DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[animatedmartian]

Hotel on the registry for historic firehouse site
By Sherri Welch
March 03, 2013

A $23 million boutique hotel is in the works for the historic firehouse site in downtown Detroit.

A development group led by Walter Cohen and his Southfield-based 21 Century Holdings LLC has agreed to pay $1.25 million for the 1929 building that serves as the Detroit Fire Department headquarters, said Beth DunCombe, director of the Detroit Building Authority.

...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/201...the-registry-for-historic-firehouse-site

This is the building on the block just behind the Ponch and across from Cobo. Detroit's hotel market is looking a little bright this year (at least in terms of added square footage).

[hudkina]

Fire Station, downtown Detroit, built 1929 02 by alibearry, on Flickr

[LMich]

That's going to be an awesome hotel. I was never worried about this building being torn down, but it's good to see it snapped up so quickly.

[subterranean]

Yes! I much prefer staying at smaller boutique hotels over the monster chains. This will be very cool.

[detmi7mile]

I was wondering if they would come up for a good use for the building. It will be in a perfect location right next to Cobo.

[LMich]

More development news:

Campbell Ewald moving headquarters, 600 employees to downtown Detroit

By Tom Walsh | Detroit Free Press

March 6, 2013

Downtown Detroit will get a new jolt of creative talent and another funky work space with the move of advertising agency Campbell Ewald from suburban Warren into the old J.L. Hudson warehouse space in Ford Field, a move to be announced today by Bill Ludwig, the firm's chairman and CEO, and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

More than 600 Campbell Ewald employees will make the move, starting during the holiday season at the end of this year. The agency has signed an 11-year lease for 122,000 square feet of space on four floors. It will seek a buyer for its 10-story headquarters at 30400 Van 🞵🞵🞵🞵, between 12 Mile and 13 Mile roads, across the street from the sprawling General Motors technical center complex.

"I must have looked at every building in Detroit, and some in the suburbs, during the past three years," Ludwig told the Free Press on Tuesday during an interview and tour of the Ford Field space, where he and Bing will discuss the move at a 1:45 p.m. news conference today.

The search for a new headquarters for the 102-year-old agency, Ludwig said, was driven by a need for culture change because of the explosion of technology and social media, along with Campbell Ewald's need to diversify its client base as the auto industry struggled through the crisis of 2008-09.

...

I'm really wanting to see a downtown census taken of employers, because this has to be over 10,000 jobs that have moved to the city center just since Gilbert started the serious, sustained migration a few years ago. It's enough of a saturation to start attracting greater retail options.

BTW, a general story on the downtown hotel market after the story on the DFD Headquarters the other day:

Detroit sees hotel rebirth with boutique developments, renovations

By Mark Martinez & Louis Aguilar | The Detroit News

March 5, 2013

Downtown Detroit's hotel scene is roaring back to life.

The former Hotel Pontchartrain is being transformed into a 371-room Crowne Plaza Hotel, and a 136-room Aloft boutique hotel is coming in the old David Whitney building on Woodward. Now, Chicago-based Aparium Hotel Group is in the "early stages" of buying and converting the Detroit Fire Department headquarters, across from Cobo Center, into a 75-80 room boutique hotel, according to the company's CEO.

In addition, Crain's Detroit reported Monday Marriott at the Renaissance Center plans to remake its 1,289 rooms and 100,000 square feet of meeting space — its first renovation since 2002. A Marriott spokeswoman wouldn't comment further on the improvements.

The hotel market remained flat following the late 2008 reopening of the iconic Westin Book Cadillac, and the nearby Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby in the midst of the recession. But analysts say an improving economy, the rebounding auto industry and the upgraded Cobo Hall convention center are making the area attractive to out-of-towners and developers.

"All of these point to really good signs about where Detroit is heading," said Ron Wilson, CEO of Hotel Investment Services, Inc., a Troy consulting firm. "You don't place money and put assets at risk if you think something is heading in the wrong direction."

....

