AAA Insurance branch near Michigan Stadium wants to demolish existing building, construct new one
The AAA Insurance branch at 1200 S. Main St. across from Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor wants to demolish its existing building and construct a new one on its adjacent parcel.
The insurer is holding its first public meeting to get feedback from residents tonight at 7 p.m. at the Ann Arbor branch. The city of Ann Arbor requires a citizen participation meeting prior to submitting site plans.
The new building would be constructed on the adjacent north parcel, where AAA parking is currently located.
After the current building is demolished, a preliminary site plan shows the addition of green space.
A representative with AAA could not be reached for comment regarding the plans.
Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.
Comments
msddjohston
Fri, Dec 9, 2011 : 3:47 a.m.
Hello, I'm late in comment. Here in the beautiful state of California, as I tour and visit family and friends, I'm keeping in touch with as much of our news in Ann Arbor as possible. Please know that I'm most pleased to hear that the Auto Club of Michigan is considering additions, alterations, improvments, betterments and so forth! It is not that I'm impossed by the stately existing building (I love it's stature): It is that we need to keep up with progress and at the same time incorporate GREEN GREEN and I mean GREEN. Beauty, oxygen, grandure, function, benefits and everything in between. Would the Auto Club please consider an initation of the Monorail from our new downtown 87 foot underground parking lot to the Athletic ARENA's. After all is said and done, we are transportation in the form of a CLUB (and all that goes with that). Eisenhauer, Dwight David loved us! He located the Union 76 stations for our fuel, built the interstate system, and Kellog made the boxed cereal "to go", and Henry Ford designed the Lazy Susan then, off we all went with AAA Maps, Trip Tickets, Bail Bonds, collision repair and so forth in our Dinna Shore Chevrolet. Now we need the monorail with a tail gate itinary taking us to the best ever (bigger than Tennessee!) athletic games in this century! Please ask Mary Coleman if we could GO GREEN for a while! The GO BLUE and the GO GREEN are a preppy as can be! I wish the American Automobile Association cited at The Automobile Club of Mighican a much successful campaign! GO AAA. Your friend and Member, Dawn
Seasoned Cit
Sat, Dec 3, 2011 : 5:52 p.m.
Will they be asked to add public housing units ? It would make it much more convenient for ticket scalpers if they had a place to stay that close to the Big House and Crisler.
Ron Granger
Fri, Dec 2, 2011 : 2:20 p.m.
This is a residential neighborhood. How high and how large would they like to build their hitherto secret building?
Eric S
Fri, Dec 2, 2011 : 12:50 p.m.
Yes, it's a sound building, but not a very useful one. Try to do anything not handled by the front desks and it gets confusing. The offices on the lower level are more like an adapted newsroom than an insurance office. It also is obviously hard to rewire for modern business equipment. They probably need room to expand too. It would be good planning to overbuild and take in office rental income until the added space is needed. The parking lot is uncomfortable to drive in and is simply a plot of ugly asphalt; yes, greenspace would be better. In short, it's still sound but has outlived its usefulness, and AAA has a lot to gain by replacement. There isn't anything redeeming about it to argue against replacement. There's no reason to block it just because it isn't falling down.
Ann English
Fri, Dec 2, 2011 : 11:51 p.m.
I take it that the building was more useful 20-26 years ago, when I started a 17-year AAA membership; I don't remember going to different parts of the building, like I did in the Carpenter location, but I do remember picking up a new license plate right at a front desk. Today, when I go past the Main Street location, it's usually in the dark morning hours, so I never get a good look at it.
Cossur
Fri, Dec 2, 2011 : 3:57 p.m.
Right, Eric. Because there is SUCH a shortage of rentable office space right now.
James
Fri, Dec 2, 2011 : 10:31 a.m.
What's wrong with the existing building? I was just in there last month, and despite it having all the personality of a bank, it seemed sound. Also, "green space" just sounds like "football Saturday tailgate site" to me.
yohan
Fri, Dec 2, 2011 : 10:15 a.m.
Yeah! Wonderful! More construction! Just what this town needs. Maybe they can close a lane of Main St. for a few months. More oversize trucks breaking up our streets. More dust and noise. I am sure all those people who live around the stadium miss all the construction dust and noise. This will blend in real well with the Stadium bridge construction and the new 6 story apartment building on the Fox Tent property and make the south end of town a total mess! The new construction jobs will mostly go to people who live outside of Ann Arbor and the additional tax revenue is guaranteed to be wasted by City Council on ... guess what? ... more construction!
Allan Goode
Thu, Dec 1, 2011 : 11:22 p.m.
Great! Not a nice looking building in my opinion. And hooray for some construction in A2! and please, city council, don't tempt them to move out of town by giving them a hard time with the process.
xmo
Thu, Dec 1, 2011 : 10:20 p.m.
Hooray! More construction in Ann Arbor! More tax revenue, more jobs!