This 10-story building has been home to everything from a furniture store to the Catholic church.
The Gabriel Richard Building opened in 1915 on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Washington Boulevard as the Weil & Co. Building, a giant furniture store. The steel-framed skyscraper was designed by the famed Chicago firm Marshall & Fox in the Chicago School style with Classical Revival terra cotta ornamentation. This building is Marshall & Fox's only known design to be built in Detroit.
The building was erected for the Stott Realty Co., which leased it to Weil & Co. The retailer was founded by Moe C. Weil, who was born June 4, 1867, in Monmouth, Ill. He would move to Cincinnati, where he dabbled in electrical doodads before getting into the liquor-distribution business. In 1897, he moved to Detroit and opened a furniture store bearing his name at what is now 1240 Woodward Avenue, just south of Grand River Avenue, that March.
At first, Weil lived at the Ste. Claire Hotel on Randolph Street and Monroe Avenue before sending for the rest of his family. He was active in the congregation of Temple Beth El and was a member of the Phoenix Club, a prominent Detroit Jewish social organization.
Weil & Co. continued to thrive, offering not only furniture but silverware, carpets and stoves, growing to the point that it outgrew its home on Woodward. It just so happened that a flour-magnate-turned-real-estate-developer was erecting the perfect fit. Stott Realty was founded in 1911 by David Stott, who made a fortune in the flour business before becoming one of the larger landholders in the city. Initially, Stott envisioned a hotel for this corner of Michigan Avenue and Washington Boulevard, but those plans were abandoned “on account of other projects now under way,” The Detroit News wrote June 25, 1914. Instead, Stott linked up with Weil & Co. and chose to build this commercial structure, which was built-to-suit for the retailer. Work got started in June 1914 on razing the old structures on the site.
Michigan’s largest furniture store
The building’s location at Michigan Avenue and Washington (then Wayne) Boulevard was smack-dab in the middle of what amounted to a furniture retail district. Within a few blocks of the Weil & Co.’s new store were Summerfeld & Hecht, Finsterwalds, Reliable Furniture, Globe House Furniture, the John R. Sullivan & Co. and People’s Outfitting Co.. This strategy might seem odd, but it allowed for comparison shopping and for their display windows to catch the passing eyes of those in the market for new home furnishings.
Besides, Weil & Co.’s new home was the biggest of them all, sporting 110,000 square feet of space. Bigger, as the saying goes, is better, so the retailer’s new home amid the competition made a statement. The June 25, 1914, Detroit Free Press reported that the building was not only the largest furniture store in town, but “the largest building occupied exclusively by a furniture house in the middle west.”
The price tag for erecting this huge handsome home of home furnishings was about $265,000, the equivalent of $8.8 million in 2026, when adjusted for inflation. Weil & Co.’s initial lease was for just 15 years, but it would remain in the building for 27.
In early 1915, the furniture dealer took out ads announcing that it was liquidating its inventory ahead of its move into its new building. “We take nothing with us when we move but our name,” an ad in the Jan. 17, 1915, edition of the Detroit Free Press said. Weil & Co. was in its new bome by that April.
“The magnitude of this building enables us to show a greater number of styles than was ever collected under one roof by any furniture store in Michigan,” read an ad tied to the building's opening that ran in the April 11, 1915, Detroit Free Press.
Hudson’s Department Store took over the old Weil location on Woodward, relocating its piano, Victrola and music departments there.
Moe Weil died March 17, 1920, at his home at what is now 49 Virginia Park Ave. at age 52. The store was closed for two days in memoriam. His family picked up the torch and kept the furniture store not only going but in the family. By 1930, the company was run by Moe Weil’s children Florence and Victor.
On Feb. 23, 1942, Weil & Co. held an auction for 10 floors' worth of fixtures, saying in ads for the sale that it “must vacate premises.” Everything from 5,000 yards of carpet to display cases and shelving to desks and chairs to an electric merry-go-round fell under the hammer. But Weil & Co. wasn’t out of business, as it relocated to 28 Michigan Ave., just west of Campus Martius.
After the United States entered World War II, Victor Weil enlisted in the Army in June 1942, ending his 15-year tenure as president of the furniture retailer. On Oct. 7, 1943, he was one of the three men killed when an Army medium bomber crashed at San Bernardino, Calif. Lt. Weil was 42 years old. Weil & Co. remained at 28 Michigan Ave. until the company folded in 1949. Another public auction was held to liquidate its assets on Feb. 13 of that year.
The Catholic years
At some point, Stott Realty sold the building to the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Milwaukee, as an investment property. After losing its longtime tenant in Weil & Co., the insurer sold it to an unlikely buyer: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, which stands kitty-corner from the property. The sale, announced Sept. 21, 1945, was for $375,000, the equivalent of $6.9 million in 2026, when adjusted for inflation. The purchase, the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Hickey told The Detroit News for an article the day that the sale was announced, solved two problems by investing a surplus in funds while also providing badly needed space for expanding the religious, social and educational activities of both the parish and the Archdiocese. The church continued to lease the ground and second floors to commercial tenants, as well as office space in the tower.
At this point, the church renamed the structure the Gabriel Richard Building, after a Detroit priest who looms large in the city’s history.