[JonathanGRR]

Photo courtesy of IADS

Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, Detroit's last freestanding one, launches fundraising campaign
Eric Lacy | March 12, 2013

DETROIT, MI - The Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue (IADS), the last freestanding synagogue in Detroit, launched this week a fundraising campaign with a $60,000 goal.
The funds will be used to match $60,000 raised from private donors and will go toward interior and exterior improves to the 92-year-old building in the city's Capitol Park area downtown.

Donations can be made online at the IADS' fundraising page. As of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, $7,850 had been raised online

The IADS has been declared part of Detroit's Capitol Park Historic District, an area with the following boundaries: Clifford Street, Woodward Avenue, Michigan Avenue and Washington Boulevard.

The $120,000 the IADS hopes to raise will be used for the following projects:

A bathroom overhaul
Kitchen improvements
A fire escape
A bike rack
Murals outside the building
Other exterior improvements
A long-term vision and plan for the building

A first phase of improvements for the synagogue began two years ago when the IADS launched a successful windows campaign that made energy efficient improvements to the building.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2013/03/isaac_agree_downtown_synagogue.html

[LMich]

Kind of a general development issue, and this was not at all unexpected given that we knew the state had staunched its population loss, but we now get word from the Census that Metro Detroit is growing, again, nearly now having replaced all the population loss since the 2010 Census:

Metro Detroit has a small growth spurt, census finds

Kristi Tanner | Detroit Free Press

March 14, 2013

Despite a marginal population increase of 0.1% -- an estimated 4,094 people -- metro Detroit continues to drop in rank among the nation's most populous areas.

The region dropped from the 13th to 14th in population rankings from 2011 and 2012, according to census data released today. In 2010, metro Detroit ranked 12th. Phoenix's metro area, with an estimated 4,329,534 residents, surpassed metro Detroit, which now stands at 4,292,060. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago continue to have the largest metropolitan areas with population sizes of 19.8 million, 13 million and 9.5 million, respectively.

...

Among counties in metro Detroit, Wayne lost 9,424 residents, a decline of .5%. Oakland and Macomb counties saw increases of 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively.

...

A very modest gain, but something to build on. It's always been known that whenever the metro as a whole has lost population, it's been cyclical, as opposed to other metro-wide population losses in those metros that have had structural population decline.

[LMich]

More Gilbert-related real estate news:

(Daniel Mears | The Detroit News)

Dan Gilbert buys 1001 Woodward Avenue building

The Detroit News

March 19, 2013

Dan Gilbert's Rock Ventures announced Tuesday morning that it has acquired its 16th downtown Detroit building, the 1001 Woodward office tower.

Gilbert's Quicken Loans will lease 65,000 square feet in the 23-story building, bringing its occupancy to 87 percent, according to a press release. The building is across from Compuware Corp. and Campus Martius.

The building features first-floor retail space and is home to information technology provider GalaxE.Solutions, Meridian Health Plan, the University of Phoenix and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, among others. Rock Ventures said the building is currently 68 percent occupied.

"Detroit has become a key destination for brain economy companies," said Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans. "The acquisition of the 1001 Woodward building allows us to continue to offer premium office space at affordable rates for those looking to join us in the technology district that is gaining more and more momentum each and every day."

Included in Gilbert's purchase is an attached parking structure with 730 spaces and 15,000 square feet of first floor retail space facing Woodward Avenue.

...

[JonathanGRR]

For more Gilbert-related news:

Andrew Jameson | Wikipedia Commons
Gilbert buys Vinton Building on Woodward Avenue
Kirk Pinho | March 26, 2013

Dan Gilbert has added the Albert Kahn-designed Vinton Building at 600 Woodward Ave. to his downtown real estate portfolio.

The 44,000-square foot building was sold to a limited liability corporation that lists Jim Ketai, who heads up real estate purchases for Gilbert through Bedrock Management Inc., the entity that Ketai and Gilbert co-own.

The vacant building was sold on Dec. 28, 2012, according to Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service CoStar Group Inc.

A limited liability corporation listed as the building's seller lists Aaron Alston as its manager and owner.

Paula Silver, vice president of communications for Gilbert's Quicken Loans Inc., said in an email to Crain's Tuesday afternoon that there was "nothing to report at this time" about the sale.

