The proposed conversion of a vacant, 105-year-old Detroit Public Library building on Gratiot to a bookstore and cafe "is the latest example of how small entrepreneurs continue to stretch the boundaries of where they will invest in Detroit," Louis Aguilar reports in The Detroit News.
Midtown resident Andrew Sisley purchased the former George S. Hosmer Branch at 3506 Gratiot from the city for $35,000, the News reports. The proposal for a bookstore and cafe is before the Detroit City Council, which must approve a zoning change.
The library, about a block north of Mack, closed in 1975 and eventually became a county methadone clinic. In 2010, it became another empty building.
