Al Jazeera to Open Detroit News Bureau, Expand US Presence

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Al Jazeera, the Arab media channel headquartered in Qatar, will open a Detroit bureau as part of the organization’s plan to consolidate its operations in the U.S. and provide both international and domestic news for American audiences. The network, which is funded by the royal family of Qatar, has more than 70 locations across the globe, including five U.S. news bureaus in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.

Back in January, the Middle East news network announced the acquisition of cable channel Current TV—set up in 2002 by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt—to create the American-based Al Jazeera America and reach more than 40 million American households. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but a USA Today report at the time estimated that the price was somewhere around half a billion dollars. Al Jazeera America will launch by fall 2014 using Current TV’s distribution network.

While the exact location of the recently announced Detroit news bureau has yet to be determined, the TV network plans to hire a journalism student from the Detroit area for an internship at its New York City headquarters in the United Nations Building.

“We want our reporters to be where the stories are, and Detroit continues to be where American business stories and trends are happening,” Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of international operations for Al Jazeera, said in a news release. “Al Jazeera America knows that you have to have on-the-ground reporting from the Motor City to really cover America’s economic, financial and socially important news, and we’re excited about being here.”

When it launches, Al Jazeera America will broadcast from twelve news bureaus across the country—in Washington, D.C., New York City, Miami, Chicago, New Orleans, Nashville, Detroit, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Detroit skyline image courtesy to author Bernt Rostad on Flickr

New Student Residence, Fellowships Funded by Historic $110 Million Gift from U-M Alumnus

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

The University of Michigan (U-M) has received a $110 million donation from Charles T. Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and philanthropist. This is the largest gift awarded to the university in its almost 200-year history and, as the school revealed in a statement last week, it will be mostly used to build a graduate students residence at its Ann Arbor Central Campus, on a site currently housing a parking garage between South Division and Thompson streets. A considerably smaller part of $10 million will go to fellowships that will be offered to students enrolled at U-M’s 19 schools and colleges.

The proposed student residence has already been approved by the university Board of Regents and will be named in honor of Charles T. Munger, a billionaire who studied mathematics at the university in the 1940s. It is estimated that the new eight-story development will cost around $185 million but the U-M will cover the rest from lease revenue.

Co-designed by Munger himself as a LEED Silver-certifiable revolutionary residential-academic concept, the 370,000-square-foot building is set to open in fall 2015. It will house more than 600 students, including the recipients of the fellowships funded by this record donation.

Most apartments will include seven individual sleeping /studying rooms with private baths, shared kitchens and furnished dining and living areas, while some units will have three or six bedrooms.

“We anticipate this new building will have many options for students for meetings, gathering spaces, project spaces and living accommodations that combine the best private and common space,” said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman.

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Image credits to Wikipedia author Nick

Multifamily, Retail Projects Picking Up in Ann Arbor

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

First Martin Corporation, a real estate company that specializes in office, research, flex and retail space in Ann Arbor, is in the very preliminary stages of redeveloping a long-vacant property on the city’s north side into a 251-unit residential complex, AnnArbor.com reports. The company has owned the property at 2225 Traverwood Drive and an adjacent office building since the 1990s.

The detailed development plans and a zoning change from office/research to multifamily will be discussed during a community meeting on April 18 at the Traverwood library branch.

According to the source, First Martin will develop 11 two-story buildings with 13 units each, and three four-story buildings with 36 units each. The project will also include 502 parking spaces—two for each apartment unit—and, if approved by the city, it will be the first apartment complex developed by Fist Martin in almost 30 years.

Ann Arbor residents are seeing a lot of buzz on the 7.45-acre site at 3000 Washtenaw Avenue between Huron Parkway and Platt Road, where the city’s largest shopping center in ten years is under construction. As reported by the same source, the Arbor Hills Crossing broke ground in June 2012 as a joint venture between Chicago-based North Shore Properties Group and Campus Realty of Ann Arbor. The development includes 80,000-square-feet of retail space and 10,000-square-feet of second story, Class A flex space, all of which is contained in four one- to two-level buildings.

