DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[animatedmartian]

Wayne State's new Ilitch business school offers naming rights for auditorium, terrace and more
By CHAD HALCOM. February 17, 2016. Crain's Detroit.



Can’t spring for the likely $4 million or more per year that goes into a naming rights deal for the new Detroit Red Wings arena opening in September 2017? Well, the Mike Ilitch School of Business up the street might have something suited to your budget – an auditorium, perhaps? A terrace or an atrium?

The business school hopes to finalize additional naming rights deals with businesses and individuals in the next four months or so for facilities within its new building in The District Detroit – and some proposals have been fairly creative, business school Dean Robert Forsythe said.

So far the university has reached at least two verbal agreements that may be finalized soon to help cover the balance of an estimated $50 million project cost for a new four-story, 120,000 square foot building. In October, the Ilitch family and Wayne State announced a $40 million donation for the new school — $35 million in initial funding and a $5 million endowment.

....

The school of business rolled out a floor plan of naming rights opportunities for the business school in an online presentation this week.

The layout is part of a preliminary design plan by project architect Smiths Group JJR. The university also awarded a construction management contract late last year to Christman Brinker, a joint venture of Lansing-based The Christman Co. and commercial contracting firm Brinker Group, based in Detroit.

Forsythe said he and other business school administrators are having meetings at least two or three times a week about the upcoming construction project, which the school hopes to bring to a groundbreaking by June and open by 2018. The school is still completing a more finalized design plan for the building, he said, and doesn’t expect to sell naming rights for every space.

But he does hope to get as many deals done as possible to help with fundraising before breaking ground in a few months.

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...ing-rights-for

[skyfan]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...cks-in-midtown

I like it

[99spartan]

If this is "one of the most significant projects built in Detroit in the last 100 years", then I sure hope it's something awesome like a skyscraper. Just imagine how awesome it would be for the city to be getting a new arena, new bridge, new rail system, and also a new skyscraper. What better of a place for a skyscraper than right downtown at the Hudson's site?


Todd McInturf | The Detroit News

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2016/02/25/hudson-site-development-deal-detroit/80944558/

By Louis Aguilar | The Detroit News

February 25, 2016

The empty Woodward block where the famed J.L. Hudson department store once stood may soon have “one of the most significant projects built in Detroit in the last 100 years,” according to the project developer.

But details of the potential blockbuster project have been pushed back until April — the third delay in finalizing the development agreement between the city and developer since December.

On Wednesday, the board of the city’s Downtown Development Authority, DDA, approved a 60-day extension between the DDA, which owns the 2-acre property, and Rosko Development Co., an entity affiliated with billionaire Dan Gilbert.

DDA officials on Wednesday said the delay is needed to finalize small details, particularly in the sale of a 900-space parking garage underneath the site. The garage was not included in the original terms of the development agreement and the two sides are working to make it part of the deal.

...

[The North One]

I highly anticipate whatever SHoP comes up with, some of their projects are hit or miss though.

The "100 years" comment is a bit overly ambitions, considering Book tower, the Fisher building, the Penobscot and the Guardian were all built within the last 100 years. It would have to be the most innovative and visually striking modern building in the country.

If Gilbert somehow constructs something taller than the original Hudson's I'll be kissing the ground he walks on, but I'm not holding my breath, nor do I even think a "tower" is necessary or is even the right approach to bring attention to the city.

Whatever, I'm just sick of these delays.

[animatedmartian]

The Mondrian on track after struggles
By KIRK PINHO. Crain's Detroit. February 28, 2016.



After false starts, raised hopes and a U-turn on the road to construction, work on a new mixed-use building downtown Detroit is expected to begin in July.

The Mondrian — named after Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, who inspired the De Stijl architecture mode in which the building is designed — is expected to bring up to 108 apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space to the west side of Woodward Avenue, south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

It's been Detroit-based Queen Lillian Development LLC and developer Chris Jackson's tale of stalled and then restarted development efforts at the 1.6-acre site after finishing Queen Lillian I, an $18.4 million medical office building a mile away.

...

Planned occupancy of The Mondrian, originally proposed as a complementary 75,000-square-foot medical office building within field-goal length of the Detroit Medical Center, fell through. Queen Lillian couldn't get a construction loan without half of the building preleased due to lending standards.

The tenant that originally expected to occupy the medical office building, the Wayne State University Physicians Group, backed out of discussions after finding another site just up Woodward north of Mack Avenue. (That project hasn't yet begun construction because of the physicians group's financial woes.) The DMC was also courted to occupy the building.

