DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[The North One]

Originally Posted by north 42

If it's done right, it will become The new iconic structure for the region, replacing the Ambassador Bridge as such!

It's so far away from the main downtown though, it's not like tourists and locals are gonna be walking down it for leisure unless it's some kind of event. This is pretty much a bridge for industry, nothing more.

The Ambassador bridge even gets overlooked a lot and it's really not one of Detroit's major icons. Most people use the tunnels, I usually forget the bridge is even there half the time.

[animatedmartian]

I like seeing the bridge when going south on I-75. It's like a gateway to another land. Actually wouldn't mind if there were a couple more well-design bridges spanning the Detroit River. I kind of hated how there's so much water around but hardly any remarkable bridges.

[animatedmartian]

Major Brush Park development moving forward
Louis Aguilar, The Detroit News. December 2, 2015.

Five architecture firms, two from Metro Detroit and three from out of state, were named as the designers of a major Brush Park development that will create nearly 400 new residential units and restore four historic mansions.

The $70 million development was announced in May and the plan covers 8.4-acres in the neighborhood north of downtown that has struggled for decades. The project got off to highly publicized start this summer when a popular home renovation show, “Rehab Addict” with Nicole Curtis, transformed the Ransom Gillis mansion. That was the first part of the development.

The five architecture firms announced Wednesday will take on different portions of the rest of the project, which includes new townhomes, duplexes, carriage homes and apartments. The architects will also oversee the renovation of four historic mansions.

■ Hamilton Anderson Associates (HAA), Detroit.

■ Christian Hurttienne Architects, Grosse Pointe Park.

■ Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA), Los Angeles.

■ Merge Architects, Boston .

■ Studio Dwell, Chicago, Illinois

...

This is going to be some high quality housing. Possible the most unique in Metro Detroit (though still probably pretty contemporary by architectural standards). At least judging from the names here.

[mousquet]

^ Hm, that Chicago firm is crazy good, if you ask me. I should've hired them for my home. Lol.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by The North One

It's so far away from the main downtown though, it's not like tourists and locals are gonna be walking down it for leisure unless it's some kind of event. This is pretty much a bridge for industry, nothing more.

The Ambassador bridge even gets overlooked a lot and it's really not one of Detroit's major icons. Most people use the tunnels, I usually forget the bridge is even there half the time.

Don't underestimate the effect this new crossing will have on the region, it will rise as high as the Ren Cen and will be very visible from DT.
The Ambassador Bridge is very much a Detroit and Windsor iconic structure, and I expect this new crossing to be as well, and even more so if the design is done well.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

I like seeing the bridge when going south on I-75. It's like a gateway to another land. Actually wouldn't mind if there were a couple more well-design bridges spanning the Detroit River. I kind of hated how there's so much water around but hardly any remarkable bridges.

Exactly, this is our chance to really get a new, modern iconic structure that is built for the 21st century. It will be a bold statement that mirrors the optimism and rebirth of the region that is taking place. We can't have a modern, healthy economy with outdated infrastructure.

[animatedmartian]

Couple of major stories today.

Wayne State medical school financial woes delay construction on Midtown building
By KIRK PINHO. Crain's Detroit Business. December 4th, 2015.



If you’ve been wondering why it looks like a scene from the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Langoliers at a prime location on Woodward Avenue in Midtown, we found out why Thursday.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine, which is the parent of the Wayne State University Physician Group, lost $29 million in the fiscal year 2015 that ended Sept. 30, my colleague Jay Greene (and football enemy for the next 24 hours) reported Thursday.

Hence: Construction on a $68 million medical office building and parking structure for the physicians group never began this summer as planned after a 155,000-square-foot building at the Woodward site between Seldon and Parsons streets was demolished.

....

The building had been expected to open in 2016. It’s safe to say that’s no longer the case, but a revised construction timeline is not available.

“We are still working with the developer, still working on drawings of the building and we are also working out different financing options,” Lockwood said. “We are moving forward, but the financial issue has delayed it.”

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...onstruction-on

Restoration Hardware not opening in 1217 Woodward after all, sources say
KIRK PINHO. Crain's Detroit Business. December 3rd, 2015.



Restoration Hardware is apparently back on the market for digs downtown after a deal for space along Woodward Avenue collapsed.

Nearly a year after Crain’s first reported that the Corte Madera, Calif.-based luxury home-furnishings retailer was planning a Detroit outlet store, sources say Restoration Hardware has backed out of a plan for space in the Dan Gilbert-owned building at 1217 Woodward Ave.

However, the company is still looking around in and around downtown in other properties along the Woodward corridor, sources said. No more specific intel is available just yet.

One source said the issue complicating the deal was that RH would have to be spread across as many as five floors in the 36,000-square-foot building. Another source was unaware of the circumstances surrounding the retailer backing out of the plan.

