Compare what the intersection of Ann Arbor's Liberty and Division streets looked like 10 years ago to what it looks like today and it's easy to reach the "night-and-day" conclusion. The difference will be even more stark after the old Handicraft building is renovated later this year.

Ten years ago bums ruled the Liberty Plaza park on the southwest corner, and the now-colorful Google Adwords headquarters was a drab concrete structure, reminiscent of the worst in Soviet-era architecture. Both saw dramatic changes in aesthetics and popularity in recent years.

Now, another downtown ugly duckling of a building will soon be a swan when the Handicraft, which recently housed the KAPLAN testing center and a furniture store, is restored. The developers plan to turn the 53,000-square-foot structure into a mixed-use building, featuring a Belgian brew pub.

Northern United Brewing Company will occupy the west side of the building's ground-level space, making it the tenant that most will associate with the structure. It plans to build a small addition to the rear and an outside dining deck area on the building's west side.

An unnamed tenant will occupy the second and third level office space. The east side of the ground floor retail space is still for lease.

The building as it stands today is a combination of older residential and commercial buildings that have been razed and rebuilt between the 19th Century and the 1970s when the building took its current form.

Source: Dan Ketelaar, developer of the Handicraft building
Writer: Jon Zemke