DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[DetroitMan]

This is such a disappointment...

Another blow for Gilbert's 'fail jail' site redevelopment

Bedrock LLC is asking to reduce the scale of a proposed building by more than half on the former Wayne County Consolidated Jail site, another blow in the long saga surrounding the property widely considered a gateway to the downtown Detroit core.

Instead of five stories and 211,000 square feet, Dan Gilbert’s Detroit-based real estate company is now proposing a two-story, 90,000-square-foot building instead, according to City Planning Commission documents. The commission was scheduled to consider the request Thursday evening, but adjourned the meeting around 10:37 p.m. before getting to it due to time concerns about the pending 11 p.m. closure of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center parking garage. It was the second of the two remaining items on the commission's agenda for the evening.

The Bedrock request came after the so-called Gratiot Life Sciences Building’s anchor tenant backed away in August, citing the loss of its primary unidentified investor. Documents to the commission did not identify the investor or the user, but Crain’s has previously reported that MI-HQ, shorthand for Michigan Innovation Headquarters, was to take 150,000 square feet of the building. Emails were sent to MI-HQ and Bedrock seeking comment Thursday evening.

The building size reduction was first reported by Daily Detroit. MI-HQ was expected to offer wet lab space, providing business support services and equipment for scaling up startups, as well as co-working space, offices and manufacturing facilities. The incubator was supposed to be industry agonistic.

Grand Rapids-based BAMF Health is still taking 45,000 square feet of the building and a second story is being constructed “to capture future growth” for “speculative life science space,” according to Planning Commission documents.

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/gilberts-fail-jail-building-size-cut-anchor-tenant-lost