City of Detroit sues historic Michigan Theatre building owner for blight violations

DETROIT (WXYZ) — The owner of the historic Michigan Theatre, the same building where Eminem’s hit movie “8 Mile” was filmed, is facing a lawsuit from the city of Detroit.

In the lawsuit, the city says the building, located at 220 Bagley Street, is falling apart with multiple blight violation including one that they say is a public safety issue.

“I’ve seen rocks fall off this building,“ said Tony Gardner, who lives in the area. “And the way it hits the ground, it could really hurt somebody or kill somebody, technically.”

Falling debris is just one of the many blight violations the city of Detroit cited in the lawsuit that was filed back in May.

According to the lawsuit, multiple emergency orders were issued before due to the public complaining about rocks falling off the building.

The city’s attorney, Conrad Mallet, says the era of lawlessness in the city of Detroit has come to an end.

“The Michigan Theatre building — 220 Bagley — has 58 blight violations,” he said. “Five of them for unsafe conditions — two that in fact say that we are imminent danger and the danger is sufficient enough that we want the building completely shut down to all public access.”

The building is historic for many reasons. Part of the building used to be a theater before it was converted into a parking garage, where events and films have been made like the movie “8 Mile.”

Today, the building is occupied on the sixth floor by a business and it is still open for events.

Businessman Dennis Keffalinos is the current owner of the space. The city says Keffalinos has a history of blight violations for the many properties that he owns.

“There is not a Dennis Keffalinos redevelopment project that I can point you too,” Mallet said.

But according to a spokesperson for Keffalinos, the city has it wrong.

“The truth for a lot of the buildings that he (Keffalinos) owns in the city, they were purchased in a neglected state,” Niko Matasmakis said. “And he’s just been putting money into them trying to restore power to these buildings, trying to restore structural integrity to the buildings and really just trying to maintain and preserve historic architecture in the city of Detroit.”

Matasmakis says Keffalios does not deny the public safety issues with the falling debris and they are fixing it but there is nothing else wrong with the building.

Officials say they still think the building is not in compliance with the city’s ordinance.

“As long as we have available resources, we are going to in fact do everything we can to enforce our ordinances,” Mallet said.