With Jesuit values at the fore, John Zemke and Kristen Lukowski, former journalists, save university district duplex from decay

DETROIT — “Today we bought a duplex. I wasn’t looking to buy it. I didn’t want to buy it. It literally fell in my lap last week,” Jon Zemke wrote to his Facebook friends in early spring. 

The Detroit-based journalist-turned home rehabber bought the property because it was close to Gesu Parish and the University of Detroit-Mercy's main campus in northwest Detroit.

Today, the property stands as one of the prettiest on the block. Zemke and his wife, Kristin Lukowski, a former staff writer for The Michigan Catholic newspaper, own a dozen units now occupied and a couple dozen more in the pipeline. They specialize in taking highly distressed buildings and restoring them to community assets. 

The couple bought the mostly intact duplex on Warrington Drive not only because it was a good investment, but also because of their Christian faith. 

“The Warrington community is great here. It’s made up of a broad range of neighbors, including students, working-class folks, professors and lifetime residents,” said Zemke, noting many have ties to the Jesuits, including next-door neighbor David Koukal, a philosophy professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy. He and his wife, Sharon Vlahovich, own three duplexes on the block. The neighbors host an annual ice cream social in the summer and take turns watching over the street.

“Everybody looks out for everybody else here. That is my idea of Christianity,” said Zemke, a parishioner at SS. Peter and Paul (Jesuit) Parish in downtown Detroit. 

Zemke and Lukowski were married at SS. Peter and Paul and remain active members there. The parish is part of the downtown law school campus for the University of Detroit-Mercy, and is the oldest church building in Detroit. The parish also operates a homeless shelter, one of only two that remained open throughout last winter’s polar vortex. 

The Warrington duplex has a history Zemke wants to preserve. John Daniels, longtime director of institutional leadership and service at Detroit Mercy, previously owned and improved it. Daniels, who began the midnight bicycle ride for students and community leaders around the surrounding neighborhoods, sold it to Sarah James when he and his family moved to Manresa Jesuit Retreat House in Bloomfield Hills. 

“Sarah grew up here, went to school at U of D Mercy, and this duplex was her bachelorette pad and first home she bought out of college,” Zemke said. “The now-previous owner lives in another part of the city these days, but she still very much cares about this place, this block, and this neighborhood. 

“She didn’t want to be a landlord anymore, but she didn’t want to risk selling this duplex to the highest bidder and have that person turn out to be someone who slumlords it into the ground,” Zemke added. “She wanted this place to go to a Detroiter who will keep investing in it.”

Zemke put in a new water heater, updated the electrical system and conducted other minor repairs. In the near future he hopes to upgrade the old one-car garage. He also signed the upstairs and downstairs tenants to new leases without raising their rents.

The investment is sound for a variety of reasons. The communities around Warrington Drive are steadily appreciating, brought together by the University District Community Association, Live6Detroit, the University of Detroit-Mercy’s main campus, and a coalition of homeowners, businesses and local officials. The housing stock is high quality and welcoming to everyone seeking a classic urban experience filled with neighbors, historic architecture and walkability.

Livernois, the closest main street, is undergoing a massive revival with new streetscapes, sidewalks and storefronts. Soon, Zemke's tenants will be able to walk to all their shopping needs, like people did in the 1950s when Livernois was called the Avenue of Fashion.

Zemke first got involved in Detroit real estate as a staff reporter for Model D Detroit, an urban online magazine. He did story after story about other developers and sought to jump into the fray when Wayne County tax foreclosures offered properties as low as $500. One of his first renovations was a duplex on Cochrane Street in North Corktown. The house was situated in the center of an urban prairie, where Barnaby the pig and a hundred pheasants scampered about. Gradually the property is filling in.

On one wall, facing Martin Luther King Boulevard, he commissioned artist Nicole MacDonald to paint a mural of his great aunt, Mary Ellen Riordan, who helped build the Detroit Federation of Teachers to national prominence as its president, and a longtime member of SS. Peter and Paul. The mural became a beacon for the neighborhood, a catalyst for more art and rehabilitation. In front of another Zemke property, his brother, Dan Zemke, built a life-sized TARDIS, the “Dr. Who” time-traveling structure. Inside is one of the largest Little Free Library points in Detroit.

Zemke and his wife are currently finishing work on LaFerte Terrace, a line of townhouses in Woodbridge across the street from the old Murray-Wright High School. It’s a decade-long project coming to fruition, bringing bottom-of-the-barrel blighted properties back at both market-rate and affordable housing.

“This is a resurrection of sorts,” Zemke said. “When it’s done right, people make the best long-term decisions for properties. They’d tear off all the old layers of roof and put a fresh one on top. They rebuild the front porches the way they were originally built that emphasizes the historic architecture and neighborly interaction. That’s rebirth.”

Zemke and Lukowski, who have been married 11 years, are committed to doing more. What started as a dream with maxed-out credit cards and hiring neighbors is now a growing enterprise that tries to stay as local as possible.