.
Deputy Director De Quira said the proposed boundary covers the corner building and an immediately adjacent vacant parcel; the rest of the block would not be included. "What the designation will do is protect the building from future demolition," she said, and added that the designation "does enable an additional tax incentive for rehabilitation of the building" through the state historic tax credit program and could make the building eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and related federal historic tax credits if a future owner pursues that nomination.
Council President Pro Tem Coleman Young II asked whether designation would block future development and whether the property owner supported the move. De Quira replied that the property is privately owned, the owner (she said) currently lives out of state and has "not objected," and that the designation would not prevent new construction on other vacant parcels in the block. Pro Tem Young said he wanted clarity that the designation would not unexpectedly limit economic development.
Vice Chair Gabriela Santiago Romero framed the measure as a preservation action supported by community historic preservationists and moved the ordinance to formal. The committee carried the motion with no objections and also voted to receive and file the advisory board's report.
Next steps: The ordinance will be formally introduced in the council's formal session and a public hearing will be scheduled in February, per the committee action.
