DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by subterranean

That area is pretty desolate. I don't know what the retail market is like, but in terms of creating a vibrant corridor, that area really could use some commercial with housing above to help it seem more lively.

But who wants to live with the noise and that much traffic day in and day out if a stadium site included housing?

No one. In fact mixed use "stadium districts" were in vogue 1995-2010. You can still build up around stadiums but it's heavily commercial only, at much more a piecemeal pattern.

Areas that have constant vibrancy and aren't fabricated retail districts will be the most marketable and attractive to homeowners.

I'm not saying building a residential tower near a stadium is doomed to failure, rather a master planned complex is.



...as far as traffic and noise, it has to be the right kind of traffic and noise. I've gotten used to the absolutely noisy hell outside my window of living above one of Chicago's busiest bar, club, and restaurants areas. but I could never live near stadium. It's a different kind of noise... one that absolutely gets on your nerves.

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by Hayward

No one. In fact mixed use "stadium districts" were in vogue 1995-2010. You can still build up around stadiums but it's heavily commercial only, at much more a piecemeal pattern.

Areas that have constant vibrancy and aren't fabricated retail districts will be the most marketable and attractive to homeowners.

I'm not saying building a residential tower near a stadium is doomed to failure, rather a master planned complex is.



...as far as traffic and noise, it has to be the right kind of traffic and noise. I've gotten used to the absolutely noisy hell outside my window of living above one of Chicago's busiest bar, club, and restaurants areas. but I could never live near stadium. It's a different kind of noise... one that absolutely gets on your nerves.

Exactly my point! I would never choose to live right near a stadium. The crowds cheering, announcers, fireworks, performances...just not my idea of a peaceful and happy existence. I guess when I read Lmich's point about mixed use on-site, my initial reaction was housing/commercial, not really considering commercial being a mix of uses...but I guess that would be considered "mixed-use". A closed-in stadium may not be as bad...but open baseball fields and football stadiums are the absolute worst.

[LMich]

Not quite sure what to make of this. Is this just Quicken expediating it's existing move, or did they decide to move employees that hadn't originally expected to move? Either way, more momentum:

Dan Gilbert quickens Detroit revival: 2,000 more Quicken jobs moving downtown soon

By John Gallagher | Detroit Free Press

September 20, 2011

In about two weeks, Quicken Loans will start moving another 2,000 employees to Detroit from the suburbs, nudging downtown closer to what Quicken founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert calls the tipping point for revitalization.

Gilbert told the Free Press editorial board Monday that most of those workers will move into the Chase Tower, a longtime bank headquarters on Woodward on Campus Martius Park that he bought this year.

Others will move into the First National Building, a 1922 skyscraper across Woodward from the Chase Tower that Gilbert also acquired this year.

The moves will bring Quicken's downtown work force to nearly 4,000. Combined with 3,000 new Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan workers moving downtown, as well as more from DTE Energy and other employers, the moves promise to shake up and enliven the long-depressed downtown scene.

...

[LMich]

Not quite sure what to make of this. Is this just Quicken expediating it's existing move, or did they decide to move employees that hadn't originally expected to move? Either way, more momentum:

Dan Gilbert quickens Detroit revival: 2,000 more Quicken jobs moving downtown soon

By John Gallagher | Detroit Free Press

September 20, 2011

In about two weeks, Quicken Loans will start moving another 2,000 employees to Detroit from the suburbs, nudging downtown closer to what Quicken founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert calls the tipping point for revitalization.

Gilbert told the Free Press editorial board Monday that most of those workers will move into the Chase Tower, a longtime bank headquarters on Woodward on Campus Martius Park that he bought this year.

Others will move into the First National Building, a 1922 skyscraper across Woodward from the Chase Tower that Gilbert also acquired this year.

The moves will bring Quicken's downtown work force to nearly 4,000. Combined with 3,000 new Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan workers moving downtown, as well as more from DTE Energy and other employers, the moves promise to shake up and enliven the long-depressed downtown scene.

...

Even with several buildings already in his portfolio, Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert said Monday that he's not done shopping for downtown real estate.

...

Nor is Gilbert satisfied with the state of the four buildings that he has bought downtown. He and his top aides want all four -- the Chase Tower and the First National, Dime and Madison Theatre buildings -- to get dramatic makeovers, with new first-floor retail and modern signage.