After losing the physicians group, Jackson turned his attention to smaller medical office tenants — the private practices of doctors and dentists, for example. Although he had interested tenants, lenders wanted 50 percent of the building preleased to approve a construction loan.

....

That's when the multifamily development, the first phase of which is expected to cost $24 million, became the project focus.

Construction loans for those projects are typically issued based on market demand and expected rental rates.

There are 68 units with an expected average rental rate of $2.07 per square foot in The Mondrian's first phase, which would also include a 150-space parking deck and the first-floor retail space. (About 10,000 square feet remains after expected leases by Huntington Bank and a pharmacy, Jackson said.)

A second phase would be built with an additional 36 units on top of the attached parking deck with about 150 spaces, Jackson said. The second phase would be about $4 million, bringing total project cost to $28 million.

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...fter-struggles

Once this project starts, there will be several on-going projects within a section of Woodward that's under a mile long (from Adams to MLK/Mack). On top of that, it will almost be a continuous street wall save for one or two smaller lots.

[Docta_Love]

Good news for Pontiac to see this project coming back to life, it makes sense to have redevelopment efforts on the two main gateways into the city from Bloomfield (Telegraph & Woodward) just as much as it does downtown.

Village at Bloomfield redevelopment to include 300-350 multifamily units
Overall project to revive Bloomfield Park site expected to cost $180 million

KIRK PINHO
February 25, 2016
Crain's Detroit Business


The 1.7 million-square-foot Bloomfield Park development was originally envisioned as a massive mixed-use development including retail space, office space, condominiums and parking.

A new detail emerged Thursday on what’s expected to unfold at the failed Bloomfield Park development in Pontiac and Bloomfield Township.

Rebranded as the Village at Bloomfield, the sprawling 87-acre site is expected to include 300-350 market-rate residential rental units, according to Ken Till, senior vice president of development for Southfield-based Redico LLC, which is planning a $180 million redevelopment of the half-built site along Telegraph Road north of Square Lake Road.

Till was speaking on a panel Thursday morning during the Midwest Real Estate Journal’s second annual Detroit Commercial Real Estate Summit at the Southfield Westin.

Redico and California-based Pacific Coast Capital Partners LLC, or PCCP, purchased the site last year after the previous owner waived redemption rights to the property.

In an interview late last year, Dale Watchowski, president, CEO and COO of Redico, said construction of new buildings is expected to begin in 2016.

Demolition is already underway on some of the buildings on the site, he said at the time.

The redevelopment is expected to include a mix of retail and office space, a grocery store, medical office space, a movie theater, senior housing and single-family residential housing.

Detroit-based SmithGroup JJR Inc. is the architecture firm on the project.


http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...50-multifamily

I think its a very positive sign that when the DMC pulled out of the Mondrian that they were able to cobble together the needed tenant space by bringing in small medical businesses, Gilbert or other big entities get the headlines but the underlying economy has clearly been advancing and evolving.

[Docta_Love]

I Missed this one speaking of Pontiac...Downtown Pontiac has been hurting since Royal Oak took the entertainment capital of Oakland County crown.

Downtown Pontiac's 10-story Riker Building sells for $830,000
Half-million in renovations planned to 1928 building

KIRK PINHO
March 01, 2016
Crain's Detroit Business



“We are trying to take this building back to the original look,” he said. “We are peeling away layers and trying to get to the original brick. It will hopefully appeal to a little bit of a fresher group that may not have been looking to Pontiac.”

Shepard said he plans for a yoga studio, restaurant and coffee shop on the first floor.

"We are looking for tenants who are tech or creative class, small footprint-type users who appreciate the old character of the building," said Bob Waun, vice president of business development for Bingham Farms-based Core Partners LLC who represented Shepard in the purchase.

"He is not afraid to sign 12-month or month-to-month leases, which is what is kind of demanded in Pontiac right now," Waun said.

Shepard closed on the purchase from Arnold Becker — who was represented by Brad Margolis, senior associate for Southfield-based Farbman Group — on Feb. 16.

At an occupancy rate of only about 20 percent, the Riker, much like Pontiac itself, needs all the help it can get.

The Riker was one of the buildings targeted for millions of dollars of investment in the Indian Hill project planned for downtown.

The project plans, which I reported about 18 months ago, called for the Riker to be turned into a boutique hotel or mixed-use development with a significant multifamily component following $2.5 million to $4.8 million in investment.

