The answer to "why is it abandoned?" is always 2008. Always.

Episode 90! I can't believe we're only 10 episodes away from the century mark of 100. You have done an outstanding job with Abandoned and all your other series throughout the years Jake! 📽

As someone who lives in Metro Detroit, this is such a hilarious failure of the area given how many of these are around here now. (My grandparents still refer to any new development as "Bloomfield Park 2") But I have no doubt if this existed today it would be thriving

Great video. As a small business owner of 20 years, the 2007-2008 crisis was something we’ve never quite recovered from. I can only imagine the large scale losses these projects had. It was a devastating time economically.

It's ironic that the only thing left standing of a "Walking" community is a huge parking tower

It's crazy how time flies over the last 90 episodes, I started watching this series when I was still in elementary school in 2014, and now im going into my final year of college in September.

As someone who lives in metro Detroit, any time there's a new project or proposition, the locals always say it will disrupt the character of the city. Even if it means bulldozing decrepit health hazards or drug houses, locals will always find a way to complain about it.

Hard to believe there’s now 90 episodes of Abandoned, can’t wait to see what the 100th episode of Abandoned will be

I understand wanting a sensational title, but Detroit is NOT Pontiac. Bloomfield Park is Bloomfield Township and Pontiac's development failure.

Please do an episode on the Michigan Central Station in Detroit! It was abandoned since the 80s but Ford renovated & now it’s open to the public again. Detroit has come a long way in the last couple years!

I worked right next to this place at a hockey store, and it’s now a small retail area with a doctors office and hotel. Not what it was supposed to be but I’m glad a lot of it has been redeveloped.

How is this Detroit’s problem? This place is 30 miles from the city and had nothing to do with Detroit.

I live in Bloomfield Township, and remember the buildings just sitting. I was VERY young at the time and I would ask my parents back then what they were for, and they told me that the buildings were being torn down. My parents personally never thought the land would be used again. But it is. I regularly go to the Planet Fitness there, and my dad goes to the Menards there a good bit for whatever reasons he needs to go there. The parking lots always have a lot of cars and it’s always pretty busy. Great work Jake, can’t wait to see more!

Bloomfield Park is not near Detroit. This is a 40 minute drive from Detroit near probably one of the most rich areas of Michigan.

I used to drive past this place every day as a kid and ask my parents what in the world it was. I never really got an answer, so this video is really cool to see. I actually worked at the Aldi now on the property a few times, and still had no idea. It sounds like a project that was way ahead of its time, but who knows if it would work out even today. It a shame that these massive parking projects "work better" than projects that project a happier lifestyle. Now I wonder what my community would have looked like if this project made it to completion

The same thing happened in Alpharetta, GA in 2008. A project that was supposed to be an urban live, work, play complex stopped building. Eventually they had to rip everything down and start over as a live, play project. Lots of retail with apartments above the retail, homes on one side, and a hotel / convention center on the other side. It is now a thriving community.

Another planned community bites the dust.

What a metaphor for the New Urbanism movement as a whole... Both Edmonton and Calgary tried to build N.U. suburbs at McKenzie Towne @ Calgary and Tewilligar Towne @ Edmonton but gave up the concept after like 2 years of pokey sales... Now the rest of both projects are finished off in bland vinyl-wrapped 2-car garage in front developments with only a couple of blocks of Victorian-esque architecture to trick you.. What a shame!

90! Been watching since the beginning, I feel like a proud mama! You’ve come so far and I still love your passion for these spaces. Kudos!

Wow this is over 30 minutes away from Detroit. This is not located in Detroit.

I remember moving to Pontiac in 2010 and seeing these structures. I left Michigan around 2016. I still come back and just a few months ago I got to stay at the hotel built on site. Its very nice and has good staff. The wingstop in the rebuilt center...ehh. They need a nice restaurant within walking distance

I swear there’s a lot of abandoned places in Detroit you can do an entire series over the city.

But it’s NOT Detroit!!

Nothing but another concrete jungle! Who would actually enjoy living there? Absolutely no good!

I love when they leave little things abandoned on site like the board walks they left. So cool to me.

