The Penobscot building at the corner of Griiswold and Fort in downtown Detroit, built in the 1920s, used to be among the city's grandest skyscrapers.
It has declined and a Toronto firm bought it for about $5 million in 2012. That company hasn't done much to revive the landmark's energy, though some longtime tenants remain.
The building still feels worn and as though someone took a vacuum cleaner and sucked a lot of life out. So, it's no surprise that it has come to this:
The red ball atop the building — an iconic orb that has been part of Detroit's night skyline for nearly 90 years — has been dark for about nine months, Robert Allen of the Detroit Free Press writes.
It would flash on and off at several-seconds-long intervals, but in October, six months after the tubes were replaced, most of them had burned out, the Freep reports.
The Freep goes on to report:
Todd Farnum of Green Light Detroit replaced the bulbs in 2015 and said he wasn't surprised the neon burned out as quickly as it did, and he said he saw bad wiring with too many transformers, overpowering the lights. Farnum said energy-efficient LEDs would be more reliable.
-- Allan Lengel
