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Posted Feb 23, 2014, 6:17 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2010
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Eastern Market going through its metamorphosis.
Quote:
Eastern Market turns to tax law to make upgrades
By Nathan Skid. February 23, 2014.
Dequindere Cut
Crumbling bridges, parking lots riddled with potholes and vacant buildings — all standing within throwing distance of a thriving commercial district.
Dan Carmody and his team at Eastern Market Corp. want to change all that by creating a cluster of development and capital improvements in the market through the use of a tax increment financing structure that is similar to the TIF districts that fund downtown development authorities.
The market plans to create the state's first Targeted Redevelopment Area, which operates under state brownfield law.
The creation of the TRA is just one part of Eastern Market's strategy to push development in the outer edges of the market and make the area more welcoming to pedestrians and new businesses.
Among the market's first orders of business: more fully inform property owners and merchants about the TRA and its role in the market's long-term vision.
Some business owners don't fully understand the plans and are worried about extra costs or business disruption during construction. Others are worried about maintaining the integrity of a working neighborhood where meat-packing plants, specialty stores and restaurants coexist.
Pushing new development to the outlying areas will allow the core of the market to keep its authenticity as a functioning food hub, said Carmody, Eastern Market president.
"The west side, and heart of the market, will stay focused on businesses that are dirty and loud and make food, which might not make for a great place to live," he said. "Our focus is to ramp up development along Gratiot Avenue and the Dequindre Cut corridor to build more diverse uses around general retail, housing and the creative class."
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The plans aren't a done deal.
Eastern Market Corp. is in the midst of finalizing its proposal before sending it to the city's brownfield board for review. It will still need to be submitted to the City Council and then get signoff from the state.
Carmody said Eastern Market Corp. has identified eight vacant properties for development, seven of which are located along the second phase of expansion along the Dequindre Cut.
"We need to have our first major project ready to go because we don't want to start the clock on the TRA too early," he said. "When we get our first major project shovel-ready, we will start the TRA."
Jay Bonahoom, co-owner of Wolverine Packing Co., which takes up about 200,000 square feet of space over five buildings on the east side of the market, said he is happy with the direction of Eastern Market, and the plans for the TRA.
"There is nothing worse than stagnation and the crime that happens when there is no development," he said. "We like to see our real estate in a thriving market."
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Redevelopment area.
Meanwhile, out in Southfield...
Quote:
Southfield's Towne Square complex may get 3rd tower
By Kirk Pinho. February 23, 2014.
Now might be the time for the 670,000-square-foot Towne Square office complex in Southfield to get its third building, which would make it one of the largest office complexes in metro Detroit.
Southfield-based Redico LLC -- which manages and owns Towne Square, northeast of Northwestern Highway between Civic Center Drive and Lahser Road -- is considering a 300,000- to 350,000-square-foot build-to-suit tower now that the two existing buildings in the complex have occupancy rates in the mid- to upper 90 percents, said Dale Watchowski, CEO, COO and president of Redico.
"The leasing pace has picked up, and it's largely a reflection of an improving economy. Much of our leasing (at Towne Square) was done recently," he said.
Redico has started marketing space at a third Class A Towne Square tower, which would need a lead tenant lined up before Redico decided to move forward with the building, Watchowski said.
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Towne Square is also performing better than much of the 6.1 million-square-foot Southfield Class A office market. The vacancy rate in the fourth quarter last year was 25.5 percent, according to data from the Southfield office of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. The average asking rent was $20.13 per square foot, according to NGKF.
The first tower, built in 1992, is 470,000 square feet. Its largest tenants are Southfield-based Signature Associates LLC (32,000 square feet), which handles leasing for the buildings; Southfield-based consulting firm Gabriel Roeder Smith & Co. (25,000 square feet); and the Sommers Schwartz PC law firm (25,000 square feet), according to research firm CoStar Group Inc.
The second tower, built in 2002, is 200,000 square feet. Its largest tenants are FirstMerit Bank (38,000 square feet); Southfield-based Telemus Capital Partners LLC (27,500 square feet); and the land development, surveying and engineering firm Atwell LLC (22,000 square feet), according to CoStar.
Terry Croad, director of the Southfield Planning Department, said site plans have not been submitted. Redico would need Planning Commission and City Council approval before it could apply for construction permits, Croad said.
"We could be under construction relatively quick, given that the site was originally planned for this use," Watchowski said. "The construction period would be typically 12 to 18 months."
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Last edited by animatedmartian; Feb 23, 2014 at 6:35 PM.
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