$3.5M Chung's restoration drives Chinatown revival
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Curtis Chin, grandson of the Chung's founder, outside his family's old restaurant as new plans for the area take shape. Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Detroit's abandoned Chinatown is coming back to life after an old building that upheld the area's fading Chinese American heritage was demolished over the summer.
Driving the news: An open garden space honoring the neighborhood's cultural significance is being discussed for the grassy demolition site at 3143 Cass Ave., state Sen. Stephanie Chang, the first Asian American woman elected to the state Legislature, tells Axios Detroit.
- Up the street, the recent buyer of the former Chung's Cantonese Cuisine is in the midst of a $3.5 million renovation for a new Chinese restaurant and two other eateries.
- A new boutique hotel is also planned next to the nearby Detroit Shipping Company.
What they're saying: "We are committed to a Chinese restaurant on the corner," Mike Essian, vice president of the local development company that bought Chung's, tells Axios. "Our goal is Asian-owned restaurants in the other two spaces."
Why it matters: The 19th-century building's sudden destruction in July shocked Cass Corridor communities past and present, stirring concerns that modern development in the area — anchored by Little Caesars Arena — eroded the beloved neighborhood's history and eclectic vibes.
- It was a community center for the local On Leong, the Chinese Merchants Association, a chamber of commerce that supported Chinese-American immigrant communities across the country.
Zoom out: Cass Corridor's Chinatown at Cass and Peterboro had businesses from Charlotte to Stimson streets.
- The city's first Chinatown came together on Michigan and Third Avenue, near what is now the MGM Grand Casino, but was relocated to the Cass Corridor due to 1950s urban renewal.
State of play: Curtis Chin spent much of his childhood at Chung's Cantonese Cuisine, which his family operated from 1940-2000.
- After Essian's American Community Developers bought the vacant building in May, he called Chin to ask if he would be interested in reviving his family's restaurant.
What he's saying: Chin, visiting Detroit to promote his new book on his life growing up inside Chung's, "Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant," tells Axios that he gave the idea some thought but ultimately had to reject the offer.
- "If Chung's had been owned by us, I may have stayed in Detroit and taken over the business," Chin said.
- "The main reason it closed was because the city ordered some improvements, a new refrigeration system and stuff like that, and my dad just couldn't convince the Chinese Merchants Association to pay for it," he said.
The latest: Today, there are signs of life outside the building once again. A tax abatement over 12 years requested by American Community Developers was approved by City Council this month.
- "I used to go by the Chung's building and say, 'Man, why isn't anything happening here?'" Essian says.
