State Approves Massive Redevelopment Project Backed by “Magic” Johnson

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

The Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority voted unanimously in favor of a redevelopment plan that was proposed last year by a group of investors including basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Considered to be one of the most ambitious revitalization projects proposed for Detroit in recent years, the plan aims to transform the Michigan-owned State Fairgrounds site located at Woodward Avenue and 8 Mile Road into a mixed-use development that would feature an Amtrak station, multifamily townhomes, senior housing, retail and office space, as well as a high-end theater complex anchored by several restaurants. The 164-acre property has been vacant since 2009, when Michigan officials decided to cut the budget for the annual fair, despite the fact that the state had to cover annual losses of around $1 million.

The $160 million proposal submitted by Magic Plus LLC, the joint venture made up of local investors Joel Ferguson and Marvin Beatty and Lansing native Earvin “Magic” Johnson, was the only one to meet minimum financial requirements, according to MLive.com.

As previously  reported here, most of the existing buildings at the historic Michigan State Fairgrounds will be demolished to make room for the proposed revitalization process. The only structures that will remain are the Coliseum, Joe Dumar’s Fieldhouse, the State Fair Band shell and the Dodge pavilion.

Image of the Coliseum Building at the Michigan State Fairgrounds courtesy of Wikipedia user Andrew Jameson 

Microsoft Set to Open First Store in Michigan

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Software giant Microsoft Corporation confirmed this week that it will open five new retail stores in five different states by summer. According to the list of locations revealed on the company’s official blog, Michigan’s first Microsoft location  will open in Troy at the Somerset Collection shopping center, where its direct competitor, Apple Inc., has already opened a store on the first floor.

Property Mentor Group notes that the Seattle-based tech company has reached 64 locations since opening its first store in Scottsdale, AZ in October  2009. Seeing that Apple has 250 retail locations, Microsoft seems to have embraced a new strategy against its competitor by opening retail stores within walking distance of Apple’s existing stores.

The other locations include:

•          Natick Mall (Natick, Massachusetts),
•          Ala Moana Center (Honolulu, Hawaii),
•          Pioneer Place (Portland, Oregon),
•          Woodfield Mall (Schaumburg, Illinois)

In 2012 Microsoft opened its first international full-line stores in Edmonton, Burnaby, Vancouver and Toronto, Canada. As the year came to an end, the company announced six new store locations for 2013: The Shops at La Cantera (San Antonio, Texas), Dadeland Mall (Miami), Beachwood Place (Beachwood, Ohio), Westfield San Francisco Centre (San Francisco), City Creek Center (Salt Lake City), St. Louis Galleria (St. Louis).

Image via Microsoft Store’s Facebook Page

Whitney Building Redevelopment Plan Backed by $8.5 Million State Financing

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

The plan to transform Detroit’s historic David Whitney Building into retail, apartments and  a boutique hotel is moving forward with $8.5 million in state financing in addition to the $82.5 million investment secured by developer David Di Rita at the end of 2012.

Located at 1553 Woodward Avenue – now a hot spot in Detroit – the 19-story office building was designed in a Neo-Renaissance style and opened in 1915. After staying vacant for more than a decade, in March 2011 the property was acquired for $3.3 million by local real estate development company The Roxbury Group.

According to MLive.com, shortly after closing on the transaction the developer revealed plans to convert the landmark building into 108 rental apartments, 7,000 square feet of ground-level retail space and a 135-room Aloft Hotel, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

The newly approved financing is part of a larger set of incentives approved last week by the Michigan Strategic Fund. It consists of a $7.5 million performance loan and a $1 million Community Revitalization Program performance-based grant. The $8.5 grant comes after a $9.8 state brownfield redevelopment tax credit and another $12.4 million in state historic tax credit, as reported by The Detroit News.

The state incentives are earmarked for 14 companies that are expected to expand and generate more than $1.1 billion in investments and add nearly 5,000 jobs in Michigan.

Image credits to Wikipedia author Mike Russell

Quicken Loans Affiliate to Acquire Greektown Casino-Hotel

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

After having invested almost $1 billion in 15 prominent office buildings totaling almost 2.6 million square feet of space on downtown Woodward Avenue corridor in the last few years, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert is now placing his bets on the Greektown Casino-Hotel located within the area.

An official announcement was made last week by Rock Gaming LLC, Dan Gilbert’s gambling company. Rock Gaming’ affiliate Athens Acquisition LLC—an entity formed specifically to serve this deal—plans to acquire a majority interest in Greektown Superholdings Inc., the venue’s owner. If the deal is approved by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB), Athens Acquisition will gain the majority voting control of the casino, hotel and all related assets.

Crain’s Detroit Business’ coverage of the deal reveals that Athens Acquisition offered to pay a purchase price of $81 per share for the stock it has not acquired yet, as part of Dan Gilbert’s plan to revitalize downtown Detroit. While the terms of the deal are yet to be revealed, the casino could follow the same “buy & upgrade” pattern as the other Quicken Loan-owned properties (such as the M@dison Building, the Chase Tower, the First National Building or the Chrysler House, formerly known as the Dime Building). “Our plans are in the early phases; however, we envision significant investment in the Greektown Casino-Hotel, as well as the enhancement and growth of the existing entertainment district. We see this unique area extending to Campus Martius and along Woodward Avenue building on the positive momentum already occurring in the heart of downtown Detroit,” said Rock Gaming LLC chairman Dan Gilbert in a press statement.

