Jack Nissen
Mon, August 11, 2025 at 4:17 PM UTC
2 min read
The Brief
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Detroit is demolishing the long-vacant Mammoth Building, with work beginning Monday.
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The city spent years in court to figure out what to do with the building, which has stood empty since 2000.
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The west side eye sore first opened in 1949 as the Federals department store.
DETROIT (FOX 2) – After decades of sitting vacant, serving as one of the city’s biggest eyesores, Detroit is moving forward with the demolition of the Mammoth Building.
It’s been years of court battles before the city could move forward with tearing down the former department building.
Big picture view
Starting Monday, Detroit is beginning demolition of the long-vacant Mammoth Building, located on Greenfield and Grand River on the city’s west side.
Empty since 2000, it has spent 25 years in disrepair, becoming a symbol of the blight that the city has worked to remove over the decades.
The city filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit in 2023 following years of blight violations. Ownership of the building became a murky question amid uncertainty about its future.
New owners purchased it in October 2023 during a county auction.
Now, after legal filings as well as two months of asbestos abatement, the building will be torn down. The city will pay the demolition with the current owners reimbursing Detroit for the cost.
The buildings department leader LaJuan Counts in Detroit said Monday marked a moment “from blight to beauty.”
Dig deeper
Citing other longterm sources of blight, mayor Mike Duggan brought up the old Packer plant and Detroit’s old Uniroyal site as other markers of improvement he has seen during his tenure in the city.
The Mammoth Building, sitting on land that could be valuable for shopping and elevating the city’s west side, has instead brought the neighborhood down.
“Now we have an opportunity to create new memories as we get rid of this eyesore, this piece of blight. New memories for a new opportunity for a community that deserves it,” said councilmember James Tate.
The Source
Detroit announced the building’s demolition during a Monday press conference.
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