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...er-all-sources

More retail, housing planned for Corktown
Louis Aguilar, The Detroit News. December 4th, 2015.



Metro Detroit businessman Anthony Soave plans to build a blocks-long retail and residential development near the old Tiger Stadium site.

The broad outline of the potential development, which is a work in progress, was confirmed by a spokeswoman for Soave. Others familiar with the plans said it’s expected to include hundreds of residential units and additional retail. It could include the conversion of the Checker Cab building at 2128 Trumbull into residential lofts, according to several people who have seen preliminary designs. A separate multistory residential building could be constructed behind the cab building.

The plan is expected to be formally announced early next year, possibly in January.

“The timing is a little premature” to discuss the project, Soave’s spokeswoman, Kelly Rossman-McKinney, said Thursday. She emailed a one sentence response when asked about the potential development. “Mr. Soave is looking forward to strengthening and enhancing his investment in the city of Detroit and helping contribute to what is already a booming Corktown success story.”

.....

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/new...roit/76759118/

Wolverine Packing expands its Eastern Market headquarters
By GARY ANGLEBRANDT. Crain's Detroit business. December 4th, 2015.



Wolverine Packing Co. is adding a second story to its Eastern Market headquarters as it expands its sales and administrative offices.

The add-on to the building, at the corner of Rivard Street and the Chrysler Service Drive, will double the current 15,000 square feet of sales and administrative offices for the meat processing and distribution company. Construction, which began last summer, is expected to finish at the end of the first quarter of 2016.

A remodeling of the building’s front entrance also is underway.

Growing sales prompted the expansion, President Jim Bonahoom said. “We’ve had a good run for the last 10 years.”

Growing sales are also the reason why the company has increasingly resorted to using the service drive as a parking lot for its truck trailers. Wolverine has run out of space to keep them on its own property.

“I'm surprised there haven’t been complaints,” Bonahoom said.

That soon will change. Wolverine this past summer closed on the purchase of a 3-acre city-owned lot just south of Sacred Heart Church between Rivard and the service drive. It plans to use the property for truck staging.

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...t-headquarters

[Docta_Love]

Increasing demand for downtown residential pushes planned Capitol Park high rise to 13 stories, work to begin first quarter 2016 and wrap up by summer 2017!

Taller building, smaller units: Gilbert plans micro apartments in Capitol Park
By KIRK PINHO
December 07, 2015
Crain's Detroit Business


(old rendering)

Micro apartments are on the way to downtown courtesy of Dan Gilbert in a building taller than what was previously planned.

The building planned for construction at 28 W. Grand River Ave. in Capitol Park is planned to have 219 units spread across 12 of the building’s 13 stories, according to a document to the city Board of Zoning Appeals dated Thursday.

....

"While we have not yet released floor plans or unit sizes, it will be a well-designed, state-of-art development based on the market and the needs of urban multi-family residents," Steve Rosenthal, a principal of Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC, said in a statement sent to me this afternoon. "Bedrock development is doing extensive market research locally and nationally to determine final floor plan and unit sizes. We look forward to sharing those details when the plans are finalized."

That’s comparable to the micro apartment size we see sprouting up in more established (and far more expensive) urban rental markets like New York City, San Francisco and Seattle, for example.

The demand for housing like that in an emerging area like Capitol Park, where rents in The Albert nearby range from about $1,200 per month to $2,500 per month (about $1.70 per square foot) makes sense with a flurry of young employees coming to the area from companies like Southfield-based Lear Corp. at 119 State St. and students attending the Detroit Institute of Music Education, or DIME, at 1265 Griswold St.

....

The micro units will likely command rents higher than $2 per square foot, however.

That’s because even at that rate, they’ll still be paying less per month than for an apartment of a more traditional size. At, for example, $2.25 per square foot, we're still looking at rent of $731.25 for a 325-square-foot apartment per month.

Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter next year and be wrapped up by the second quarter 2017.

The ZBA document says the new building would have a lobby lounge, lower-level storage, community lounge kitchen, terrace, fitness facilities, laundry facilities and other amenities, according to the briefing memo.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-apartments-in

[skyfan]

That building make will have a nice impact on Capitol Park. I'm not sure how micro apartments are going recived though this is kind of a first for the market

[hammersklavier]

Originally Posted by skyfan

That building make will have a nice impact on Capitol Park. I'm not sure how micro apartments are going recived though this is kind of a first for the market

If demand for downtown living is so sky-high you've got waiting lists, I can guarantee you that every bedroom you're able to build will get filled no problemo.

[Docta_Love]

Once again due to the lightning rate at which new projects are being announced there've been a few that have slipped through the cracks i saved a few articles that piqued my interest. I'll get around to posting more when i have a lil more time on my hands, here's one of consequence 700+ federal employee's are being consolidated from through out the region to downtown into the IRS building.