...

[DTW]

Originally Posted by LMich

Not quite sure what to make of this. Is this just Quicken expediating it's existing move, or did they decide to move employees that hadn't originally expected to move? Either way, more momentum:

Their plan was always to bring all their employees downtown.

[animatedmartian]

More Dan Gilbert news.

http://www.freep.com/article/2011092...ntown-Detroit-

BY JOHN GALLAGHER

DETROIT FREE PRESS

Sep. 21, 2011

Dan Gilbert to purchase two more buildings in downtown Detroit

Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert has agreed to buy two more downtown buildings on Woodward Avenue, adding to his portfolio of real estate as he tries to shape a new entrepreneurial zone in the heart of the city.

Gilbert and his partners will acquire two city-owned structures at 1520 and 1528 Woodward, just south of Grand Circus Park. The city took control of the buildings during the run-up to Super Bowl XL in 2006 and has been marketing them without success ever since.

Documents from the Detroit Downtown Development Authority reveal that Quicken will pay $337,500 each for the buildings. A closing on the deal is expected no later than Dec. 20.

Meeting with Free Press reporters and editors this week, Gilbert said he is acquiring so much real estate so that he can offer creative space to digital start-up firms as a way of nurturing an entrepreneurial hub downtown.

Gilbert and his partners have already closed on four other buildings downtown – the Chase Tower and the First National, Dime, and Madison Theatre buildings, plus a major parking garage.

DDA documents indicate that Quicken hopes to redevelop the two newest buildings on Woodward as creative office environments similar to what Gilbert is doing with the Madison Theatre building, which is expected to open in a few weeks as a site for new entrepreneurial firms..

This guy is going to shape Downtown Detroit and I hope he's hugely successful in doing it.

[LMich]

Originally Posted by DTW

Their plan was always to bring all their employees downtown.

Yeah, which makes the recent announcement even more weird because Gilbert is making it sounds like this is some addition or new move when it's simply speeding up the existing move.

Originally, they were going to move all at once, and then when the recession hit, they decided to move in chunks. Now, it sounds like he's simply moving up the date to move them all downtown. Whatever the case, there will be 3,700 Quicken employees packed into different locations in the financial district, with a few hundred more downtown workers they'll be hiring over the coming months, and that's just the actual Quicken employees, not accounting for the other small business and companies Gilbert either partially owns or has invested in.

BTW, the two new buildings he's buying are the old, 6-story, Art Deco Layne Bryant Building (1528 Woodward), and 1528 Woodward is the really detailed 6-story building right at the corner there at John R. a building south. Apparently, they are both between 40,000-50,000 square feet. It seems that neither the city nor Quicken is playing around when it comes to reusing these buildings. Here is what Crain's had to say about the two projects:

The building sales are subject to certain conditions as part of the DDA deal.

If the project is not completed in 18 months, a fine of $550 per day will be assessed, up to $675,000 per building.

...

It joins Gilbert's other recent acquisitions, which have made him the second-largest private owner of office space in Detroit's central business district behind General Motors Co.

...

[fishrose]

Originally Posted by LMich

Yeah, which makes the recent announcement even more weird because Gilbert is making it sounds like this is some addition or new move when it's simply speeding up the existing move.

Originally, they were going to move all at once, and then when the recession hit, they decided to move in chunks. Now, it sounds like he's simply moving up the date to move them all downtown. Whatever the case, there will be 3,700 Quicken employees packed into different locations in the financial district, with a few hundred more downtown workers they'll be hiring over the coming months, and that's just the actual Quicken employees, not accounting for the other small business and companies Gilbert either partially owns or has invested in.

It's not like Gilbert called a press conference and announced this on live TV. The Freep just ran an article on the move and met with Gilbert to talk about it. I don't think there's anything weird about it.

Originally Posted by LMich

BTW, the two new buildings he's buying are the old, 6-story, Art Deco Layne Bryant Building (1528 Woodward), and 1528 Woodward is the really detailed 6-story building right at the corner there at John R. a building south. Apparently, they are both between 40,000-50,000 square feet. It seems that neither the city nor Quicken is playing around when it comes to reusing these buildings. Here is what Crain's had to say about the two projects:

1528 is the modernist building one door north of the Lane Bryant Building. The address of the building on the corner of John R is 1500 Woodward.

