DETROIT – The City of Detroit made good on its threat to sue the perfecting church.
The church, run by Bishop Marvin Winans, promised a big campus on the corner of 7 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. It never fully came to pass.
Twenty years ago, Bishop Winans promised a massive and impressive cathedral. The project started and then stalled and has sat rusting in the weather ever since.
Now the City of Detroit says enough is enough. Fix it, finish it, or lose it all.
Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett wanted to see it all.
“The City of Detroit has profound respect for Perfecting Church and Bishop Winans,” said Mallett.
Mallett and Winans have known each other for years, but friendship played no part in this. Yet he claims the bishop and his church are personally liable.
“For 20 years, we’ve been waiting on that very wonderful cathedral-like structure on the corner of 7 Mile and Woodward to be completed,” Mallett said. “It is not yet complete.”
Mallett wants an engineering study to know the true, current condition of the unfinished structure. He’s also asking the judge to order a receiver to oversee the project and whether it is viable, and if the church can even get financing and end what the lawsuit calls a public nuisance.
“It has taken too long, and all of the letters and all of the conversations and all of the phone calls have not resulted in the required forward progress,” Mallett said.