This is not Detroit. This is Pontiac in Oakland County.

Not in Detroit mind you. People love to attach Detroit to any negative headline, but when there’s a positive headline *crickets*

Why do people coin Detroit's name into their headlines , when some of them have nothing to do with Detroit .

Incredibly informative and well put together video. I am so grateful to have visited it during the brief period it was accessible, it was a huge item checked off the bucket list for my crew and I during our time venturing around this place. Absolutely fascinating history, what a shame it never came to fruition. Appreciate highlighting some of our shots from inside that place, wish I could do it all over again with the equipment I have now. It's not every day you come across a rotting modern cityscape. Banger content as per usual, cheers from Detroit, man :)

This reminds me of the WaterWalk development here in Wichita. It was going to be "the" catalyst for downtown with shopping, hotels, offices, apartments, condos, restaurants and entertainment. It's since become a long-term hotel/apartment dwelling (by the same name), a condo structure, short term hotel, an office building, and a small fountain deck with...more downtown parking lots that we don't need.

I dont know about anyone else but living in a shoebox apt in a high rise building in a concrete jungle with no natural land sounds awful. Pontiac is like Detroit and Flint. Auto jobs leave and it destroys the local economy. A huge complex like that wouldnt fill to capacity in such a low income area. Its was doomed from the start. 2008 made sure of that. Here we go again.

I grew up about a mile away from these buildings. I moved about a decade ago, but just yesterday I was randomly in the area talking to my friend about how these abandon buildings just stood there after the 2008 recession. I was driving past the site trying to seek them out, when I saw the Henry Ford sign and immediately knew that was one of the old structures. I remember being excited of what the buildings could become when it quickly became apparent that they weren’t going to become anything at all. I never knew the original concept, but S/O to Bright Sun for shedding light on Pontiac MI and well documenting its history. Also, still shocked this was posted probably around the exact same time I was driving by and talking about these buildings. Good job Jake with documenting these hidden gems and these random places.

What happened to all the people who bought condos in these buildings? Did they all just lose their money😮

Such a fascinating video. New urbanism has a lot of flaws that have been adapted in Urbanism as it is today. Still though, this is a great example of why a good idea isn’t always a good end project. Sometimes realities like interest rates, funding structures, material costs, etc need to be at the forefront of design. Brilliant video as always ❤

I love how there was seemingly plenty of money to turn it into a suburban wasteland but not enough to keep with the original design of high density. It's been proven that high density pays a higher share of taxes than suburbia, so the argument around tax income seems like a copout. 2008 financial crisis aside, this seems like a total failure from everyone involved, especially the developers who bought the property afterwards. Why can't we have nice things:(

All the money probably went to "due diligence" & "client lunches" in Vegas.

Can’t wait to see episode 100! Love this series.

I grew up in the area, and as a kid we drove past it almost every day. From what I heard it was an absolute nightmare to get in, not to mention people did not want to buy houses in Pontiac. It’s a sad story that could have really turned Pontiac around. Funny enough I’m driving past it later today

At the time they developed this Detroit was already struggling half the downtown was empty. Auto industry was in chaos and they were tearing down neighborhoods to build casinos that were never going to happen. Did these developers not even go to Detroit? This was doomed to fail before they even sketched out ideasdevelopers made the money and the Detroit citizens paid the price

No better way to start the weekend than a lil bsf ☀️

Been watching since 2017. I go to Oakland University, hearing you cover my backyard is cool lmao.

Love the video. Has nothing to do with “Detroit” tho

90 episodes omg! I love this series so much the way you present the information is so engaging, I actually started watching one of your videos once and turned around and saw both of my parents captured by it instead of doing whatever they were supposed to be doing and my dad went down a rabbit hole because he remembered driving by the place you were talking about! Anyway long way of saying i hope this series continues!!

I remember when this entire mess started. The recession didn’t do this project in. The first developer did. The guy had no idea what he was pushing and where he was pushing it. Knew several companies that went under themselves because of this project. This entire area should have just been returned to green space.

