Demolition is happening to a pair of empty downtown Detroit buildings near the popular Monroe Street Midway that are in the footprint of a long-delayed Dan Gilbert development.

The demo work is under way on a six-story building at 815 Bates St., known as the Pochelon Building, and recently finished on what was a shorter neighboring building that had stood at 1000 Farmer St.

They are two of three existing buildings that were in an area being developed by Gilbert's Bedrock real estate firm. The development, originally known as "Monroe Blocks," is several years behind schedule, and in February was scaled back and rebranded as The Development at Cadillac Square and given a new September 2024 construction start date.

The development has always called for razing the two buildings.

The city last month issued demolition permits for both buildings. The demo permits were first reported by Crain's Detroit.

A Bedrock representative did not respond Monday to a request for comment.

The Pochelon Building at 815 Bates St. dates to the 1920s was designed by the Detroit firm Mildner & Eisen. It was named for Albert A. Pochelon, who was a founder of the Florists’ Telegraph Delivery Assoc., once housed in the building, according to research by writer and photographer Eric Hergenreder.

Its smaller and now-demolished four-story neighbor at 1000 Farmer St. was a few years older.

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The demo sites are behind the still-standing National Theatre Building, which dates to 1911.

Bedrock's latest development vision for the site calls for saving and incorporating the theater's historic facade into a planned new 2,000-seat concert venue. The initial phase of The Development at Cadillac Square also is to include a 30,000-square-foot "market hall."

The second phase, to begin in October 2026, would involve 250 to 280 units of housing and 42,000 square feet of retail space, including a possible grocery. The third phase, set for 2028, calls for more retail and 400,000 square feet of new office space.

The original "Monroe Blocks" development had a ceremonial groundbreaking in December 2018 and was to finish in 2022, but construction never began. Those original prepandemic plans called for constructing 814,000 square feet of office space, 482 apartments and nearly 170,000 square feet of retail space.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Final of 2 Detroit buildings coming down to make way for Bedrock project