Prince Concepts slices up a prefab Quonset hut to create a series of light-filled dwellings.
In Detroit’s Core City neighborhood, a new prefab Quonset hut hosts six apartments and two live/work spaces surrounded by a recently planted urban forest. Named Caterpillar after its long and slender shape, the gleaming 9,000-square-foot structure is the latest venture by Prince Concepts, a local real estate developer that has partnered with the city to develop roughly one hundred vacant properties in the district.
In addition to Caterpillar, Prince Concepts has completed multiple large projects in Core City over the past few years, including True North in 2017, 5k in 2020, and Core City Park in 2019.
Andiamo on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn The federal government s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was designed to help businesses cover payrolls, avoid layoffs and stay open during the pandemic. But some Metro Detroit buinesses got the loans, then folded shortly after, JC Reindl of the Detroit Free Press reports. Some loans in the program can be fully forgiven, while others must be repaid to the government with 1-percent interest. Andiamo restaurant on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn was approved for a $434,749 loan Jan. 23, the paper says. It closed at the end of February, citing financial strains from the pandemic. It s unclear if they willl have to repay the loan. The restaurant did not return a call from the Freep for comment.
April 30, 2021
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During World War II, the U.S. Navy developed a prefab housing structure deemed the Quonset hut. Today, those huts are used for storage on farms, but the arched steel structures are now designed as sleek, nature-focused apartment buildings in Detroit. The mind behind the idea, real estate investor and developer Philip Kafka, says it’s his attempt to bring affordable but well-designed buildings to Detroit. Fast Company reports that the building, dubbed the Caterpillar, costs $1.5 million for an eight-unit building. Each unit features 750 to 1,350 square feet of space with 23-foot high ceilings.
Originally from Texas, Kafka previously ran a successful advertising company in New York, and began visiting Detroit to look for investment opportunities in 2012. The city’s abundance of vacant land and a resurgence of interest in urban living led him to begin developing real estate. Through his company, Prince Concepts, Kafka has been buying land an
Words by Francesca Perry
In the Detroit neighbourhood of Core City, a low-cost, eight-unit housing project has been completed using a prefabricated Quonset hut. Designed by architect Ishtiaq Rafiuddin for Prince Concepts, the 836 sq m project is accompanied by a new 150-tree public woodland – made possible by reallocating funds which would have otherwise been spent on more expensive construction methods.
Quonset huts are lightweight prefabricated structures of corrugated galvanised steel with a semi-cylindrical cross-section. The design was originally developed in 1941 for the US Navy, based on the British Nissen hut from 1916. Despite the structure’s military heritage, many are used around the US as businesses, homes, or for storage.
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