Built in 1917, the 12-story building is north of Congress Street near Cadillac Square and Campus Martius.
...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/201...-buys-vinton-building-on-woodward-avenue

Gilbert is mum on retail detail, but check out invitees to Thursday event
Kirk Pinho | March 25, 2013
If Dan Gilbert isn't planning to announce his retail strategy for Detroit Thursday ... well, he's bringing together one heck of a group to talk about other things.

Details are still slim on what the billionaire founder and chairman of Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Ventures LLC — and other representatives of Detroit business groups — will roll out Thursday, other than to discuss the “Woodward Corridor Place-making and Retail Strategy.”

Speakers will include Dave Blaszkiewicz, president and CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership; Matt Cullen, president and CEO of Rock Ventures; Gilbert; George Jackson, president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.; Fred Kent, president of the Project for Public Spaces; and city of Detroit officials.

Those groups, and four urban planning firms, have been working for the last seven months on the strategy, according to a news release.

Thursday’s event is billed as the unveiling of “plans for a creative and distinctly Detroit development of Woodward Avenue retail and the activation of public spaces, sidewalks and streets along the corridor.”

Additional information on what will be announced was not provided.

Place-making is a community development concept to improve surroundings in an effort to that involves bettering a community’s quality of life to attract and retain businesses and workers.

Crain’s has previously reported that the plan will likely involve properties Gilbert owns or controls near Grand Circus Park and Campus Martius, including frontage on the east side of Woodward Avenue and the former Hudson’s lot north of Compuware Corp. headquarters.
...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/201...etail-but-check-out-invitees-to-Thursday

Why does Thursday have to be so far away? It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the meeting!

[LMich]

Y mas...

Patricia Beck | Detroit Free Press

Whitney Building, Globe Trading work to start

By John Gallagher | Detroit Free Press

March 26, 2013

Two long-awaited redevelopment projects are expected to get under way in downtown Detroit in coming days.

On Thursday, the Detroit-based Roxbury Group and other partners will celebrate the start of reconstruction of the David Whitney Building, a 1915 skyscraper that is to become a boutique hotel, shops and apartments.

An invitation from Bank of America, which is part of the team financing the project, said Monday that Gov. Rick Snyder is scheduled to headline the event. The building is at Woodward and Park near Grand Circus Park.

The Roxbury Group also expects to begin construction within days on the remake of the Globe Trading building on the east riverfront. The former marine dry-dock facility will be converted to a Michigan Department of Natural Resources indoor-outdoor recreation and education center that ties in to the nearby Milliken State Park.

Financing for both projects closed in recent days, the company said.

Both projects carry symbolic importance for the redevelopment of the downtown area. Both have been vacant for many years, and both occupy key places in the cityscape and in Detroit's history.

The David Whitney Building was designed by the Chicago firm of famed architect Daniel Burnham and named for lumber baron David Whitney, whose personal mansion on Woodward Avenue in Midtown is now one of the city's most elegant restaurants.

The 19-story tower is notable for its lofty courtyard atrium on the interior. Originally an office tower catering to doctors and dentists, the building has been closed and empty for many years.

Southfield architecture firms interested in downtown Detroit

By Louis Aguilar | The Detroit News

March 26, 2013

As Southfield-based Neumann/Smith Architecture announced Tuesday it will open a design studio in the downtown Detroit Woodward building owned by Dan Gilbert's real estate arm, talks were underway between Gilbert's people and another Southfield architecture firm also looking to open a downtown office.

Neumann/Smith will open a design studio in June in the Wright Kay Building bringing about 12 people downtown. The building is at the corner of Woodward and John R and was originally called the Schwankovsky Temple of Music and later the Wright Kay. The building is owned by Bedrock Real Estate Services, the real estate arm of Quicken Loans Inc. founder Dan Gilbert.

...

The Southfield firm ROSETTI Architects also is in talks to set up an office in the former Federal Reserve building at 160 W. Fort St., but the deal is not yet sealed, according to a source familiar with the situation. The building, now empty, is owned by Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services. ROSSETTI has done work for several of Gilbert's downtown spaces.

...

Since August 2010, approximately 71 companies have moved into Gilbert-owned downtown Detroit buildings.

