Grande Ballroom, onetime Detroit rock palace, listed for sale at $5 million

Detroit’s most famous counterculture hot spot is on the market.

The former Grande Ballroom, at 8952 Grand River, has been listed for sale at $5 million. The property, which fell out of use in the early '80s, is owned by nearby Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church, which purchased it in 2006 for $60,000.

A sale listing went live Sunday from Detroit's Dorsett Brokerage Development & Management Group.

A church representative who spoke with the Free Press declined to elaborate on details about the prospective sale.

The long-dilapidated building has been a source of some of Detroit rock’s most enduring mythology, long immortalized in song and film, including the 2012 documentary “Louder Than Love.”

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From 1966 to 1972, the Grande reigned as Detroit's leading rock hall, the nerve center of hippie music culture in town. Touring guests included Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Who, while homegrown acts such the MC5, the Stooges, the Frost and Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes were regulars.

In October 1968, the MC5 — the venue’s house band — recorded its explosive debut album, “Kick Out the Jams,” during a pair of Grande shows. A 2,000-square-foot mural commemorating the MC5 was painted on the building's east side in 2018, in conjunction with the album's 50th anniversary.

For a previous generation of Detroiters, the Grande was best known as an elegant west-side ballroom, home to big-band dances and socials. It was the sister venue of the east-side Vanity Ballroom, which has been eyed for extensive rehabilitation and development in the Jefferson Chalmers district.

In 2018, the Grande secured a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, overseen by the National Park Service. Though that status doesn’t offer the protection afforded by some other state and federal historical designations, it might offer some financial benefit to a developer via Michigan’s new State Historic Tax Credit Program, enacted in late 2020.

Longtime Grande Ballroom advocate Leo Early, author of 2016’s "The Grande Ballroom: Detroit's Rock 'n' Roll Palace," said Chapel Hill Missionary officials have discussed a possible sale for several years.

But the church had also entertained the idea of restoring the idle, vacant building itself — potentially for mixed residential and commercial use — including a new venue space on the second floor, site of the former ballroom.

Demolition was cost-prohibitive, Early said.

This week’s sale listing asserts that “this is a major project for a serious minded developer who's familiar with large scale projects; thus understanding the history associated with the building and having a vision to restore a monumental piece of real estate iconic to the city of Detroit.”

It also asks that the $5 million price tag not intimidate prospective buyers.

“The seller will consider all intelligent officers,” the listing reads.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.