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Developer Plans to Update Aretha Franklin's Former Detroit Home

DETROIT (AP) — A real estate developer who recently bought the Detroit mansion owned by late singing legend Aretha Franklin plans to renovate the home.

Anthony Kellum, president of Michigan-based Kellum Mortgage, announced Tuesday that he purchased the 5,600-square-foot (520-square-meter) brick home adjacent to the Detroit Golf Club that fetched $300,000 last month.

Kellum says he plans to update the home built in 1927. He says it has been vacant for 10 years and requires "major renovations to restore its original beauty."

The Detroit News reports Franklin bought the home in 1993 but nearly lost it in 2008 due to unpaid property taxes.

Franklin's 4,148-square-foot (385-square-meter) Colonial-style house in suburban Detroit's Bloomfield Township still is listed for $800,000 .

Franklin died of pancreatic cancer in August in her Detroit riverfront apartment. She was 76.

© 2018 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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