Russell Industrial Center

In 2003 Dennis Kefallinos purchased it and converted it into more than one million square feet of studio space and lofts for various artists, creative professionals, and businesses.

The growing demands from customers, such as the Dodge brothers, Ford Lincoln, Crosley, Willys, Hudson, Hupmobile, King and Studebaker, led Murray to expand his operations.

Murray Corporation's new president, Allan Sheldon, made a series of costly mistakes which created financial difficulties when combined with the sharp recession of 1924–1925.

[1] In the 1940s Murray Corporation manufactured military supplies, airplane wings and other components of the fighter/bomber planes, and washing machines for Montgomery-Ward.

At that time tenants already included sixty manufacturing and distribution firms and more than half a million square feet remained available.

[4] A later owner of the Russell Industrial Center was Leona Helmsley who purchased the complex in 1970 and sold it in 1991, to printer Wintor-Swan.

[5] The building stood vacant and in disrepair until its purchase by Dennis Kefallinos, owner of Boydell Development Company, for one million dollars.

His plan to transform an industrial building into lofts, and promote the arts is recognized as one of the many urban renewal efforts in the city of Detroit.