DETROIT (AP) — Two towers at Detroit's iconic Renaissance Center would be razed and the complex converted to a mix of housing and offices under an ambitious $1.6 billion plan announced Monday.
The complex, which next year will lose the headquarters of owner General Motors Co., is the symbol of Detroit, with aerial views often shown on television sports broadcasts.
GM decided last spring to leave what's locally known as the “RenCen” for a more modern building being constructed downtown.
GM said in April it would join forces with the Bedrock real estate development firm and Wayne County to turn the partially vacant property into a roughly 27-acre entertainment complex across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario.
Under the plans, Bedrock would invest at least $1 billion in the property, with roughly $250 million more coming from GM and another $250 million in yet-to-be-allocated public money, possibly from the state of Michigan.
The plan, called conceptual by Bedrock, would preserve most of the skyline and reduce the center's office footprint. Demolishing the two 39-story towers would free land for the waterfront project that would complement a walkway along the river, Bedrock said in a press release. A pedestrian promenade would link the heart of downtown to the riverfront, Bedrock said.
The 73-story main tower would remain, with high-end housing on the upper floors, according to Crain's Detroit Business, which first reported the plans.
GM CEO Mary Barra said last April that the move to a brand new state-of-the-art office building in the heart of the city will help GM recruit talent in the future. The new site, being built by Bedrock, is about a mile (1.6 kilometers) north of the Renaissance Center. The move also keeps GM’s headquarters in the city for the foreseeable future, she said.
FILE - The Renaissance Center is shown near the Detroit-Windsor tunnel plaza in Detroit, Aug. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
A white Florida woman who fatally shot a Black neighbor through her front door during an ongoing dispute over the neighbor’s boisterous children was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for her manslaughter conviction.
Susan Lorincz, 60, was convicted in August of killing Ajike “A.J.” Owens, 35, by firing a single shot from her .380-caliber handgun in June 2023. She had faced a maximum of 30 years behind bars. Circuit Judge Robert Hodges opted for a slightly lesser term amid evidence that Lorincz had been abused as a child and had mental health problems.
“The shooting was completely unnecessary in this case,” Hodges said during an afternoon hearing. “The shooting, I find, was based more in anger than in fear.”
The shooting was the culmination of a long-running argument between the two neighbors over Owens’ children playing in a grassy area near both of their houses in Ocala, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Orlando.
Prosecutors said Owens had come to Lorincz’s home after her children complained that she had thrown roller skates and an umbrella at them, which Lorincz denied. Trial testimony showed Owens, a mother of four young children, was pounding on Lorincz’s door and yelling, leading Lorincz to claim self-defense in shooting her neighbor.
Lorincz told detectives in a videotaped interview that she feared for her life. She also said she had been harassed for most of the three years she lived in the neighborhood. Jurors who heard the trial evidence did not agree the shooting was in self-defense.
In a statement to the judge, Lorincz apologized to Owens' family but said she was “literally terrified” of Owens the night of the shooting.
“I so wish I could go back and change things so she was still here,” Lorincz said. “I never intended to kill anyone.”
Owens’ family pushed for the maximum prison sentence after Lorincz was convicted by an all-white jury. Owens' mother, Pamela Dias, said in court Monday that she now is the sole caregiver of her daughter's four children, who are deeply traumatized by the killing.
“We’re hurting with a pain that will never, never go away," Dias said. "There’s a hole in our heart that will never mend. Susan destroyed our family.”
Lorincz’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Amanda Sizemore, sought a more lenient sentence, an unspecified term below the 11.5 years in prison that is the lowest for her crime under state guidelines. Sizemore said in court documents that there are several reasons to justify a downward departure, including a mental disorder and claims that Owens was the aggressor and under “extreme duress” during the confrontation.
The judge said such a departure was not warranted, especially considering the impact of their mother's violent death on her children.
“They’ll live their whole lives without their mother, which I think is a very significant harm inflicted by Ms. Lorincz," Hodges said.
There were protests in the Black community in Ocala when prosecutors took weeks to charge Lorincz with manslaughter, a lesser count than second-degree murder, which carries a potential life prison sentence. Marion County, which includes Ocala, has a Black population of about 12%, according to census figures.
FILE - Defendant Susan Lorincz takes notes during her trial Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in Ocala, Fla. (Doug Engle/Ocala Star-Banner via AP, Pool)
