The Genesee Towers was the tallest building in

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, United States. It was demolished on December 22, 2013 after a period of inactivity and loss of occupancy.

Description

The tower consisted of of ten-stories of office space atop an eight-story parking garage and lobby for a total of 19 floors. The building stood high and had been the tallest building in the city of Flint and Genesee County since its completion. Although one building, the plural "Towers" had been used as the building was conceived to consist of two towers stacked on top of each other separated by an air gap. Parkway Towers in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

has a similar design to Genesee Towers.

History

Construction began in 1966, and the building officially opened in December 1968. Developed by Henry Sender, the building's original anchor tenant was the Genesee Merchants Bank & Trust Company. The University Club, a private, men's only club geared toward professionals, opened on the building's top floor in 1969. Kumar Vemullapalli purchased the building in 1997, just as the last major tenant,

National Bank of Detroit The National Bank of Detroit (NBD), later renamed NBD Bank, was a bank that operated mostly in the Midwestern United States. Following its merger with First National Bank of Chicago, the bank was ultimately acquired and merged into Bank One, at w ...

(NBD), announced it would leave the property for a newer venue. NBD purchased Genesee Merchants Bank in 1985 and its departure left the building largely vacant. In 2001, due to sporadic maintenance, a pipe burst, causing flooding and forcing remaining tenants to relocate. The city finally condemned Genesee Towers in 2004 after citing it for numerous building code violations. In November 2007, the city closed streets around the tower due to the risk of concrete falling from the structure. In September 2008, after years of litigation by the city to acquire the property, an arbitrator, a former Genesee County circuit judge, ordered the city to purchase the building at its assessed price of $1.5 million, though the city will end up having to pay approximately an additional $6 million to the owner because of associated court costs and fees. The city of Flint formally took possession of the building on December 8, 2010. There were no immediate plans for the property. In August 2012, the city of Flint controversially sold Genesee Towers to Uptown Reinvestment Corporation for $1. The failure was ascribed to many things, among them poor construction. Genesee Towers was demolished by implosion on December 22, 2013 at 10:00 AM. Veteran demolition expert Steve Pettigrew, supervising a crew of Demolition Dynamics of Jacksonville, Florida carried out the implosion. The city has created a public park and green space on the land.

References

External links

* * * {{Cite web , url=http://www.emporis.com/buildings/126053/genesee-towers-flint-mi-usa , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307042636/http://www.emporis.com/buildings/126053/genesee-towers-flint-mi-usa , url-status=usurped , archive-date=2016-03-07 , title=Emporis building ID 126053 , work=

Emporis Emporis was a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022. Emporis was acquired ...

Demolished buildings and structures in Michigan Skyscrapers in Flint, Michigan History of Flint, Michigan Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion Buildings and structures demolished in 2013 Skyscraper office buildings in Michigan Office buildings completed in 1968 1968 establishments in Michigan 2013 disestablishments in Michigan Former skyscrapers