This home has a Hudson’s elevator, ice cream parlor and Eminem video credit — all for $12M

A self-proclaimed fan of “architectural artifacts,” a walk around Ron Lipson’s waterfront home shows that to be undoubtedly true. 

Designed by noted metro Detroit architect Lou DesRosiers, the 15,000-square-foot contemporary lakefront home dates back to 2000, with the design influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. 

But while the Orchard Lake home listed at $12 million may be contemporary in style, Lipson said the interior design accoutrements such as an working elevator car from the original Hudson’s department store to a 1940s ice cream parlor in the lower level are also in line with his interests.

“My attitude is, I’ll put in anything I want,” Lipson said of design choices such as an old elevator in a new house. “It doesn’t have to fit (a certain time period).” 

 

Lipson, an inventor by trade who started a supply business for the Detroit 3 automakers, listed the five-bedroom house late last month as he and his wife seek to downsize. The home, sitting on more than two acres with 163 feet of shoreline on Cass Lake, is co-listed with Jeff Barker, an associate broker with Max Broock Realtors in Birmingham, and his son Matt. 

“An architectural masterpiece, designed by renowned Architect Lou DesRosiers, seamlessly blending a contemporary design with magnificent finishes and timeless elegance,” reads the listing. “Craftsmanship and quality that would rival the finest real estate in the country.”

The elevator in the home traverses each floor — from the lowest level featuring the 1940s-era ice cream parlor, a theater and gym — up to the rooftop patio with a firepit and overlooking Cass Lake. A “wood three-level floating spiral staircase” traverses the same route through the home. 

Lipson said the elevator — one of 56 — was salvaged when the downtown Detroit Hudson’s building was demolished in 1998, around the same time that he began designing the home with DesRosiers. A J.L. Hudson Co. brass sign that appears next to the elevator car on the main floor was bought at auction at the DuMouchelles auction house in downtown Detroit.

Lipson also installed two separate pools, one outside and one fully enclosed indoors. The desire for two separate pools makes for a rarity among DesRosiers’ clients, the architect told Hometown Life when Lipson’s home was featured on HGTV in 2018. 

Additionally, Lipson’s home was used to shoot part of the music video for rapper Eminem’s “Like Toy Soldiers” music video in 2004.

With its $12 million asking price, the Lipson home stands near the top of the market at present in metro Detroit, which has been seeing steadily increasing prices over the last several years, despite still being one of the most affordable major metro areas in the nation. 

The asking price for the home stems from a handful of factors, namely that “it’s a very unique property that offers a whole lifestyle,” according to co-listing agent Jeff Barker.

“The quality of the construction, the concrete roof, you couldn’t even build this type of home (anymore) on this lot for that asking price,” Barker added. 

To that end, a nearby 2.6 acre empty lot also facing Cass Lake, just hit the market this week with an asking price of $3.7 million. 

Ultimately, for Lipson, the decision to sell comes down to a fairly simple choice. 

“This was a labor of love,” Lipson said of the decision to build the home a quarter century ago and continue living in it. “This was an emotional thing that we built and did. And the logic was like, it’s time to get out of here.”

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