Chinatown in the Cass Corridor -- or Midtown -- hasn't been Chinatown for a long time.
Chung's restaurant, a central fixture of the little stretch on Cass Avenue, shut its doors in 2000. It wasn't four-star worthy, but it was a cool place to go.
Not much has been going on since -- until recently.
Paul Beshouri of Curbed Detroit writes:
Caught between booming Midtown and the site of the new Red Wings arena, Chinatown's rundown buildings are attracting an unfamiliar level of interest from potential buyers.
Two buildings on at Cass and Peterboro (including the former Chung's Restaurant) sold in February after languishing for years on the market. Just across the street from Stream in the Desert, an 8,000-square-foot warehouse took 18 months to sell. It fetched $275K in April.
Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker wrote in early April:
Matt Hessler, a Detroit resident who owns a tattoo shop in Rochester, purchased one of two popular Chinatown properties on the west side of Cass Avenue at Peterboro for $225,000. He plans to open a tattoo shop where retailer Mantra had operated.
-- Allan Lengel