Opened in November 2000 at 555 East Lafayette, Greektown Casino-Hotel is the smallest of Detroit’s three casino resorts, offering gamblers 2,700 slot and video poker machines, a live poker room featuring 12 smoke-free tables, as well as a 30-story, 400-room hotel designed by Rossetti Architects of Southfield, MI.

Image via Wikipedia author Greektown

‘Detroit Future City’ 50-Year Strategic Plan Unveiled

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

In an ambitious effort to bring back Detroit’s lost glory and after two years of community surveys that involved around 150,000 Detroiters, Mayor Dave Bing has released a comprehensive document that will serve as a strategic revitalization plan for the financially troubled city. The document dubbed Detroit Future City is structured as a five-year action plan that is expected to trigger economic growth, land use improvement and infrastructure revitalization in the entire city over the following 20 to 50 years.

According to the document–which can be found online and at the city’s public libraries–Detroit has at least 30,000 empty homes and 20 square miles of vacant land. As a consequence, Detroit Future City’s major focus point is finding ways to reuse the empty buildings to stimulate job growth in the neighborhoods, and transform the vacant parcels into open space or community gardens. Detroiters living in depopulated neighborhoods will be encouraged to relocate to more dense residential areas in the city.

Apart from targeting Detroit’s housing needs, the strategic framework also focuses on supporting business growth by providing more relaxed regulations for startup companies, stimulating entrepreneurship and developing shopping centers easily accessible by foot. Other focus areas include creating neighborhood-based schools to anchor communities and developing green infrastructure on parcels located between industrial areas and neighborhoods.

Although the document does not include any financial plans, Troy-based philanthropic private organization The Kresge Foundation will provide at least $150 million in initial funding for the first five years. Further grants are expected to be attracted by a steering committee comprised of 14 members from the business, non-profit, government and philanthropic sectors of Detroit.

Detroit skyline image courtesy of Wikipedia author Shawn Wilson

Chart via detroitworksproject.com

Developer Breathes New Life into Former Psychiatric Hospital in Northville

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Preliminary work is underway at Seven Mile and Haggerty roads, where the state-owned Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital operated until 2003. As reported by The Detroit News, the site is being cleared for construction, while developer REIS-Northville LLC—a joint venture between REI Investment Group of Bloomfield Hills and Livonia-based Schostak Brothers and Co.—is anticipating the green light for the project’s Phase I from Northville Township.

According to the The Detroit News, the former hospital site and its 400-acre campus were sold by the state several years after the facility was shut down. The property is currently split into two parcels with different owners. Reportedly, REIS-Northville owns an 82-acre parcel.

Northville Park Place will feature nearly 500,000 square feet of space, 100,000 of which will be occupied by a $39 million health center to be built by the University of Michigan Health. Designed by Ann Arbor-based Hobbs + Black Architects, the clinic will be open for patients starting 2015, as the University of Michigan is planning to relocate its existing health center in Livonia.

Set to officially start this spring, Phase I of the medical and commercial project will be completed by 2014. The 80,000 square feet of retail space will be leased by a number of restaurants and retailers, but no names have been revealed at this stage.

The second parcel measuring 350 acres belongs to Northville Township, according to Detroit Free Press. The property, which includes 15 vacant structures and two miles of underground tunnels, could be transformed into a recreational park with walking paths, trails, ponds and gardens, as well as a much anticipated $24.5 million community fitness center featuring a swimming pool and tennis court. Before the project can proceed, however, the township needs to secure up to $13 million so that the abandoned buildings can be demolished.

Rendering of Northville Park Place via schostak.com

Five Downtown Detroit Buildings Add to Dan Gilbert’s Real Estate Portfolio

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Two weeks after completing the purchase of One Woodward Building—a 26-story Class A office tower at the corner of Woodward and Jefferson avenues in downtown Detroit—Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures announced five additional acquisitions that were brokered by the company’s real estate arm, Bedrock Real Estate Services.

With these newly acquired assets, which are also located on Woodward Avenue, Rock Ventures’ real estate investments in downtown Detroit account for 15 buildings totaling 2.6 million square feet of commercial space, as well as three garages with 3,500 parking spaces, according to a press statement from the company.

“It has been an exciting year of opportunity in Detroit,” said Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans, who added that the focus in 2013 will fall on residential, rail and retail properties.

Dan Gilbert’s investment spree in Detroit properties began in August 2010, when Quicken Loans moved its headquarters in the city’s Financial District and relocated 1,700 employees. To date, Gilbert’s portfolio of companies has moved more than 7,000 people to work in downtown Detroit.

The new acquisitions are:

-          1201 Woodward (known as the Kresge Building), a nine-story,  54,000-square-foot structure built in 1891 to house the former Kresge store. The building will be renovated to offer first floor retail space and office or residential space on the upper floors.

