Residents of a historic downtown Detroit apartment building may not have to move out after being told the power at Leland House would be shut down this week.
UHaul trucks lined the valet parking outside the 22-story Leland House at 400 Bagley St. at Cass Avenue Monday as residents moved out of a building they thought would be without power by the end of the week.
On Friday, Nov. 28, management told residents to leave their apartment by Dec. 3 ahead of a DTE shutoff.
However, a court filing gave owners of the building until Thursday to pay. The plan involves a $1.2 million high interest rate loan to be paid off upon the sale of the building. U.S. bankruptcy Judge Maria Oxholm approved the order.
The building owes more than $50,000 to DTE as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
“Our team has been proactively working with the landlord to find a way to continue servicing the needs of its residents,” DTE said in a statement earlier this week. “As with all customers who own multi-unit dwellings, in compliance with regulatory requirements, we provided a 30-day public notice on all entrances and exits of the building to inform tenants of potential disconnect… As a regulated utility, we also have a responsibility to all customers to ensure payment for service is received, so that costs are not unfairly shifted to others.”
DTE said service interruptions are “an absolute last resort” and are only implemented after every effort has been made to reach an agreement or create a payment plan.
The utility company said it spent this week working with the city of Detroit to secure alternative housing for affected residents before service interruptions took place.
Still, residents at the Leland House, who are mostly Black seniors, say they are feeling pressured to move out.
One man in his 50s who asked not to be named told Michigan Chronicle inside the building Thursday that he planned to move out despite a court allowing tenants to stay.
“What’s the point of staying? The writing is on the wall, once they sell the building they’ll have all of us out anyway,” he said.
Tenants cited their uneasy feeling over what happens next in their requests to talk to Michigan Chronicle off the record or without their name. One woman said she was concerned about potential retribution for speaking out against the owner.
The late owner of the building is being represented in court by Luis Ramirez, who did not reply for comment before the publication of this article.
The building is also home to Leland City Club, known for its 18+ underground electronic music parties that typically draw an alternative, goth crowd. A GoFundMe to save the club raised over $34,000 as of Friday at noon.
The building originally opened as a hotel in the 1920s. It’s dining room, pictured above, would be a meeting place for government luncheons by day and a ballroom for dancing at night.
Free Press archives show the hotel purchased ads to welcome guests to hear music from the Detroit-Leland Dance Orchestra.
The building opened in April, 1927, boasting 700 rooms.
“The distinguishing feature of the Detroit-Leland will be an exhibition of antique European furniture with which the lobby has been fitted,” the Free Press reported nearly 100 years ago.