$210 Million In Renovations Coming To Two Downtown Detroit Buildings Thanks To Feds
Nov 16, 2015
By Daily Detroit Staff
Daily Detroit



On Monday the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced some large plans for two downtown Detroit buildings as part of a nationwide initiative.

First, the GSA purchased the large building at 985 Michigan Avenue for $1, as outlined in the lease that they had, and plans to invest $70 million and consolidate 700+ federal employees from around the region there. Currently, the 1995 structure local offices of the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies.



The plans outline interior changes, HVAC upgrades, parking garage repairs, electrical upgrades, safety upgrades, elevator repairs and plumbing upgrades. The government expects to save money over time as they will “avoid” paying an $11,000,000 annual lease cost.

Also, the historic Levin Federal Courthouse is in the process of getting $140 million in upgrades to improve the functionality of the space. The building, completed in 1934 at 231 West Lafayette, houses the “million dollar courtroom” that was disassembled from the old 1896 courthouse and reassembled in the new building.

....

The projects are part of a nationwide “Economic Catalyst Initiative” to better align the GSA’s building, leasing, and relocation plans with the economic development goals of local communities. Detroit was the launching city, where agency chief Denise Turner Roth joined with the Office of the Mayor and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation’s Rodrick Miller. Other cities involved in this initiative are Cambridge, Mass. and Charlotte, N.C.

http://www.dailydetroit.com/2015/11/...hanks-to-feds/

[animatedmartian]

Looking back: As businesses crave space, Eastern Market looks to grow borders
By GARY ANGLEBRANDT. Crain's Detroit Business. December 12, 2015.



"Eastern Market gets hot," read the front page of the Dec. 23, 1985, issue of Crain's Detroit Business.

The story was about a spike in demand for properties as food companies built more warehouse space.

From the archives: Eastern Market gets hot (Dec. 23, 1985)

It's a headline that would work just as well now. Retailers regularly announce shop openings in the district. The Saturday public market has grown under the management of Eastern Market Corp., the nonprofit established by the city in 2006. When TV advertisers co-opt the gritty Detroit comeback narrative, they never fail to include a shot of an Eastern Market shed.

Now, Eastern Market wants to make itself bigger by stretching the district's boundaries. President Dan Carmody said about 25 companies — mostly food wholesalers, processors and distributors that already operate in Eastern Market — want to expand but have run out of room. Wolverine Packing Co., E.W. Grobbel Sons Inc. and Baratta Brothers Inc., which does business as Fairway Packing Co., are among them.

"If we don't find space for those companies, some of them are going to have to go somewhere else," Carmody said.



......

Eastern Market, in its quest to preserve the authenticity of the market, has a bias for food businesses, and its new development entity would carry that same slant. But it also would make room for residential and retail, mirroring another responsibility of the corporation, that of balancing the interests of varying parties within the district. To that end, it has been looking into the possibility of developing Shed 4 as a mixed-use project with housing on top.

....

Eastern Market has been slow to join the crowd because cheaper space has been available on the outskirts of downtown and Midtown, Mihailovich said. While Eastern Market has properties and stability, prices remained higher throughout the recession years, adding to already high costs of renovating old properties.

George Jackson, former head of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., was Eastern Market Corp.'s first chairman. He said development has only recently again become feasible as progress in nearby areas pushes demand outward.

"Nothing in Detroit happens overnight," Jackson said. "I didn't think it was going to move as fast as Midtown."

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-looks-to-grow

[The North One]

Detroit Named First American City of Design by UNESCO

The Michigan metropolis becomes the first in America to receive the honor

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/s...city-of-design

[JonathanGRR]

And with the good news comes the bad. It is a real shame that this site is still being used for a jail and that no one has been held accountable for the fiasco that took place in attempting to build it in the first place.

Wayne County reaches deal to salvage 'fail jail' project, considers 2 redesigns for site
Robert Snell | December 17, 2015
Wayne County will consider two options to salvage a $200 million unfinished jail project in downtown Detroit that was scrapped due to soaring costs, Executive Warren Evans said Thursday.

The announcement comes after county commissioners Thursday approved an interim deal to settle a lawsuit involving the county and two contractors who worked on the 1,976-bed jail project.

The county will consider two smaller options to finish the jail project, one for a 1,944-bed facility and one for a smaller 1,504-bed jail at the site, located at Gratiot Avenue and St. Antoine Street. Both options would include a tunnel linking the site to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice and cost as much as $175 million, Evans said.

The options could push total construction costs to $375 million before the county spends money furnishing and equipping the jail.

“My administration did not cause this mess with the jail, but we are going to clean it up,” Evans said in a statement. “Completing the Gratiot site may prove to be the most practical option, however with this agreement we have the flexibility to shift gears if a more viable opportunity is presented.”
...