With a grand opening date set for August 22, Arbor Hills Crossing is almost fully leased to 15 tenants such as locally based Running Fit and Café Zola and national chains like Anthropologie and Sur La Table, AnnArbor.com reports.

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Rendering of Arbor Hills Crossing via Development Management Associates, LLC.

Work on $30M Class A Office Building in Midtown to Begin in August

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

In an effort to add more high-end office space to Detroit’s brisk Financial District, locally based Queen Lillian Development LLC will kick-start in August a new Class A commercial facility that’s being marketed as the Midtown Professional Building.

Located at 3439 Woodward Avenue, the five-story building will be Queen Lillian Development’s second project in the city. As reported by Crain’s Detroit Business, the company recently finished constructing the $18.4 million Medical Office Building at Tolan Park, a LEED certified, 64,000-square-foot facility designed by Hamilton Anderson Architects where doctors and researchers from the Wayne State University are expected to start moving in.

According to MLive.com, the $30 million Midtown Professional Building is financed by Talmer Bank and Trust of Troy, MI, and by Chicago-based Mesirow Financial, as well as by a mix of tax exemptions from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. The 75,000-square-foot building designed by the same architecture firm will sit on a 1.67-acre parcel purchased by the developer from the City of Detroit following a Request for Proposal (RFP) that required a minimum bid of $1.3 million.

Queen Lillian Developments is expected to complete the Midtown Professional Building in fall 2014, when the site is expected to be 60 to 70 percent occupied by businesses that are currently based outside the Financial District or in the suburbs. According to the building’s official website, the 10,000 square feet of retail space is available for lease at $30 per square foot, while the lease rate for the remaining 65,000 square feet of office space was set for $24 per square foot.

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Rendering of the Midtown Professional Building via http://midtownbldg.com/

Faurecia Plans New HQ in Auburn Hills; Dan Gilbert Snags Another Downtown Building

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Faurecia North America, Inc., the fifth largest automotive parts manufacturer in the world, has announced plans to expand its presence in the Detroit area by opening a new headquarters facility and technical center in Auburn Hills, MI.

Currently headquartered in Troy, MI, the company is controlled by the Nanterre, France-based Faurecia Group and is also the main shareholder in the many companies related to the Peugeot Group.

According to Crain’s Detroit Business, Faurecia is planning to move around 700 people, including current employees and some new hires, to the new Auburn Hills headquarters which is estimated to open in the first quarter of 2014. Faurecia’s other operating facilities in the Detroit area include a research and development center in Auburn Hills and another one in Troy, as well as two production plants in Sterling Heights.

The 300,000-square-foot facility will be built and operated by General Development Co. at I-75 and University Drive, on a 211-acre parcel that was acquired by the developer from Chrysler Group LLC in 2010. According to Crain’s, construction at the site will begin by mid-spring 2013.

While Faurecia’s expansion plans in Auburn Hills show once more that the Detroit area commercial real estate is striving to regain its lost glory, this week’s highlight news comes—again!—from local investor Dan Gilbert. As reported by The Detroit News, the historic Vinton Building located at 600 Woodward Avenue was purchased for an undisclosed amount by 600 Webward LLC, an affiliate of Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services. The transaction comes only one week after the real estate mogul closed on  a Class A office tower at  1001 Woodward Avenue.

Opened in 1916 as the headquarters for the Vinton Construction Company, the 12-story Vinton Building was designed by Albert Kahn in the neo-classical architectural style. In 1982 the building was designated a Michigan State Historic Site and one year later it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With this acquisition Gilbert and his affiliates currently own 17 prominent buildings totaling nearly 2.9 million square feet of commercial and residential space in downtown Detroit.

Image credits to Wikipedia author Andrew Jameson