Once-elite Detroit Club heads to public auction under a cloud

July 27--A vestige of old-moneyed Detroit will be up for grabs this week when the historic <org>Detroit Club building goes to auction.

The four-story stone and red brick clubhouse is at the downtown corner of Cass Avenue and Fort Street. The building was home to the Detroit Club itself from the day it opened in 1892 until just seven months ago, when the property changed hands.

The new owner, real estate investor Emre Uralli, bought the Romanesque Revival-style building for $1 million in late December and has since done several renovations to prepare the property for auction, including new flooring and bathroom fixtures and a restaining of the club's detailed and expansive woodwork.

Bidding will open at $950,000 in the two-day online auction, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Auction.com and to conclude Thursday. To trigger a sale, the successful bidder must satisfy the auction's undisclosed reserve price, according to Ryan Snoek, an agent representing the seller.

The auction is specific to the real estate, although what's left of the club's furnishings could be included for a reasonable offer, Snoek said.

But for some of the remaining members, this final chapter in Detroit Club history has been frustrating.

The club and Uralli have been locked in a legal dispute since February over ownership of several antiques that may or may not still be in the building.

Past president John Booth II said the objects in dispute include rare books, a 12-point Michigan elk shot a century ago, a plaque commemorating the club's World War I veterans and the club's documents of incorporation from 1882.

Booth believes the incorporation papers and rare books were lost during Uralli's clubhouse renovations.

"They really didn't care about the history," Booth said. "They just wanted to get it repainted and tarted up for resale."

Uralli's lawyer, Eden Allyn of the Allyn Smith Law Group, said she couldn't speak to whether any particular objects have vanished, but said club members are claiming ownership of an expanding list of items that belong to her client.

"Even something as ridiculous as an exercise bench," she said.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Daniel Ryan has ordered both parties to meet with a facilitator to sort out matters. The meeting is set for Thursday -- coincidentally the final day of the auction.

"I am very hopeful that the matter will be resolved," said George Bedrosian, the court's facilitator. "I think nostalgia on the part of certain board members and the ending of an era of over 100 years is a little painful."

Steeped in history, the Detroit Club is the granddaddy to the still-thriving Detroit Athletic Club, which was started as the organization's athletic arm.

Detroit Club members once comprised much of the city's business and political elite. Its early members included Henry Ford, Alex Dow, Charles Kettering and Truman Newberry.

Numerous visiting dignitaries were entertained there, including Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford, and Charles Lindbergh, John D. Rockefeller and the Duke of Windsor.

The club was where Gov. William Comstock met with bankers during the Great Depression and decided to close the state's banks on Feb. 14, 1933. Michigan's bank holiday precipitated a nationwide crisis and a run on the banks in that era before deposit insurance.

A Cold War visit in 1959 by Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan generated international headlines as picketers marched and threw eggs outside the club while the Soviet leader dined inside.

The club's membership peaked at about 1,000 during the 1950s.

To help pay bills, in 1979 the club sold an original Frederic Remington. The 1908 painting "Cutting Out Pony Herds" depicts U.S. Cavalry soldiers charging across the western plains.

The sale netted about $500,000, and members replaced the picture with a replica print in the original frame, according to Booth. "They had a number of fine pictures in the club, but that was the best," he said.

Last year, the original painting sold at auction for $5.6 million.

More financial difficulties nearly forced the club to close in 1996.

A group of younger members succeeded in cutting expenses, beefing up its catering business and lowering rates to attract new members.

That reprieve lasted only so long. In 2011 with only about 30 members, the Detroit Club sold the building for $280,000 to two members, Nick and Lorna Abraham, co-owners of Woodward Parking.

The club continued to meet in the building and lease space from the Abrahams until the end of December, when the Abrahams sold the property to Uralli for $1 million.

Club Member Bradley Thompson said the Abrahams' sale came as a surprise to other members. Lorna Abraham did not return a message for comment.

The Detroit Club is connected to the former 1925 Detroit Free Press building by a pedestrian bridge, which is now closed. Uralli owned the Free Press building until last fall, when he sold it at auction for $4.2 million to Chinese development firm DDI Group, which plans to convert it into apartments beginning next year.

Uralli also owns the surface parking lot next door to the Detroit Club at 300 Fort St. It is also up for auction this week with bids starting at $1.5 million.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.

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