Waun, also a key backer of the Indian Hill project, said the Riker Building redevelopment never happened as planned because there is little demand for hotel space in downtown Pontiac right now and the building is not laid out well enough for apartments.

"You couldn't get enough apartments on each floor for it to make sense," he said.

While the Indian Hill project has brought several new "destination" retailers downtown — including Mad Cow Custom Leather LLC — and there are plans for a pair of new breweries, things are still in the works.

Waun said 18 downtown buildings are currently a part of, or are about to be a part of, the investors' real estate portfolio.

Indian Hill investors have deployed about $4 million of their own money so far on the large-scale redevelopment plan that called for tens of millions in spending, Waun said.

“We are still hopeful that debt and government support will increase our investment,” Waun said. “But until others step up, our equity commitment is all in.”

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...lls-for-830000

[animatedmartian]

Fifth Third Bank cuts ribbon on new downtown HQ

Fifth Third Bank Eastern Michigan formally cut the ribbon on its new regional headquarters Wednesday in the One Woodward office tower in downtown Detroit.

Speaking to some of the 180 or so bank employees who will eventually work on four floors of the skyscraper, David Girodat, president and CEO of the regional headquarters, said of the move downtown from Southfield, "We wanted to move our headquarters to be part of the downtown movement and contribute to the remarkable resurgence Detroit is experiencing."

....

http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...hird/81213912/

[The North One]

Village at Bloomfield redevelopment to include 300-350 multifamily units
Overall project to revive Bloomfield Park site expected to cost $180 millionVillage

Oh thank god, I was wondering what (if anything) was going on with this project, it's so depressing to drive by it, it's a really massive development.

So they're demolishing the entire site and building something new? Why don't they just finish the buildings that already exist?

[skyfan]

This is company has some great work restoring the beautiful apts in Palmer Park

Renovated Coronado Square Apartments Will Open This Summer



Another Palmer Park apartment building will be available for occupancy later this summer. Shelborne Development, owned by Kathy Makino-Leipsitz, is completing their eighth building in the area.

Construction on Coronado Square, an $8,000,000, 45-unit development, is 60% complete with an occupancy date projected for September 1st, at the latest, according to representative Amanda Inderbitzin.

The 1920’s Spanish-Moorish revival style building will have one and two bedroom apartments with 20% affordable units mixed in.

http://detroit.curbed.com/2016/3/2/1...en-this-summer

[Docta_Love]

Oh thank god, I was wondering what (if anything) was going on with this project, it's so depressing to drive by it, it's a really massive development.

So they're demolishing the entire site and building something new? Why don't they just finish the buildings that already exist?

Yeah its a pretty big joke that its taken this long for somebody to do something with it.

But from what i remember some of the half finished buildings were damaged beyond repair by the elements so those will be demolished and replaced. With an end result composed of some pieces of the original development being completed but over all a less dense overall project factoring in the new parts.

[spiper]

Looks like facade cleaning has started

[Docta_Love]

Looks like facade cleaning has started

Good shot, i'm sure one of the first things most people when they see the Book Tower is to think oh man if they would just wash it... Glad to see 10 years later the power washing of the Book Buidling/Tower has recommenced. It's been a great day for some power washing too 65 degrees with snow on the ground gotta love it although most of that snow is gone now.



Edit; You can see from this photo courtisey of Crain's Detroit where the cleaning was done on the building portion of the Tower in 06 before it was halted along with other renovation work which i believe was pretty minor, but it gives you an idea of what the building could look like all cleaned up. Although apparently some of the stone work detailing is made from darker material although i'm sure there will still be much improvement in its appearance although if you look closely at the stone features under the eve of the roof on the portion of the building part of the Tower that'd been cleaned the difference in color is night and day.

Lester ready to add riverfront 'jewels' to Detroit development portfolio

March 06, 2016
By KIRK PINHO
Crain's Detroit Business



(River Place was a renovation of century-old buildings formerly owned by the old drugmaker Parke-Davis)


Matt Lester plans to buy a big part of a 25-acre mixed-use riverfront development that would add 301 apartments and a 67,000-square-foot office building to his greater downtown real estate portfolio.

Lester, the founder and CEO of Bloomfield Township-based Princeton Enterprises LLC, says he has the Stroh River Place apartments at 500 River Place and the Class A Talon Centre office building at 100 River Place under contract from their owners.

"They are both jewels," Lester said.

The purchase of the buildings, part of one of Detroit's most significant riverfront redevelopments nearly 30 years ago, represents a big bet on a resurgent riverfront district.

