Neal Rubin: Let's look before we leap to knock down that damaged building in Eastern Market

It's not just preservationists who'd like the city to keep the wrecking balls tethered. Across from the former Del Bene Produce building in Eastern Market, where sunlight gleamed off strips of aluminum in a pile of rubble, a pragmatist was also weighing in.

The four-story red brick building at 2501 Russell Street has stood empty with the street barricaded since a chunk of the south wall collapsed late Saturday morning, exposing the top two floors to the elements and a steady parade of sightseers.

The market is already one of Detroit's leading tourist attractions, but this was something as fresh as the Michigan-grown produce: a gaping wound in a 126-year-old building, guilt-free for gawking because the one and only injury wasn't serious.

Royal Oaker Paul Grout was among the bystanders, but as a general contractor, he was peering Tuesday with a practiced eye. He had invited a structural engineer to the site, the engineer's associate had unleashed a drone, and "based on what we saw," Grout said, "the building's not in that bad shape."

Without anyone venturing inside, the city declared its intention over the weekend to finish the job that the mysterious wall-slide started. Unsafe, decreed the Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department, along with the Detroit Fire Department. Gotta go.

Could be, Grout said, but "let's slow down a little. Let's do this right."

Let's actually inspect the building, he said, examine the merits of demolishing vs. refurbishing, and consider every angle of the big picture.

Then — whoa — the Metro Times reported on Wednesday that the City of Detroit would consider a plan to stabilize and then rebuild the Del Bene. It even suggested using a drone for an inspection, in which case Grout knows a guy.

It would be bad business — and outright malfeasance — to let a dangerous building shed bricks at Russell Street and Winder. But a handsome structure that dates to 1897, one year before the Spanish-American War, deserves deliberation before obliteration.

A sprint to razing would say something untoward about the city, which has historically favored bulldozers over blueprints. When so many people remain eager to believe the worst about Detroit, a quick decision might also suggest something unsettling about the rest of Eastern Market.

Many of the familiar or functional properties across the market's 43 acres are a century old. If the current home of Jabs Gym, J'adore Detroit, Detroit Vs. Everybody, Brooklyn Outdoor and Beyond Juicery and Eatery can't be saved, is that a whisper others can't be trusted?

Boom times before the collapse

Dan McCarthy, 60, owns Cost Plus Wine Shoppe and the vintage 1894 building it anchors. He gets his exterior tuckpointed every six or seven years to repel moisture, and "it's dry as a bone," he said.

He said his neighbors on Market Street, including Vivio's and DeVries & Co., are as proactive as he is. Their block will outlast Keith Richards' great-grandchildren.

Other businesses have had hiccups, like the water damage from an upstairs fire that has left Supino Pizzeria closed since April, and the market is still dealing with a tragedy: Vivian Carmody, the wife of CEO Dan Carmody, was killed by an alleged drunk and stoned driver and Carmody was injured as they walked to dinner in Lafayette Park last month.

Beyond that, "the market is booming. It's never been so busy," McCarthy said.

Now comes the crash of bricks and glass to the asphalt, and again: if the Del Bene building truly needs to go, then bon voyage.

But if a building with a reinforced concrete frame can be shored up, it stiffens the reputation of everything around it in a place so beloved that Debby Greene, 68, made a 250-mile trip from Rogers City to shop for flowers — and confirmed when it comes to Detroit, some people will believe anything.

Greene's granddaughter had a volleyball match scheduled in the suburbs, so the market wasn't her only destination. And in truth, on an apples-and-vegetables-heavy Tuesday, flowers were in disappointingly short supply.

She and a friend were having a grand time anyway, and as she inspected a bell pepper, Greene found herself reminded of a lesson in outsized reputation she learned when she was on the board of the Michigan Municipal League.

The league was holding its annual conference at the MGM Grand in Detroit, and she ran into two gentlemen there who were attending a railroad convention.

"We're really disappointed," one of them told her, and as far as she can tell he was serious. "We've been here a day, and we haven't seen a dead body yet."

White trucks and a white dress

Beyond Juicery on the Del Bene's first floor was plastered with large orange stickers headlined, "Notice of Building Closure."

So were the Germack nuts and coffee store next door and the Electric Park Tattoo shop around the corner on Adelaide, where two hulking trash receptacles sit on the sidewalk and the awning reads, "The World's Very Finest Tattooing Between Two Dumpsters."

Three white trucks had been allowed to ease past the blockade on Russell, one each from DTE Energy, Traffic Management Inc. and an underground construction company called InfraSource. At least Ford was having a good day; they were all F-150s.

Across the street, Mike Tinsley of Detroit and Matthew Andrus of Westland spoke softly to one another as they studied a familiar storefront. Tinsley, 32, the regional manager, wore a Beyond Juicery hat. Andrus, 29, one of the shop's co-owners, carried a company backpack.

Tinsley said he was just glad everyone was safe. Andrus and his partners also own shops at Wayne State and in the New Center, and he said the Eastern Market employees will be offered hours there.

From the front, the building looked sturdy and the shop seemed undisturbed, ready to serve everyone a smoothie.

"Might not be good," Tinsley said, smiling just a little. "The power's off."

Sandra Segura, 66, stopped her bicycle on a corner with a view of the battered south facade. She'd come from the apartment she and her husband share on the riverfront, and she carried a yoga mat over her shoulder in a sling.

On the fourth floor, she said, where chandeliers were visible through the empty space in the wall, her daughter held her wedding reception last Dec. 23, a bit of warmth on a 10-degree day amid a snowstorm.

"Just kind of shabby chic," Segura said of the venue known as J'Adore Detroit. Murals on the walls, some cute couches, her son's jazz combo playing when the D.J. took breaks.

The radiant bride, Army Capt. Mia Segura, 27, is currently stationed in Poland. The wall that kept her safe and warm as her parents danced is gone, exposing the cement slab floor.

"I feel like part of our family history fell into Winder Street," Segura said.

Grout, 65, said he can put it back.

The contractor already works with a building a few blocks over, on Russell at Gratiot Avenue. He and structural engineer Robert Walz have done plenty of projects, he said, and daunting as it may seem from the sidewalk, "it's not that big a deal."

He's a hired gun, mind you. This would be a job, not a donation. And, like the city, he's operating on too little information.

But he said he's been in touch with building landlord Scot Turnbull, who has an investment and a fair amount of sweat equity to protect, and who shares Grout's preference for keeping the Del Bene upright.

Do the rebuild, Grout said. Then check back with him in a hundred years.

Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@freepress.com, or via TwiX at @nealrubin_fp.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Eastern Market Del Bene Produce building can be saved, expert says