A 130-Year-Old Barn Could Get Resurrected With a Restaurant Near Michigan Central Station

The owners of Detroit brewpub Traffic Jam & Snug are angling to open a new restaurant in the shadow of Michigan Central Station — and it’s inside a really old barn. Scott Lowell and Carolyn Howard are hoping to reassemble a 130-year-old West Michigan barn on a property at the corner of 14th and Dalzelle streets in Corktown and put a restaurant and events space inside it, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Lowell and Howard apparently hatched the pastoral project back in 2014 when they acquired the 1.5-acre property on the east side of the vacant train station for a mere $250,000. Today, thanks to the recent acquisition of the station by Ford Motor Company for a new Detroit campus that land is probably worth a whole lot more.

Details of the barn restaurant and events space tentatively dubbed Kith and Kin Kelly are still getting worked out, but the pair estimate that the reassembling and renovation will cost around $3 million. The pair also have some city hurdles to jump including getting a portion of the property rezoned for a restaurant business. Questions have also been raised about the barn’s juxtaposition against the architecture of Michigan Central Station.

If the barn gets the blessing of the city, it will join other restaurant projects situated near the train station including soon-to-open Irish-German-Italian fusion restaurant Cork and Gabel. Stay tuned for more updates on the project.

• New Corktown Restaurant Planned for 130-Year-Old Rebuilt Barn [Freep]
• Ford Moves Into Detroit and Corktown [CDET]
• All Coming Attractions Coverage [ED]