"Stroh River Place is the premier apartment complex in the D, in my opinion," Lester said. "If I were looking for luxury and value in the D, this would be the first place I would go looking."

The properties are in the $200 million Stroh River Place development, which sits on land formerly owned by Parke-Davis & Co., the former Detroit-based pharmaceutical company purchased in 1970 by Warner-Lambert Co., which New York-based Pfizer Inc. bought three decades later in 2000 for $90 billion.

The Stroh River Place apartments purchase from the Detroit General Retirement System for an undisclosed price is expected to close early next month, according to Lester. The Talon Centre sale, expected to close by the middle of this month, is being brokered by Peter Jankowski, vice president of brokerage services for Bingham Farms-based Core Partners LLC, and Luke Timmis, investment sales associate at Southfield-based Signature Associates Inc. There are no brokers on the Stroh River Place deal, Lester said.

The purchase prices have not been disclosed.


The Stroh River Place anchor is at 300 River Place, a 500,000-square-foot office building owned by the Stroh Cos. That also houses the Rattlesnake Club restaurant. The complex also includes a parking structure and the Roberts Riverwalk Hotel & Residence at 1000 River Place, the former Omni Hotel. Lester's purchase does not include these buildings.

The Stroh family bought the property in 1979. It contained more than a dozen late 19th and early 20th century buildings, which were later redeveloped into the Stroh River Place project just west of the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources.

Stroh River Place has 301 units: 87 one-bedroom units ranging from 730 to 1,022 square feet renting from $1,141 to $1,521 per month; 160 two-bedroom units ranging from 1,011 to 1,935 square feet renting from $1,462 to $2,239 per month; and 54 three-bedroom units ranging from 1,237 to 1,636 square feet renting from $1,527 to $1,902 per month, according to Princeton Enterprises.

....



....

Constructed in early 20th century buildings, the apartments were renovated in 1987, according to Princeton.

The Talon Centre building is owned by Talon Center Partners LLC, which is registered to Daniel Stern, owner of Bloomfield Hills-based Lormax-Stern Development Co.

The building was originally a Parke-Davis pharmaceutical plant and later became Stroh Brewery Co.'s headquarters. The building was renovated in the early 1990s for about $15 million.

....

Real estate brokers said the deal is a win for Princeton and shows how strong the area has become in recent years.

"It's a further endorsement of the benefits of the Riverwalk investment that the city and others were able to facilitate," said AJ Weiner, managing director in the Royal Oak office of Jones Lang LaSalle. "I think you now have an argument, with the Orleans Landing project and the DNR building, that it further feeds into what is going to be a really exciting riverfront in the years to come." The $65 million Orleans Landing mixed-use project, to the west of River Place, broke ground last fall. The nearby DNR Outdoor Adventure Center, a renovation of the former Globe Trading Co. building, opened last summer.


Steve Morris, principal of Farmington Hills-based Axis Advisors LLC, which represented the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation in the renewal of its first-floor lease at the Talon Centre, called the east riverfront office market one that has been "tertiary" for many years.

"But with office vacancy in (downtown) Detroit coming down to under 13 percent, nothing being built and expansion still continuing, certain large users are going to have to look east or at the New Center area," he said.

Ben Rosenzweig, vice president of brokerage at Birmingham-based Indigo Centers, said Princeton has been able to maintain its multifamily properties well and its work at the Grand Park Centre office building at 28 W. Adams, which it purchased three years ago, proves the company can attract downtown office tenants.

"The Talon Centre and Stroh's River Place apartments are a great addition to their portfolio of high-quality properties in a great Detroit location," Rosenzweig said.

Princeton Enterprises owns and manages the former Milner Hotel, which was redeveloped into The Ashley apartment building with 67 units in a $9 million project completed last year.

Closure of the two purchases would bring Princeton Enterprises, founded in 1995, to a greater downtown multifamily portfolio of 10 buildings with 1,138 units.

"This is two out of what we consider to be several in the works," Lester said. "There is more to come."


http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...it-development

[mousquet]

About the Book building, not that I'd like to ruin your enthusiasm here, I've been wishing this town the best ever since I found the forum myself, cause I think it's highly strategic; but wouldn't it take some serious scaffoldings and temporary elevators to actually refurbish it? It's too big and badly damaged for any light treatment. It will take the heavy artillery.

It's sure a sexy tower, though I like David Stott thing even better now. It'd be great to have that one fully occupied to start off.

[animatedmartian]

Demolition looming for downtown Detroit building in way of Gilbert apartments
By Ian Thibodeau. March 07, 2016.



