Unilever’s SheaMoisture acquisition includes $100 million investment for women of color
Tux & Chucks celebrates seventh year
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Page D-1 POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
Volume 81 – Number 12
Means group gets boost for new residential high-rise By Elaine Watts With the Detroit City Council’s approved brownfield credits for the Ashton, a $58 million brand new 14story luxury condo development complex located on the west end of downtown Detroit, The Ashton will be the first free-standing high rise complex built in Detroit in more than 20 years.
michiganchronicle.com
Nov. 29 - Dec. 5, 2017
'The Dean' deserves due process
To be built on a parking lot adjacent to WDIV TV-4, the 103-unit new construction project will be developed by 600 Ventures Development Group, a partnership of Eric Means and Brian Holdwick.
The Michigan Chronicle
“I am grateful to the council for their decision,” said Means, CEO of Means Group, a Detroit-based development, construction and facility management firm. “This is a huge win for the city. To set the stage for continued growth, the city needs homeownership and this project brings a high-quality residential product that people want to own.” “Based on cost-to-build, projects of this nature have not previously been cost-effective,” Means continued. Brownfield credits are used to help incentivize developers to invest in dilapidated buildings, and areas that have remained vacant for a while. They are allocated to projects that require costly land remediation, infrastructure improvements and demolition. The $35 million, 11-story development is slated to begin construction in 2018 and will located at 600 W. Lafayette. The site is most famously recognized as the former home of local CBS affiliate WWJ TV-62 and Michigan AFSCME Council 25. The Ashton Detroit will have the latest in luxury
See THE ASHTON page A-4
WHAT’S INSIDE
Detroiters prep for Ugly Christmas sweater world record at Beacon Park See Page B-5
$1.00
Of all of the politicians being paraded publicly in this barrage of accusations and allegations, ranging from simple misconduct to criminal offenses, John “The Dean” Conyers has handled his supposed entanglement with more decorum than most.
EDITORIAL
As difficult as it must have been for Rep. Conyers to make the decision on Sunday to step down as the ranking Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, the first African American to wield that amount of power and influence in the halls of Congress, we believe he made the right decision. Not because we are automatically inclined to believe the charges brought by his accusers — that verdict of either guilt or innocence must be decided by a thorough and unhindered investigation of the charges — but because by doing so Conyers sends the appropriate message of his willingness to cooperate with the process of that investigation while also promptly removing himself as any sort of distraction that could easily be used by his detractors and enemies to not only tarnish his hard-earned legacy, but quite possibly derail Conyers’ ongoing positive efforts on behalf of his native Detroit as well as the nation. In short, we certainly hope that Conyers will be proven innocent of any and all charges of sexual harassment that have
been leveled against him. This certainly does not in any way sound like the John Conyers that we have all admired and respected for so many years. However, if worse comes to worst and the outcome of the investigation is not the outcome we expect to see, then we are confident that Conyers will once again do the right thing and make the right decision on behalf of the people he has rep-
resented so well and for so long. But in the meantime, as that investigation pursues its course, Conyers needs to remove himself from the line of fire, which is what he has done. For those who may not yet be up to speed on what this is all about, here’s a refresher: Conyers settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 with a former employee who al-
Female staffers step up for Conyers A dozen of Rep. John Conyers’ former female staffers are pushing back against reports of his alleged sexual misconduct and defending their ex-boss’ reputation. “While we do not pass judgment on the specific allegations reported in the press or the women who brought them, our experiences with Mr. Conyers were quite different than the image of him being portrayed in the media. Mr. Conyers was a gentleman and never behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner in our presence. He was respectful, valued our opinions, challenged our thinking and treated us as professionals,” they stated. The experiences of those ex-staffers with the embattled congressman contrasts with a picture of him that began emerging on Tuesday. It came to light that Conyers settled a sexual harassment claim with a former employee in 2015 for more than $27,000 with funds from his con-
gressional budget. Former staff members also accused Conyers, 88, of making repeated sexual advances on female staff and allegedly transported other women to Washington with whom he was suspected of having affairs. The high-ranking, longest serving member of Congress announced on Sunday that he’s stepping down as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee while he’s under a probe by the House Ethics Committee for sexual harassment. The announcement came after House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called for “due process” in Conyers’ case, calling him “an icon” who “has done a great deal to protect women.” However, some in the Democratic Party are calling for his resignation. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) said on Friday that an ethics investigation falls short of holding Conyers accountable.
leged she was fired because she would not entertain his sexual advances. From Buzzfeed, which published the story first on Monday, Nov. 20: “Documents from the complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News include four signed affidavits, three of which are notarized, from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sex acts, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public. Four people involved with the case verified the documents are authentic.” The woman who ultimately settled with Conyers launched the complaint with the Office of Compliance in 2014, alleging she was fired for refusing his sexual advances. She ended up having to sign a confidentiality agreement to maintain her silence in exchange for that settlement, which came from Conyers’ taxpayer-funded office budget rather than the designated fund for settlements. Part of that settlement stated that Conyers’ office “would ‘rehire’ the woman as a ‘temporary employee’ despite her being directed not to come into the office or do any actual work. In return for her agreeing to keep silent, the document
See CONYERS page A-2
DHC sells Frederick Douglass public housing site The Detroit Housing Commission this week voted to sell the 18-acre former Frederick Douglass public housing site to Bedrock for $23 million, subject to US Department of Housing and Urban Development approval. The deal also is subject to due diligence by Bedrock and is expected to close in 2018. In collaboration with the DHC and the City of Detroit, Bedrock intends to form a partnership with a national mixed-income housing developer and a local affordable housing developer, both to be named later. Together, they plan to develop more than 700 units of rental and for sale housing units on the site. Executing a final project will require partnership with the city, the DHC and likely MHSDA and MEDC;
124 Alfred City Modern in nearby Brush Park which will be dedicated to seniors whose incomes are 30 percent to 60 percent of the AMI, and preservation of existing affordable housing like the 236-unit Cathedral Towers apartments in Midtown. For the Frederick Douglass site redevelopment, Bedrock has agreed that over 20 percent of the total units will be affordable housing, and has also agreed to offer many of the new units to households earning as little as 30 percent AMI, or about $14,500 per year.
Frederick Douglass photo attribution: Albert Duce and include use of LIHTC, City of Detroit affordable housing grant funds and infrastructure investments, all of which will be determined as part of the submittal to the City
Council and HUD. Over the next several years, Bedrock plans to develop up to 3,500 residential units in the city. They have committed that 20 percent of their portfolio
will be affordable housing for those at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income. This commitment to affordable housing includes both new construction like
“The Housing Commission looks forward to achieving the goal of both creating additional affordable housing in the greater downtown consistent with last year’s Douglass
See BEDROCK page A-2