The roof was caving in. The walls were rotten. And in the center of the living room, amid vermin and trash, the chalk outline of a murder victim.
“I don’t even know how to describe it,” said David Alade, the young developer who, with his partner, bought the building in Detroit’s fabled but faded North End.
“Just completely dilapidated.”
Not today. With marble tiles, gleaming wood floors and gobs of fresh paint, the century-old building has been given a makeover. So has Detroit. And so have cities across the nation.
View the complete August 3 article by Griff Witte on The Washington Post website here.