by jimnorthwood
MCS is off the beaten downtown Detroit path, as it were, a bit too far west to be included in any of the current development projects that are moving north out of downtown, such as the M-1 light rail line on Woodward Avenue as well as the replacement hockey stadium/entertainment district. There have been various proposed re-uses of the structure over the years, ie new police headquarters and the like. All have come to nothing. Mr. Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, is the current owner of MCS. A few new windows were installed in MCS this summer. Whether that was a test of different brands to see which ones would hold up best in preparation for something bigger, or whether a gesture on the part of the owner to gain public favor following his strong opposition to the proposed new Detroit-Windsor bridge that would presumably siphon traffic and thus revenue away from his bridge, or something else, is anyone's guess. MCS and the former Packard automobile plant, just purchased by a Peruvian developer, are the two standard examples of so-called "ruin porn" that are held up for the world to see as emblematic of everything Detroit. There is much more to Detroit than that, of course. But those two structures in particular, combined with the recent Chapter 9 filing, serve to paint a very dismal painting of the city.