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Old Posted Nov 6, 2013, 11:17 AM
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Quote:
Downtown building sales spark Corktown buying spree
LOUIS AGUILAR THE DETROIT NEWS. NOVEMBER 6, 2013



Detroit— A land-buying spree is erupting around the popular Michigan Avenue strip in Corktown.

Call it “the Dan Gilbert” effect, or an unexpected product of Detroit seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy, but it’s the latest sign a rush is under way to buy in Detroit’s gentrifying swath, stretching from Corktown to Midtown to downtown, say commercial real estate brokers and building owners.

“Some people want to buy as a way to support the city, and others think they are getting bankruptcy prices,” said James Horn, a broker for Wilhelm & Associates, who was involved in one of the five pending Corktown sales made in the past month.

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Among the Corktown sales contracts is one signed last week for a structure most Michigan Avenue visitors will recognize: the triangular, graffiti-riddled “CPA building” across the street from Slows Bar BQ restaurant.

“We signed a contract, we are feeling pretty good, things continue to look up for this neighborhood, really looking up,” said Ray Kouza, owner of the six-story CPA building at the corner of Michigan and 14th Street. The building was for sale for 11 years, according to CoStar, a commercial real estate information service. The list price was $900,000.

Kouza and other sellers declined to name the buyer or the sales price. Most said it was simply too soon since the deals have to go through the usual due diligence of any sale, which often takes one to three months.

The only known price and buyer is the $116,000 paid for a weedy, empty lot at 2126 Trumbull, about a block north of Michigan Avenue. A man named Jim McClellan bought the lot during last month’s Wayne County tax foreclosure auction. The empty 6,700-square-foot lot had 102 bids, according to county officials.




Other pending sales include a former art gallery on the eastern edge of Corktown. It’s latest incarnation was the 5E Gallery. “We had so much interest from local and national buyers,” said Horn, the broker involved in the deal. “Everyone had big plans — restaurants, bars. Someone actually wanted to make it their personal loft.” The space is 4,600 square feet, according to CoStar. The list price was $149,000.

The highest listed price for any of the sold buildings was $3.7 million. That was for the Corktown Inn, a motel at 1331 Trumbull, about five blocks south of the former site of Tiger Stadium. The Corktown Inn had been for sale for 3-½years, according to CoStar.

“It’s the Dan Gilbert effect,” said Albert Ellis, senior associate for Colliers International, who was involved in the motel deal. “Investors feel pushed out of downtown because of Gilbert’s buying spree there.”

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http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...xt|FRONTPAGE|p
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