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...rning-20151218

[skyfan]

The courts and jail have always been downtown like they are most cities. In Cleveland the police hq/jail is only few blocks from from Public Square so I really don't see it as big deal to continue doing it.

Fifth Third Bank moves first wave of 90 employees into One Woodward Building


The first wave of 90 employees of Fifth Third Bank Eastern Michigan moved into the 25th and 26th floors of the One Woodward Building in downtown Detroit Monday morning.

They include senior executives, commercial bankers and support staff, mortgage bankers and the wealth-management team.

The second and final wave of 90 employees is expected to move into the 12th and 13th floors of the building in late spring. The bank will lease 62,000 square feet of space in all, largely in an open concept that requires fewer walls and less space.

Previously, the eastern region’s headquarters had been the Southfield Town Center, where it had leased 105,000 square feet.
Originally, the bank planned to retain 20,000 square feet of space in the Town Center, but Jack Riley, the vice president of marketing, told Crain's Monday that the plan now is to move all of the Town Center employees downtown.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article..._medium=social

[mind field]

^So the total number of people they are moving downtown will be 180? That's up from the 150 they reported earlier. Glad they're moving everyone out of Southfield!

[animatedmartian]

Crain's Kirk Pinho has a throwback proposal from 2006 when GM offered Dan Gilbert a new office building next door to the Ren Cen. Pretty sure it was never made public at the time. Seems like GM could have (and maybe possibly still can) done a decent job developing the riverfront if they weren't acting like such a big-headed corporation.

How Detroit riverfront lost out on Gilbert's Quicken headquarters
KIRK PINHO. Crain's Detroit Business. December 21, 2015.



A decade ago, General Motors Co. pitched Dan Gilbert a plan to build this 300,000-square-foot building at 665 Atwater to house Quicken Loans Inc. on the Detroit riverfront. Gilbert opted for space in the Compuware Corp. headquarters building instead, moving there four years later.

....

Discussions between GM and Gilbert’s team never got to the point where it was decided whether GM would own the 10-story building, with Quicken leasing space in it, or whether Quicken would own the building, the six-floor deck and the land, Cullen said.

The development — proposed for the block bounded by Atwater to the south, St. Antoine to the west, Franklin to the north and Schweizer Place to the east — would have included 5,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and green space, plus a covered connection to the parking deck.

GM's plans to develop the area east of the RenCen go back at least a decade to around 2006, when the automaker tapped Chicago-based real estate companies Mesirow Stein Real Estate Inc. and Morningside Equities Group to develop a 13 acre property for the River East project into retail and residential space.

Those plans fell through because "we couldn't make economic sense of what GM and the city of Detroit were requiring ... just the whole package of expectations regarding what would be built, who would build it, how it would get done, whether GM was going to be a partner, what they were demanding as their share of the development," David Strosberg, president of Morningside, said in an interview last month. "So it just stopped making sense."

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...n-headquarters

[Docta_Love]

^I have a better feeling that GM understands that it is unbecoming of a major corporation to not have its back yard unkempt as it were not to mention its a area where GM is uniquely placed and has the financial means to help develop one of least developed part of the eastern riverfront.

Gilbert gets another 30 days for Hudson's site development agreement
The plan is for at least 225,000 square feet of mixed-use space, 250 residential units

KIRK PINHO
December 22, 2015
Crain's Detroit Business





The Detroit Downtown Development Authority has given a Dan Gilbert-affiliated entity another 30 days to finalize a development plan amendment for the former J.L. Hudson’s department store site.

The 2 acres of vacant land on Woodward Avenue between State Street and East Grand River Avenue is owned by the DDA, but Rosko Development Co. LLC, which is registered to one of Gilbert’s close confidants, has development rights on the land.

DDA documents earlier this year said the development is expected to include at least 225,000 square feet of mixed-use space, at least 250 residential units and at least 900 parking spaces.

Crain’s first reported last month that Gilbert was trying to buy the city-owned garage underneath the site.

A source at the time said Gilbert is willing to pay about $15 million for the 900-space Premier Underground Garage, which is prone to flooding on the lower of its four levels. It was built about 14 years ago for $28 million.

....

The architects on the project are New York City-based Shop Architects PC and Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates.

Constructed as an eight-story building in 1891, the Hudson’s building was a fixture in downtown and a shopping destination for millions for nearly a century. It expanded to 25 stories and 2.2 million square feet before closing in 1983 and being imploded in 1998.


http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...ment-agreement

Meh It's been so long in the making whats another 30 days?

[99spartan]

I sure hope they make the building at the former Hudson's site something really cool and make it a tourist destination. I'd be happy if they made it a fairly tall building, considering it's a very coveted piece of land.

[The North One]

Ehh, I wouldn't expect anything majorly tall, that's not even what we need right now (or want).

I'd like something that's architecturally significant and interacts with the street level in great way. Hopefully that's what we'll get.