Site Of Detroit's Last Big Boy, Near Belle Isle, To Be Mixed-Use Development
Detroit-based The Platform LLC is planning a mixed-used development on the site of a former Big Boy restaurant across from Belle Isle Park in Detroit.
Demolition of the Big Boy building is underway, with construction on the new development following in late 2018 and completion in 2020, Crain's Detroit Business reports.
The development will be at the northwest corner of Jefferson and East Grand Boulevard, at the mouth of the Douglas MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle.
It will include about 240 residential units in an eight- to 10-story tower, with about 20% of them affordable units. About 11K SF of retail will be housed on the ground floor.
The Big Boy restaurant, metro Detroit's last one, closed in the spring after 50 years in operation, and the owner sold the one-acre property to The Platform for an undisclosed amount. Over the summer, GenesisHOPE and Eastern Market Corp. ran a farmers market on the site.
The developer hired LA-based wHY and Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates as architects.
The Platform also controls land north of the Big Boy site on East Grand Boulevard. Plans for that property include renovating a former nursing home designed by architect Louis Kamper in 1898, as well as rehabbing three historic properties.
