ROOFTOP VIEW
Film Row parking garage to open next month with 345 spaces
The first parking garage built to support development along the west end of Film Row is set to open next month, providing 345 spaces for future residents of West Village, area workers and visitors.
The garage is just one of several components being built as part of the $70 million West Village between Sheridan Avenue and Main Street, Classen Boulevard and Fred Jones Avenue.
During what was one of the first public tours of the project, Weston Dehart, president of contractor CMSWillowbrook, told visitors the first apartments at the “Clubhouse” at the northeast corner of Fred Jones and Sheridan are set to open within the next 11 months.
“We’re right on schedule,” Dehart said. “We strategically started with this building, which will have the leasing office and most of the amenities so the project can start bringing in revenues as soon as possible.”
The Clubhouse Building, located immediately east of The Jones Assembly, consists of two stories of parking at the base, topped with three stories of apartments and a rooftop pool and courtyard. That rooftop will include a kitchen, restrooms, cabana and a glass railing designed to provide an uninterrupted view of the streets below and the surrounding downtown skyline.
Joined by developer Zach Martin, Dehart painted a picture of look and vibe of the rooftop once the entire development is complete. Fred Jones Avenue, which will run between The Jones Assembly, the 21c Museum Hotel and the West Village development, will be a adorned with vintage style Edison light strings. The corridor is designed to provide a street that can be closed for
special events and live music.
Martin called the Clubhouse building, which also will include a potential restaurant spot facing Sheridan, 66 apartments, parking, a fitness center and leasing office, the “gem” of the development.
“This will be the cool spot to be,” Dehart said.
Another pool and courtyard at ground level will be built as part of 126 apartments just east of The Jones Assembly. The pool and courtyard are designed to open to the enclosed outdoor patio at the assembly so that residents might be able to enjoy live music at the neighboring venue.
For those wanting a quieter experience, more apartments and parking are being built along the north side of Main Street, across from the hotel. A waterfall will be built where Fred Jones dead-ends at Sheridan.
The entire West Village development is planned to interact with the hotel and assembly at an area owned for generations by the Hall family. It was their patriarch, Fred Jones, who formed a close business relationship with the legendary Henry Ford and eventually bought the 1916 Ford Model T assembly plant that is now home to the hotel and ADG, a design and engineering firm.
Beyond the environmental cleanup that was expected on some of the formerly industrial lots, the only surprise contractors encountered was underneath a surface parking lot on the north side of Main Street. It was there, Dehart said, that contractors discovered rubble 12 feet deep from a building that apparently caught fire in the 1930s and was then buried underground.
Martin knows the immediate anticipation is for the parking at Classen and Sheridan.
“Our development has a lot of parking,” Martin said. “We built considerably more than what we need for our units. It’s been anticipated and very necessary. We really have a big parking crunch right now. The garage will alleviate that.”