Being close to the Bronx Bar and the Old Miami doesn't seem like a deal-closer for someone who'd buy a Detroit condo costing nearly $1 million.
Yet that's among supposed advantages cited in an over-the-top Free Press piece about a top-floor Midtown listing.
Step out the front door and you’re at the Cass Corridor’s Avalon Bakery. From your greatroom window you see the hottest block on Canfield — Shinola, the Jolly Pumpkin and Third Man Records. . . .
Venerable institutions like the Bronx Bar, the Old Miami and Mario’s [are] nearby.
The paper deserves credit for truth in labeling on its weekly "Michigan House Envy" column, a Saturday feature about high-end real estate listings. But the latest presentation seems almost like a parody of the genre.
The $925,000 third-floor unit at Willys Overland Lofts is described with a geyser of gushing about its "luxury finishes," "upgraded granite," "soft-close cabinet doors," "distinctive" pillars and a bath enclosure so wide it "allows companionable showering."
Speaking of that master bath, it has "a separate commode room." Who says commode . . . and why?
The 2,484-square-foot top floor spread does look swanky and spacious, as the photo above and eight more below attest. So freelance writer Judy Rose's Mad Libs-style mix of Realtor-babble may fitting, though perhaps more apt for a glossy shelter magazine than a daily newspaper.
The mentions of nearby bars prompt a tweet from author and city government "chief storyteller" Aaron Foley: "Imagine buying a $925k house just to say you’re in walking distance of Bronx Bar."
Yes, we're a mighty long way from the Cass Corridor -- in aspirational terms, not physical distance.
But hey, as the Freep says: "For folks who like to be in the middle of things, the lofts at 444 Willis St. have a prime location."
Look inside Unit 301, via eight Realcomp II Ltd. photos below from the listing page of Abode Detroit agent Tori Jennings.
-- Alan Stamm