[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by LMich

John Gallagher has an article in the Freep, this morning, giving a bit more detail into Gilbert's intentions, and they are major. There is no height limit, and they say this could be something that rivals the RenCen in height, or something more low-slung. And, while Gilbert doesn't want to copy the old Hudson's store - and quite frankly, god love it, it was no architectural masterpiece - he does want to recreate the feeling of the street wall the store did.

So, apparently, that answers the mystery of how much this site can physically support. They are treating this as a total blank canvas. And, knowing Gilbert, he wants something epic. Now, we'll have to wait and see how the economy is when this goes up and how many other folks buy into it.

I always wondered if Gilbert's original plan was to just rebuild the underground parking garage and get rid of the height limitation. Nowadays, it seems like he has plenty of resources to build something bigger and I don't think 16-floors was going to be enough. Especially given with all the momentum for more residential space and possibly office space if the vacancy rates fall fast enough. Things are shaping up for an interesting later half of the decade for Downtown Detroit.