A building that sat empty for about 30 years on Detroit’s west side is being rebuilt as an arts center. Detroit Blight Busters is converting a former Woolworth store at 21728 Grand River Ave., near Lahser, into the Sunflower Arts Center, a 20,000-square-foot mixed-use project with classrooms, artist housing, retail, and a diner, designed by the Detroit and Los Angeles firm LOHA. The building went up in 1905. Here is what is planned, what it costs, and where the money stands.
The Sunflower Arts Center at a Glance
| Where | 21728 Grand River Ave., near Lahser, Old Redford |
| The building | A 1905 former Woolworth, later an auto parts store, vacant about 30 years |
| Size | 20,000 square feet, two stories, per the architect and the city. |
| Inside | Children’s classrooms, seven live/work artist spaces, retail for creators, a diner, and a 3,000-square-foot events and performance space |
| Architect | LOHA, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, which has a Detroit office |
| Cost | About $7 million, with roughly $3 million still to raise |
| Timeline | One to one and a half years, per Blight Busters |
What Goes Inside
The plan treats the building as a working arts economy rather than a gallery. Classrooms will serve neighborhood children. Seven live/work spaces will give artists somewhere to both live and produce, which is the piece most arts projects skip. Commercial space will let creators actually sell what they make, and a diner will give the block a place to eat.
Then there is the stage. The city’s 2024 announcement described a 3,000-square-foot space for special events and performing arts. Blight Busters has run performances at its adjacent Artists Village for years, and the new room is a step up from that. For a neighborhood already hosting outdoor art events, that is a real jump in what can be booked.
LOHA is worth knowing about here. The firm, led by Lorcan O’Herlihy, works out of Los Angeles and a Detroit office on Burroughs Street, and it has designed a cluster of Blight Busters projects in the same few blocks, including the Obama Building, Kidz Camp, Artist Village, and Orchard48. Its Sunflower design wraps the Grand River facade in a curved vertical slat wall for solar shading, opens the building on three sides using the side yard and the Arts Alley, and cuts an opening through the floor plates and roof to pull daylight down into a basement meant for pop-up shops and gallery shows.
The center also sits on the first of nine City-sponsored Arts Alleys, part of a $5.4 million initiative funded with American Rescue Plan dollars and backed by the Kresge and Ford foundations. Artist Village has been programming that alley for three decades.
The Building Has Been Waiting Since 1905
The structure opened as a Woolworth, the five-and-dime chain that anchored American main streets for a century. Later it held an auto parts store. Then it sat, empty for roughly three decades, on a commercial stretch that watched most of its retail leave.
Blight Busters did not buy it. The organization received the property through a donation, then hauled more than 200 dumpsters of debris out of it before redevelopment could start. That detail matters, because it is how a nonprofit gets into a building this size in the first place.
The Money, and What Is Missing
Here is the honest accounting. Detroit Blight Busters puts total development cost at roughly $7 million and says about $3 million of that still needs to be raised. That leaves roughly $4 million accounted for. Two pieces of it are public: a $1 million grant from the State of Michigan, presented by State Sen. Mary Cavanagh at the opening of Detroit’s first City-sponsored Arts Alley in 2024, and a separate $1 million private gift. The rest has not been itemized publicly. The city’s announcement at the time put the total project closer to $5 million, so the number has moved as the scope firmed up.
That gap is the whole story of the timeline. Executive director John George estimates one to one and a half years to completion, and fundraising will decide whether that holds.
Why Old Redford
This is not a first attempt. Blight Busters has worked this neighborhood for decades, and the organization says it has channeled more than $100 million in investment into Old Redford over its history, through demolition, rehab, community gardens, and the Artists Village next door.
George frames the arts piece simply. “Art is what adds quality of life to being a human,” he said. In a neighborhood that spent years being measured by what it had lost, a building full of working artists is a different kind of number.
What Happens Next
Watch the fundraising. A project with $3 million outstanding is a project whose opening date is still a range rather than a date, and that is worth saying plainly rather than treating a groundbreaking as a ribbon cutting.
Details on the organization and its work are at Detroit Blight Busters. For more neighborhood projects taking shape, see our coverage of the Detroit Horse Power center and our Community reporting.
Sunflower Arts Center FAQ
What is it?
A 20,000-square-foot arts center in a former Woolworth at 21728 Grand River Ave. near Lahser, designed by LOHA.
What will be inside?
Children’s classrooms, seven live/work artist spaces, retail, a diner, and a 3,000-square-foot events and performance space.
What does it cost?
About $7 million, with roughly $3 million still to raise.
When does it open?
One to one and a half years, depending on fundraising.