The pace of the redevelopment in the greater downtown area is seemingly back up to pre-recession levels.

[animatedmartian]

^Indeed. But for the love of Pete, when are there going to be more residential projects?

WOODWARD RETAIL PLAN TO BE ANNOUNCED THURSDAY



Big things could be happening downtown along Woodward Avenue.

On Thursday, plans will be rolled out for what’s being called “a creative and distinctly-Detroit development of Woodward Avenue retail and the activation of public spaces, sidewalks and streets along the corridor.”

For the past seven months, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, Detroit Economic Growth Corp., City of Detroit, Project for Public Spaces, Rock Ventures and four award-winning internationally-recognized urban planning firms have been actively developing a ‘retail and placemaking’ strategy for the Woodward Corridor, according to a news release.

Dan Gilbert, President and CEO of Rock Ventures, with join hundreds of downtown Detroit stakeholders for the announcement during a gathering at the City Theater.

http://detroit2020.com/2013/03/27/woodward-retail-plan-to-be-announced-thursday/

[JonathanGRR]

Well, we know that Gilbert has made at least one offer on the David Stott Building before... There's also supposedly going to be residential units as a part of whatever is built on the Hudson Department Store site.

[mind field]

Originally Posted by LMich

The pace of the redevelopment in the greater downtown area is seemingly back up to pre-recession levels.

I was recently thinking the same thing. There seems to be quite a bit of downtown development and activity going on. About time!!!! Just imagine the onslaught of investment if Detroit was widely viewed in the metro area as a functioning, vibrant city.

[LMich]

Originally Posted by mind field

I was recently thinking the same thing. There seems to be quite a bit of downtown development and activity going on. About time!!!! Just imagine the onslaught of investment if Detroit was widely viewed in the metro area as a functioning, vibrant city.

To be honest, it's the metro area nearly single-handedly supporting this resurgence at the behest of Gilbert, who is reshaping this place with sheer force of will. Metro Detroit really seems to finally be buying into Detroit proper, which is pretty amazing when you realize what the area has been through politically over the last decade.

The real problem, it seems, are outside investors and developers still not feeling very comfortable. Out-of-state banks and such still aren't lending at the levels required to get large-scale new construction off the ground in the city. Every Metro Detroit company and their momma is jumping on the Detroit bandwagon; they all want a downtown office, at least. It's the national names that aren't really knocking, yet. But, this will all come in time. It's good to get the region buying in, first, and this will convince out-of-staters to take a chance, hopefully.

That said, I am a bit surprised (a) local developer(s) hasn't found a creative financing package and the courage to put up a legitimate residential high-rise, yet. Someone needs to be first; I realize the housing market isn't all the way back, but it's not like the demand isn't there when you look at occupancy rates, even in the high-end residential.

[animatedmartian]

And so we have our first sneak peek into downtown Gilbertsville. More is expected later in the day.


Via Curbed.

[LMich]

NICE! I see they are going to turn Cadillac Square back into the market it originally was, at least temprorarily. The subtle infill/renovations also looks interesting.

[subterranean]

Yea, Cadillac Square has way more potential/severely underutilized given the location. All I want to hear about are commitments from tenants and anchors. Also, that rendering is very underwhelming.

[hudkina]

So does that mean Cadillac Square would go pedestrian-only? And does that low-rise on the Monroe Block mean that Gilbert is looking to build a retail complex there?

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by subterranean

Also, that rendering is very underwhelming.

I find the streetcar coming up there and the restaurants all over the square are something quite 🞵🞵🞵🞵 to it. Only the added buildings could be more ambitious.

Originally Posted by LMich

That said, I am a bit surprised (a) local developer(s) hasn't found a creative financing package and the courage to put up a legitimate residential high-rise, yet. Someone needs to be first; I realize the housing market isn't all the way back, but it's not like the demand isn't there when you look at occupancy rates, even in the high-end residential.

What about the Broderick tower BTW? If I remember well, it's rental and pretty expensive but still something to make more people live downtown. The high-rise living (i.e. dense downtown oriented living) can't remain forever that expensive anyway. It should end up affordable to some wide extent. What's going on in Canada is a clue.