-          1217 Woodward, a five-story, 30,000-square-foot building located immediately north of the Kresge Building. After renovation, it will provide retail space on the ground floor and office or residential space on the remaining floors.

-          1412 Woodward, a vacant three-story asset that Rock Ventures plans to renovate to accommodate first floor retail and office space above.

-          1301 Broadway (or the Cary Building Lofts – pictured at right), a 20,000-square-foot structure built in 1906 on the west corner of Gratiot Avenue and Broadway Street. After extensive renovations, the building will feature residential space on the top for flours and retail space on the ground floor.

-          1521 Broadway (or the Small Plates Building), a five-story structure totaling 9,300 square feet on the west side of Broadway Street between John R and Witherell Street. The building features the Small Plates restaurant on the first floor and four residential loft apartments above.

 Image courtesy of Quicken Loans, Inc.

400 Main LLC Unveils Plans for New Hotel, Office Buildings in Royal Oak

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

A group of real estate developers known as 400 Main LLC is seeking approval for a multi-building redevelopment project that would breathe new life into a vacant property in Royal Oak that used to house a Fresard car dealership.

If the project designed by local firm Krieger Klatt Architects gets the go-ahead from the City Planning Commission, the site located on Main Street—north of 11 Mile—would be replaced by a $30 million mixed-use development, The Daily Tribune reports.

After a failed attempt to lure Hotel Indigo to the area, 400 Main LLC and Hilton agreed to create a 114-room boutique hotel in the city. According to the source, the new Hilton Garden Inn hotel would include nearly 5,500 square feet of meeting/banquet space, a restaurant/steakhouse that hasn’t been named yet, a lounge and a fitness center for the guests.

The project will also include an eight-story residential building with a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and studios totaling 82 units. An adjacent five-story mixed-use building would feature a restaurant on the first floor and office space for the remaining levels. The development plans also call for a smaller building at the northwest corner of the site, which will offer retail space on the ground floor and office space on the upper two levels. Finally, the project includes a four-level parking garage with 431 parking spaces, according to Patch.com.

Rendering courtesy of Krieger Klatt Architects via Patch.com

Dan Gilbert’s Investment Spree Continues with One Woodward Building

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Another iconic downtown Detroit building changed hands this week. Much to no one’s surprise, local real estate tycoon Dan Gilbert and his partners completed the purchase of the historic One Woodward tower, located at the corner of Woodward and Jefferson avenues.

“We continue to bet big on Detroit, and this purchase reinforces our commitment to the exciting entrepreneurial action on Woodward Avenue,” said Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans.

Previously owned by Lehman Bros., the 26-story Class A office tower was built in 1962 for the Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. under design plans by famed architect Minoru Yamasaki, whose work also includes the former World Trade Center towers in New York City. Rock Ventures, the umbrella entity that coordinates Dan Gilbert’s portfolio of companies and investments, acquired the 333,000-square-foot building for an alleged $8.5 million, according to anonymous sources quoted by Crain’s Detroit Business.

The transaction was co-brokered by Friedman Integrated Real Estate Solutions and Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC, the real estate arm of Rock Ventures.

Currently the office tower is only 60 percent occupied. Major tenants include the law firms Fraser, Trebilcock, Davis & Dunlap and Kitch, Drutchas, Wagner, Valitutti & Sherbrook, as well as the Detroit Regional Chamber. One Woodward Building will hit 90 percent occupancy within a few weeks, when Quicken Loans and its affiliates lease eight floors in the building to accommodate around 600 new employees.

With this new acquisition, Rock Ventures now owns nearly 2.5 million square feet of commercial space in Detroit, as well as two parking garages with 3,500 parking spaces. One Woodward Building became the tenth major downtown purchase to be added to Dan Gilbert’s portfolio of commercial and residential space, which also includes the First National Building at 660 Woodward Ave., the former Madison Theater (now called The M@dison) at 1555 Broadway St., the Chase Tower at 611 Woodward Ave. and the Chrysler House (formerly known as the Dime Building) at 719 Griswold St.

Image credits to Wikipedia author V8americanpower

U-M to Add More Biotech Research Space at Ann Arbor Site

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

The University of Michigan (U-M) Board of Regents recently approved a $17.5 million expansion project that would add more research space to its North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) which is located at 2800 Plymouth Road in Ann Arbor.

U-M Board of Regents’ approval comes almost four years since the University paid $108 million for the former Pfizer pharmaceutical research complex, including its 27 buildings. In spring 2010 the first University employees were relocated at the complex and now there are nearly 1,700 people working in the NCRC laboratories and offices. Since June 2009 U-M has invested over $90 million in improvements at the 174-acre site, according to AnnArbor.com.

In early 2013 the University will embark on a two-year renovation/expansion project at the 68,000-square-foot Building 20E, which was built in 1956. Under designs by a team of architects of Detroit-based architecture firm SmithGroupJJR, the project would create around 40 construction jobs.

The expanded research space is meant to increase biomedical research collaboration between NCRC’s teams of scientists who do research in cancer, cardiovascular disease, bio-interfaces, health care services, transportation, bioinformatics and emergency medicine.

Image of North Campus Research Complex courtesy of University of Michigan