You know it's a good day when your favorite commentator makes a new video

This video put me to sleep like a real bedtime story. Not because it was boring but due to your soooothing voice and pristine storytelling. I woke up and finished it. You’re amazing! #LongTimeSubscriber ❤️❤️❤️

i was literally born and raised in the state of michigan. and lived in the bloomfield district for 19 years. despite everything, i'm still holding out hope for detroit to change for the better

Lived in the new apartments built on the site for the past 2 years and can confirm that the parking garage was nearly always empty. The small parking lot in front of the medical center never even filled up, so always wondered why they built the garage 😅

i got jumpscared at the realization youre almost at 100 episodes of abandoned. this series kept me sane during quarentine and brought about my major interest in abandoned and bankrupt companies. you have put out a great series and it just keeps getting better in quality. heres to 100!!

It is very fun exploring new places with you. Thanks Jake!

wow i used to live in an apartment complex across the street and small jog south of here, had no idea of the whole history of it and thought it was weird there was a big parking garage there. I went to Aldi in that complex a few times

Been one of my favorite channels for years man, thanks for the great content!

The original developer of this project was completely unqualified. In the early 2000’s when this project was proposed I worked for another real estate developer. It was quite obvious to all of us that this project made no sense based on its location and proposed scope.

Thank you for sharing. I always enjoy these videos!

Great episode. Never seen anyone take on this debacle of a project. As a resident of Bloomfield Township, there is a minor nit; it is not a city. It is a charter township which is a legally independent entity from the county which has shared services (police, fire, animal control, etc). However, a charter township can be carved up into cities if the residents of a particular parcel collectively decide to do so, which is how Pontiac was able to annex the land; the rest of the township had no say in the matter. There weren't very many residents in that particular parcel, so the developers made sure the half of them voted the right way (*cough* promises of a big check in exchange for the future destruction of their home *cough*) Somewhat ironically the rest of Bloomfield Township is one of the richest areas in Michigan and has one of the best school districts. The new "24 at Bloomfield" apartment complex (whats left of the residential plan) are very nice and get to put a Bloomfield Twp zip code (48302), but the residents do not get to send their kids to Bloomfield Hills Schools and they gets Pontiac services.

Another banger video!!! Only 10 videos away the BIG 100!!!!! Keep up the amazing work!!!

Congrats on 90 episodes. I have been here since day 1 and its awesome. I lived about 15 minutes away from here. I totally forgot how much of a mess this was.

Yessss I live in metro Detroit! Thank you for doing a video on this! Excited to watch :-)

The parking structure was designed and built to withstand exposure to the elements and didn't deteriorate over the years. All the other buildings were only half finished so they just fell apart when they were left to the weather.

I work down the street from this - watched it go up, sit abandoned, get demolished, and get rebuilt, all in the span of 10 years. crazy stuff!

My DetroitYES forum has a fourteen year discussion of this site under the title of Bloomfield Park - What Were They Thinking? I visited and photographed the site with its ironic likeness to the great factory ruins of Detroit. Your video is an outstanding presentation, particularly of the history and ambition, which as you say is admirable if poorly timed.

congrats on reaching episode 90. Thank you so much for these wonderous forgotten buildings and I hope you continue on

im so glad i have these vids to keep me company during my lonely graveyard shift, great video yet again jake!!

I surveyed that garage as part of my job, and it was indeed extremely weird! It wasn’t a mystery I ever expected to have an answer for, but now i do - thank you!

New Urbanism is a great theory on paper, but in practice it often fails to live up to its promises. This is because the urban fabric which New Urbanists attempt to emulate developed organically over the course of centuries, growing, changing, and adapting over time. Modern New Urbanist developers, on the other hand, think they can master plan large developments with all of the best features of these historic communities, but more often than not they can't.

Another great episode, Jake!

Anything negative is always blamed on Detroit, because the title should really be “Bloomfield Hill’s unfinished Bloomfield Park!”

I've worked about a mile from here since 2012 but never knew the whole story of this development. Thanks for filling in the gaps.

Coming from the Midwest, I traveled to Detroit when I was a kid and loved it. Now living on the west coast and visit family near Detroit, and it's been hard seeing how such a great city fell. The people there are amazing, so I'm sure there's a great future there one day.

