(WWJ) It took more than 25 years, half-a-million dollars, blood, sweat and tears -- but a Bloomfield Township business owner's dream has finally come true.
Alex Begin has one of the beautiful elevators from the old Hudson's building in Detroit totally restored and running in his brand new Oakland County home.
Begin told WWJ Newsradio 950's Roberta Jasina the elevator looks and sounds exactly the way it did when he was a kid.
"It is an original elevator from the downtown Detroit J.L. Hudson Department Store," Begin said.
"I managed to get it back just before the store was repossessed by the City. I was able to finally, after years of trying to negotiate a deal to purchase actually two elevators from the store. So they've been sitting in storage now for almost 25 years, until my wife urged us to build a house and put one of them in the house."
How will he celebrate when they finally move into the new home, with that old elevator?
Begin said he's going to have an Open House so that you can see the restoration and enjoy it, too.
Want a Hudson's elevator of your own? Begin said he has another one in storage that he'd be happy to sell you.
When the 33-level historic Hudson's building was imploded on October 24, 1998, an estimated 20,000 people gathered to watch. Bedrock Detroit broke ground on the site in 2017 with plans for an impressive new development -- including a 912-foot tower -- expected to be completed in 2022.
