In RenCen's shadow, historic auction house keeps Jefferson busy
Across the street from the Renaissance Center is DuMouchelles, filled with local history buffs and an impressive collection of antique art and furniture.
Drawings by Keith Haring, Yoshitomo Nara and John Lennon are among the pieces for sale at a downtown auction house next week.
I never knew such coveted items were sold here before meeting Joe Walker, third generation president and auctioneer, at DuMouchelles Art Gallery.
The clanging of the metal fence as I walked inside the storefront on Jefferson Ave. was a happy sound to Walker, who led an impromptu tour through his family’s 97-year-old art gallery and auction house. The third floor, open for preview this week ahead of a Jan. 16 auction, is filled with big-name artists, antique jewelry, midwest modern furniture and various works worth tens of thousands.
Talking to longtime buyers like George and Kathy, a Metro Detroit couple who told me they’ve been getting lucky at DuMouchelles auctions for years, gave a glimpse into one of the many scenes within the city’s rich art industry.
Do well-known local dignitaries buy their art here? I asked Walker.
“Of course,” he said.
When I said I was a journalist, Walker asked about the $1.6 billion proposed overhaul of the Renaissance Center directly across the street.
Joseph DuMouchelle and his wife purchased the current building at 409 East Jefferson Avenue in the 1930s. Little did they know, 50 years later, a coalition led by Henry Ford II would build seven massive glass towers on the other side of the street in an effort to revitalize the city after the 1967 riots.
The RenCen was successful in that it gave Detroit an internationally recognizable skyline, but the seven-building complex never managed to bring the economic prosperity downtown its builders envisioned.
Many were skeptical from the beginning, Walker said.
He and his family have been in business across the RenCen for its entire lifespan. Walker remembers how early construction rerouted Detroit-Windsor tunnel traffic, the razing of the old Robin Hood Floor mill on the riverfront, as well as each major renovation. He says he was pleased by the demolition of the fortress-esque concrete embankments which walled-off “Fort Renaissance” when it opened in 1976. GM’s $500 million renovation, completed in 2004 after it moved its world headquarters downtown in 1996, was one of its last moments of hope, he said.
“What General Motors did when they bought it was nothing short of fantastic. It was gorgeous. They spent so much, put in hundreds of millions, but they paid nothing for it,” Walker said. “It was the deal of a century. Henry Ford II, the visionary behind it, rolled over in his grave when they bought it.”
29 years later, GM wants to use $250 million from taxpayers to tear down two of the unused 39-story buildings and make upgrades to the surrounding public riverwalk areas. The company says the entire project will cost $1.6 billion.
Mayor Mike Duggan and City Council President Mary Sheffield have said they’re open to the proposal, but it’s received bipartisan backlash from state lawmakers in Lansing, who would need to approve the public subsidies. The plan gives Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock an option to purchase the RenCen and would move GM’s remaining employees to Gilbert’s new Hudson’s building.
The automaker says there are about 1,300 employees working inside the RenCen today, but Walker believes the real number is much less.
He isn’t worried about the potential impact GM leaving the complex and tearing down two of the towers could have on the family business.
The damage is already done, he said.
The block was once considered prime business real estate downtown. Today it’s mainly traversed by Blue Cross Blue Shield and City of Detroit employees headed to their offices. Besides a few other DuMouchelles visitors, those workers were the only people I noticed walk past the store.
Layoffs at General Motors over the years have drastically reduced foot traffic and business activity across Jefferson Avenue. The sidewalks near the GM headquarters entrance on either side of Jefferson are usually sparse. The Renaissance Center at one time had more than 10,000 workers across its complex daily. What’s left is night and day compared to what the area looked like decades prior, Walker said.
Ford thought the office-hotel-retail development would jumpstart activity downtown. It was touted at the time as the largest privately financed urban development in history.
“It’d be $3 billion to build the Renaissance Center today!” Walker claimed.
I’m unsure the accuracy of his figure, but it made me wonder. That’s one billion more than the LA Clippers new state-of-the-art Intuit Dome.
Construction of the RenCen cost $350 million fifty years ago, according to this NYT story by Robyn Meredith about the 1996 GM purchase.
However, it seems like its price slightly varies by publication.
“The cost of the Renaissance Center soared to $100 million more than Ford’s original estimate — a total of $327 million at completion,” the Free Press’ Jo Thomas wrote in March, 1973. “Ford spent three months traveling to Europe and across the country in search of additional investors, even going to London to try for Arab oil money. But his company was on the Arab boycott list of companies doing business with Israel, and he was turned down.”
Interesting tidbit.
While art on the auction floor is curated from across the world, on display as customers buzz in through the gate are clay animals made by a local artist at the historic Pewabic Pottery studio.
Here are some of the most interesting items for sale at this month’s DuMouchelles auction Thursday, Jan. 16:
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