Gabriel Jacques Richard was born in La Ville de Saintes, France on Oct. 15, 1767, and arrived in Detroit on June 3, 1798. He would lead Ste. Anne Parish - Detroit’s oldest congregation, having been founded in 1701 with the city itself - from 1802 until 1832. He founded churches and schools, and co-founded the University of Michigan in Detroit in 1817. He served as a congressman, representing the Michigan Territory from 1823 to 1825 - the first Catholic priest to do so. On Aug. 31, 1809, he published Michigan's first newspaper, “The Michigan Essay: or, The Impartial Observer,” and he imported spinning wheels and looms so that women could learn a trade. After the city burned to the ground in 1805, he consoled Detroit with words that would become its motto: “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus” - “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.” He served the city until his death on Sept. 13, 1832, after contracting cholera while ministering to victims of the epidemic.
In 1948, St. Aloysius gifted the building to the Archdiocese. Though the Chancery Building would continue to serve as the Detroit Archdiocese’s headquarters, the Catholic church was growing locally, which led to the need for more office space. In July 1948, the offices of the Catholic Family Center, which had been established just two years earlier, were moved into the Gabriel Richard Building, occupying the entire eighth floor. In addition to 22 offices for case workers, intake workers and supervisors, the space had a playroom for children visiting the office with their parents. A year earlier, the center had served 2,314 families with 5,885 children among them. On Nov. 30, 1948, an open house was held at the center, welcoming Detroiters into the space. Other church-related offices in the building included the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). But there was still plenty of room left over, and a majority of the building continued to be leased to nonreligious organizations and businesses, with the rent going into the Archdiocese’s coffers.
By 1968, however, the Archdiocese had taken over most of the Gabriel Richard Building, with the department overseeing the region’s parochial schools, the Parish Life and Services Department, Christian Services Department and the Communications Department moving in. A TV studio was added in the building in 1984-85 for CTND-TV, a Catholic network that debuted in January 1985.
Yet, the good times would not last for the Archdiocese, and by the 1970s, church attendance had begun to decline - and with it, the amount of money it received. By 2000, only 1 in 10 Detroiters were Catholic, and empty pews in aging buildings in need of repairs continued to squeeze already cash-strapped congregations. In 2009, the Archdiocese was losing $42,000 a day operating parishes throughout the city. There were about 10,000 Catholic households in the city, and only about 7,700 suburban families commuting into the city to attend historic Detroit parishes in 2012.
Adding to the Archdiocese's money woes was the fact that it was saddled with a $54 million loan to build the failed John Paul II Center in Washington, D.C. That effort was led by then-Cardinal Adam Maida. The $75 million project was dedicated in 2001 but sold just 10 years later to the Knights of Columbus for just $22.7 million, and the Archdiocese of Detroit ended up eating a $34 million loss in the venture. In addition to dwindling congregations, the Archdiocese also was battling a severe priest shortage and the fallout from church sex-abuse scandals. All of this led the Archdiocese to adopt a seemingly never-ending series of closures and merging of congregations.
In 2009, a series of recommendations were made to Archbishop Allen Vigneron to cut costs, including selling the Gabriel Richard Building. In May 2013, he announced that the Archdiocese would do exactly that, and move out of the Chancery Building and sell it, too. The plan was to consolidate most of the Archdiocese’s operations into the former Detroit Savings Bank Building on Capitol Park. The Archdiocese said the proceeds of the sale would be used for repairs and maintenance on other church properties. The move reduced the Archdiocese’s space in the city from some 150,000 square feet by about a third.
The Gabriel Richard Building was sold in January 2015 for a reported $3.2 million to Barbat Holdings, a West Bloomfield, Mich., developer that planned to turn it into 388 market-rate apartments. The building joined the National Register of Historic Places on Feb. 9, 2017, helping it qualify for historic tax credits during its redevelopment.
Changing gearz
Founded in 2005, Barbat Holdings not only developed properties but managed more than 1.5 million square feet of real estate, from shopping centers to apartment buildings. The company already had several residential properties in downtown Detroit operated by its subsidiary Houze Living. As part of the brand, old Detroit buildings adopted new names, such as the Philip Houze at 415 Clifford St. and the Briggs Houze at 114 W. Adams St. The Gabriel Richard Building was slated to become the Gabriel Houze.
But downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods were already seeing thousands of new apartment units added to the market around this time. Perhaps for that reason, instead of apartments, the 100,000 square-foot Gabriel Richard Building was leased to Sonder USA, an operator of an extended-stay residential-hotel concept. Sonder, incorporated in 2012, had 4,500 listings across eight countries at the time.
Thomas Roberts Architects handled the renovation, and the building reopened as the Sonder Gabriel Richard on Feb. 3, 2021 - amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when business travel was reduced.
On Nov. 10, 2025, Sonder announced that it would file for bankruptcy, and the location inside the Gabriel Richard Building was abruptly closed.
“Guests at the Sonder hotel in the Gabriel Richard Building at 305 Michigan Ave. at Washington Boulevard in Detroit were apparently given little notice that they had to find new accommodations, regardless of how long they had booked their stays for,” Crain’s Detroit Business reported the following day. Barbat Holdings said that Sonder had been delinquent on its master lease payments, and that it would search for new operators to take over the building.
“Barbat Holdings is in active discussions with several major hotel brands and operators to assume control of the property and implement a hospitality concept better aligned with the building’s value and long-term potential,” Barbat Holdings said in a statement. “Barbat Holdings’ focus is on advancing a new hospitality partnership that will expand Detroit’s room offerings, introduce more innovative hotel options and elevate the experience for visitors from around the world.” As of August 2026, the search apparently continues, and the Gabriel Richard Building remains empty.