11 thoughts on “Boji Group to open Hamtramck building”

1. Sooooo, does the old building on Denton become obsolete, abandoned and set for vandals? great another abandoned building.

   Or will it be listed for lease or rent?

2. I heard somewhere that the owner did not weant to renew the lease and The State wanted to keep the Hamtramck location.

3. I honestly think the new location will be better because of easier access, parking and security. So the building was there before the state decided to use it?

4. From what I read in old copies of The Citizen at the library, 20 or 30 years ago, the State of Michigan decided that regional centers were a bad model for DHS offices, or whatever they were called in those days, and closed the regional offices. The building on Denton was built to the state’s requirements by a developer who continues to own the building today. When the State’s lease was up, someone made the decision to go back to regional offices, and the lease on Denton was not renewed. (The developer/building owner is now responsible for finding a new tenant.)

   The state was planning to build the regional DHS office somewhere in Detroit, marginally accessible by public transit. People in Hamtramck lobbied the State to locate the regional office here. A building is now built by a developer to the state’s anti-urban requirements, and the state has a lease on the building for 20 or 30 years. When the lease is up, the state will probably decide that regional offices were a bad idea and hire a developer.

5. sounds like a vicious cycle

6. The old location can be a nice Aldi supermarket.

7. much as i love aldi prices the truth is all the money you spend there goes away to a foreign land never to be seen again.

   mind you if you want to go to aldis there’s one 2 miles from us on woodward. personally i’d like to see our supermarkets continue to streamline their selections to keep prices low. i’d also like to boot whoever spreads krown foods fliers out of town because nobody cares about them, afterall theyre not in our city anyway.

   no, aldis is not the answer, but we could use it as a satellite classroom for any of the colleges, like a tech center. Or, it may become part of a new rail line station that the newspapers were mentioning several months back.

8. It’s only a vicious cycle if you’re not state developer or a politician getting campaign donations from a state developer.

   Taxpayer funded development churn. Constantly tearing ticky-tack buildings down and building new ones at the taxpayer’s expense.

9. Had to come back to this thread to say that in addition to Aldi draining resources from communities, the products they sell are barely food. Completely disagree about Krown and local groceries though. Krown is our “supermarket”, and the best thing about the local stores is the amazing selection. I can put ANYTHING on my grocery list and know that a store within walking distance will have it. Hamtramck is heaven for cooks.

10. Cleaning out e-mail this morning and noticed that I didn’t post this second press release:

    Boji Group opens Woody Plaza
    New building to spur downtown Hamtramck redevelopment, house new Department of Human Services district office

    HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Boji Group injected new life into downtown Hamtramck
    today, opening a new 30,000-square-foot building that is expected to
    become a hub of activity.

    Boji Group Chairman Louie Boji and President Ron Boji were joined by
    city, Wayne County and State of Michigan officials at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Woody Plaza, 12140 Jos. Campau. The building soon will become home to a new district service center for the state Department of Human Services.

    “We’re proud to be a part of the resurgence of downtown Hamtramck,” Ron
    Boji said. “Woody Plaza brings new life to this part of Jos. Campau. It will house more than 125 employees and serve several hundred people each day.”

    The site is the former home of the Woody Pontiac automotive dealership,
    which drew customers to downtown Hamtramck for 60 years until it closed in 2000. In recent years, however, the vacant dealership had become a barrier to growth in Hamtramck’s downtown district.

    In 2006, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm included Hamtramck in her Cities of
    Promise initiative, which links state agencies with local officials to
    collaborate on projects to improve eight urban cities. Through Cities of Promise, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority awarded a Blight Elimination Program grant to demolish the auto dealership. The site also was designated a brownfield, enabling Boji Group to qualify for Michigan Business Tax credits for its redevelopment.

    “Even before it opened, Woody Plaza had a positive impact on our city,”
    Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski said. “The north end of our downtown is getting new interest from developers and business owners thanks to this project.”

    Woody Plaza was designed and constructed to comply with Energy Star
    commercial building standards, maximizing use of natural light and other
    energy-saving features to reduce its environmental impact and make it more efficient to operate. The building will replace two older Department of Human Services facilities, which the state department has
    outgrown.

    “This facility reinforces Governor Granholm’s commitment to invest in
    Hamtramck, a City of Promise,” said Ismael Ahmed, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services. “It also meets the departmental need to serve Michigan’s vulnerable children, adults and families.”

    Boji went on to thank Governor Granholm, the Michigan Department of
    Human Services, Wayne County, the City of Hamtramck, and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. for their support of the project.

    ###

    ABOUT BOJI GROUP

    With offices in Lansing and Southfield, Boji Group is a diversified,
    family-owned and – operated company with interests in real estate development and property management, distribution and wholesale services, convenience stores, retail and the hospitality industry.

11. This seems as a good a place to post this article as any:

    FBI probes ties to group

    More details, meanwhile, emerged Thursday about county documents sought by the FBI.

    The subpoenas indicate that federal agents want information about ties between county vendors and a separate, nonprofit economic development group once led by Mullin. She was paid a $75,000 bonus by the group, Edge Opportunities, atop her county salary.

    Cynthia Pasky, CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions, said the FBI sought records for her company’s county contract to provide call-tech support, which was competitively bid.

    She said she also has contributed $10,000 to Edge Opportunities, the nonprofit working as the Wayne County Business Development Corp. “We have nothing to hide,” Pasky said.

    Pasky said the subpoenas asked for information about a number of companies whose representatives are on the Edge board, including the Clark Hill law firm, RCP Associates, Walbridge Co., the Roxbury Associates, Ghafari Associates, The Boji Group, Grand Sakwa, Henry Ford Health Systems, Metro Cars, The Sterling Group, Steward Investments, Delta Airlines and Piston Group, headed by former Piston Vinnie Johnson.

    Walbridge Co. was part of a joint venture that recently won a $220 million county contract to build a new Wayne County jail.

    “Have we been contacted by the FBI? The answer is no. Me or the company,” said John Rakolta, chairman of Walbridge.

    Walbridge made a $25,000 contribution to Edge as a founding member in 2009, said Rakolta, adding his company had no county contracts at the time.

    John Truscott, a spokesman for Ron Boji, the president of the Boji Group, said his client donates to a variety of nonprofits connected to governments statewide.

    Boji has worked with the county on two recent developments in Inkster and Hamtramck.

    Boji is the brother-in-law of Nader Fakhouri, an assistant county executive for Ficano.

    “Everything Ron has done has been very transparent and very public,” Truscott said.

    Above by Christine MacDonald of The Detroit News