Thank you for another great video. I agree that the architecture and the entire plan was beautiful. What a bummer that it ultimately failed.

It has been a long time since I was this early to a Jake video. For me this early is like seeing the Palace of Auburn Hills when it first opened. Thank you for a fun and informative video, Bright Sun Films !

I live under 20 miles from here and I study this area's history of development and urban planning. Somehow I've never heard of/seen this, although it isn't really in an area I'm usually in. Thank you for making this wonderful video!

Something else thats interesting to add is that the city of Bloomfield hates anything to do with Pontiac in general. Bloomfield Hills is one of the richest cities in Michigan and Pontiac is one of the poorest . It’s amazing to see the extreme differences in these two cities just by driving two minutes. Bloomfield residents also hate anything to do with public transportation. They opted out of using the only form of “public transportation” we have here for a short amount of time. They also voted against a regional transit system for metro Detroit. I love being from Michigan but it really does suck when so many people are stuck in that cars = freedom mindset.

Hey Jake, love your channel. I attended Dowling College, located in Oakdale, NY. Dowling College College is the site of William K. Vanderbilt's mansion Idle Hour. Dowling also included a campus in Shirley, which contained the college's aviation program and athletic complexes, and small campuses in Melville and Manhattan. Unfortunately, Dowling College officially closed its doors August 2016 and it is now abandoned. The mansion and grounds have faced extreme vandalism since its closure. I lot of residents around the campus is sad and upset that no one is taking action to keep the campus intact. Would love your insight on this!

That place would have been EPIC for playing paintball...

I really enjoy these videos. Thank you for sharing this knowledge 🙏

Thanks for the video, I enjoyed it as always.👍🏻

Jake, you make great content. Keep them coming!

Your content is top tier. Wonderful.

My favorite thing to end the day with, love your videos.

This site ended up getting finished. It has a Menards

Bloomberg Park *located in Pontiac*

This is wild. I clicked on this not knowing what area you would be talking about. I worked on the existing parking garage back in 2018 when they were trying to fix it up for the new development. Knew the garage was over 10 years old but didnt know why it was the only parking garage next to an Aldi and Menards which both already had parking lots. Didnt know the size of the original planned development. I now live in Pontiac and this wouldve been such a better area than what it turned into. Great video!

I don't exactly see "new urbanism" and a healthy car free environment when one of the largest structures in the original plan was a massive multi level car park.

I love watching all your videos, they are so well thought out and presented. So sad to see this site the way it is, however, in the these days something like this just doesn't seem to be feasible.

I love abandoned and bankrupt series! Keep going for continuation!

Nice Work Jake and Team.

I wish we could build walkable cities in the US

remember seeing this when i was little, mostly only the parking structure towering over the construction gate, i was always wondering what was over there and then they finally did something with it by adding the henry ford center, aldi, and menards. cool to see more videos on where i grew up at, also cant wait for the 100th ep!

The Weekend and my three week vacation starts right when there is a new BSF Video up. 💪

Hey Jake nice video on the history of this video very interesting of all the your videos throughout the years of this channel you explain it greatly and btw can you do a history of the abandoned richland mall also thank you of your hard work in these videos 💙

I work in Bloomfield, less than 10 minutes from the Pontiac city border. I personally haven't heard of this park until this video, so this is super interesting being so close to home!

Amazingggg as always!

As someone that grew up in the area and enjoys visiting the local Menards, it’s incredible to see this so well explained!

Cheers Jake another smashing episode 👍.

I’m an hour north and had no idea what this was 😂 thanks for clarifying

Thank you!

Thank You Jake!! Still waiting on the St Luke’s episode of Abandoned!!!

Both Bright Sun Films and The Proper People dropping at the same time. Niceee!

90th episode? Wow! I know you guys got something special for 100. I can't wait. Every episode is great. I end up learning something I never knew before. And it's not at all boring. But very interesting. I'm a fan she since new episodes were in the 30's. I think my first was River Country and I've been a fan ever since.