AUGUST 31 • 2023 | 11

C

ommunity leader Allan 
Nachman, a retired real 
estate attorney for 50 
years, formerly devel-
oped industrial build-
ings in the Detroit area 
and lived with his wife, Joy, in 
Downtown’s Lafayette 
Park neighborhood. 
Like other longtime 
Detroit boosters, he 
was bothered to see 
the Motor City file 
for bankruptcy in 
July 2013 and urban 
decay set in with the 
loss of investment 
and re- 
investment dollars. 
“I thought that 
bringing the city back 
would never hap-
pen,” he said. “But I 
was wrong — totally 
wrong.”
Nachman gives the initial credit 
to Susan Mosey, the longtime 
executive director of Midtown 
Detroit Inc. (MDI), a nonprofit 
planning and economic develop-
ment agency. “Sue shared with a 
group of us her plans for revitaliz-
ing Midtown. And it happened.” 
Mosey and her group created 
“Midtown,” a rebranding of the 
Cass Corridor, a formerly derelict 
neighborhood located south of 
Wayne State University (WSU) 
and north of Downtown. Planners 
revitalized the area by facilitat-
ing the renewal of substantial 
buildings and adding useful new 
structures. New pocket parks 
have added green to the area. 
Entrepreneurs and others inter-
ested in urban living continue to 
be attracted to the neighborhood’s 
potential.
“Midtown was the ember that 
got the Downtown going,” accord-
ing to Nachman, who added that 
Mosey started her work many 
years before Rocket Companies 
Chairman Dan Gilbert and his 
Bedrock commercial real estate 
services arm began buying and 
renovating a series of Downtown 
Detroit properties.

Shaarey Zedek bus tour visits projects expected 
to energize and change the face of Motown.

continued on page 12

ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Allan 
and Joy 
Nachman

Susan 
Mosey