Signs of a forthcoming demolition surround a burned-out former strip club in downtown Detroit's Captiol Park.

A small crew on Monday installed temporary barricades around the 1416 Griswold building and an adjacent lot where an excavator was parked.

In late February, a source told MLive the 19th-century vacant building, which sits on a parcel of land Dan Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services has agreed to purchase, will be demolished soon.

Activity around the outside of the building indicate the demolition could come this week.

...

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroi...r_downtow.html

[Docta_Love]

About the Book building, not that I'd like to ruin your enthusiasm here, I've been wishing this town the best ever since I found the forum myself, cause I think it's highly strategic; but wouldn't it take some serious scaffoldings and temporary elevators to actually refurbish it? It's too big and badly damaged for any light treatment. It will take the heavy artillery.

Don't get me wrong whatever is being done is minor, when the rooftop was recently illuminated the equipment had to be hauled up 38 floors manually i would assume that whatever work is taking place is more of a necessity than the official start of renovation work. The book needs major work there's no doubt about it but it was only vacated completely in 2009 and has had a similar experience to the Stott where it languished for a while with 20-30% occupancy or something like that then were left vacated when the economy tanked but neither were scrapped or left to rot. However Gilbert just spent $30 million to purchase the building i don't doubt he has every intention of bringing out the big guns, the estimated price of renovation is $100 million. Despite how it looks on the outside the building is actually in good shape inside for the most part mlive had taken some photos over the summer after the purchase went through.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in...kyscraper.html

[The North One]

You think it's in really bad shape? I mean the building looks incredibly dirty, but the intricate workings of the facade seem to be intact. It would definitely need a new copper roof like what the book Cadillac got.

This building was constructed using very old steal frame techniques, it should be very sound structurally unless there's some kind of basement or water damage.

[mousquet]

The structure itself is definitely safe and the building will refurbished, I would bet my home on that. But they'll have to remove tons of dirt falling apart from the interior. And the regular elevators in there surely need an upgrade.

At this stage, you don't even know what it will be turned into. Maybe residential, probably something mixed-use, but definitely not a traditional office thing anyway.

[Docta_Love]

It looks like its official that the Book's restoration is actually underway, Curbed Detroit was there and was able to show what was going on. Also Bedrock development's comment on crews removing the Book Building's caryatids.



Here's Dan's official comment on the work.

Crews removing the Book Building's caryatids as the #Detroit landmark is rehabbed. Hope @cavsdan puts 'em back! pic.twitter.com/eYkIL2nbSN

— HistoricDetroit.org (@HistoricDET) March 1, 2016
@HistoricDET we're beginning the restoration and repair process. Don't worry- everything will be restored to its original glory!

— Bedrock Real Estate (@BedrockRES) March 1, 2016








http://detroit.curbed.com/2016/3/10/...on-dan-gilbert

[animatedmartian]

What's interesting is that this is kind of large by Ferndale standards, at least along 9 Mile. There was/is a similar sized project proposed just on the east side of Woodward and 9 Mile that got met with some NIMBYism as well as a proposal to rebuild some of the downtown parking lots into parking garages. Ferndale's no doubt getting denser.

Conversion of Save-A-Lot store in downtown Ferndale into lofts to begin this summer

By KIRK PINHO. Crain's Detroit Business. March 11, 2016



A $15 million redevelopment of the vacated Save-A-Lot store in Ferndale is expected to bring 90 new apartments to the north side of Nine Mile Road downtown.

Gaal Karp, development consultant for the soon-to-be-formed development entity Arbor Lofts Development Group LLC, said construction on the building is expected to begin this summer pending approval of a brownfield tax credit.

The studio, one- and two-bedroom units are expected to range from 550 to 1,700 square feet with rents starting around $900 per month. First-floor parking and a small office component of about 1,400 square feet are also expected as part of the Ferndalehaus development.

Karp said the Ferndale development was triggered in part by the Arbor Lofts project that the investment group did in Southfield, which was a development of the former Civic Plaza office building on Civic Center Drive into more than 70 residential units.

“We did that one and based on that, our group of investors and people we know were looking at other locations and we always loved Ferndale,” said Karp, who located the Ferndalehaus development site, which includes the former store and its parking lot at 430 W. Nine Mile Rd. across the street from Western Market.

Rochester-based Designhaus PLLC is the architecture firm on the project, while Bret Russell of Rochester-based Russell Builders Inc. is the general contractor and a development partner, Karp said.

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-into-lofts-to