[animatedmartian]

http://www.freep.com/article/2011092...uminate-RenCen

GM's bright idea to illuminate RenCen

JOHN GALLAGHER | Detroit Free Press

Sep. 24, 2011

When General Motors first installed bands of colorful LED lighting around the tops of its Renaissance Center towers this year, some people liked it and some thought it looked a little too Las Vegas-y.

Whatever your opinion, get ready for more.

General Motors is working with the City of Detroit to allow it to put more such LED bands of lighting on its RenCen world headquarters. The company would like to install vertical bands of lighting on the exterior elevator towers of the RenCen. And it wants the city's permission to relax its signage code so that GM could display a more varied menu of messages on the 25-foot sign high atop the RenCen's central tower.

Mike Taylor, the construction manager for Hines, the real estate firm that manages the RenCen for GM, said the lighting is meant to add "a little bit more life" to the RenCen's monotone façade, but keep it "very subtle, very professional." GM emphasizes that it doesn't want it headquarters to look like a casino, he said, adding, "I've heard more positive stuff than negative."

At the very least, the RenCen lighting has got people talking yet again about Detroit's most famous building, often the subject of controversy over its 34-year history.

Detroit has enjoyed a mostly successful history of lighting its major skyscrapers. The Penobscot, the Fisher Building, and others have been lit with greater or lesser artistry for many years. Postcard images of downtown from the 1920s show a city vibrant with lighting.

What seems different about the recently installed LED lighting atop the Renaissance Center is its intensity. LED (light-emitting diode) lighting can be visible for miles; when used as on the RenCen, it also tends to have a somewhat more artificial look than more traditional lighting techniques used on other buildings.

So plans by GM to add even more of the LED lighting may spark debate over the design and imagery of Detroit's tallest and most famous building. Not far behind, Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert is hoping to use modern lighting and signage to renew his collection of older buildings that he recently purchased downtown.

There is also GM's logo atop the highest central tower in 25-by-25-foot LED signs, electronic billboards that occasionally shows something like the Tigers logo, too. GM hopes to get the city's OK to show a broader range of messages on this highest sign, including more public service messages, such as ones promoting breast cancer awareness. Currently, the city code restricts signage mostly to messages related to the business in the building.

Ron Harwood, a lighting designer and founder of Farmington Hills-based Illuminating Concepts, said the RenCen lights stand out in part because nothing else around the RenCen is illuminated in a similar way. Harwood dismisses critics of such lighting. He points out that most cities we consider lively all use lots of lighting in creative ways, from New York's Times Square to Tokyo.

"Darkness is the opposite of entertainment," he said. "Good times, entertainment and security all depend on illumination."

If nothing else, the new LED lighting reminds us that the Renaissance Center remains a work in progress nearly 40 years after it opened.

Personal pictures of what they look like now.

[GRsupercity]

That looks interesting. How long has the rencen said gmc?

[TheTusch]

The logo at the top is actually a digital LCD. As you can see in the top photo that is shows the Buick logo. It was put up there some time in 2011.

[animatedmartian]

Yea here's it showing the Cadillac logo.



When Obama was in town I think I saw it show his campaign logo or something related. They could probably show a whole movie on it if they got the rights to.

[jodelli]

Quick night shot:

[bigboy]

Illitch, maroon, Ford or one of the other billionaires should build a casino somewhere in the middle of downtown. That way thousands of people would come there by default and spark more business down there. I really cant see a downside to it. Also put the people mover underground where it belongs its a eyesore

[bigboy]

Maybe not maroon since he doesn't give a dam about Detroit but the others are fine.

[animatedmartian]

Originally Posted by bigboy

Illitch, maroon, Ford or one of the other billionaires should build a casino somewhere in the middle of downtown. That way thousands of people would come there by default and spark more business down there. I really cant see a downside to it. Also put the people mover underground where it belongs its a eyesore

There's already 3.

http://www.michigan.org/interactive-...e=0&city=G2974

I personally think the stadiums bring in more. I would be all in favor of moving the Palace of Auburn Hills downtown and keeping Joe Louis Arena close to more bars and restaurants. Have like a "Sports Town" district.

[animatedmartian]

A Detroit developer's return to the city
Daniel Duggan | October 06, 2011 | crainsdetroit.com


It's been a lot of years since Jonathan Holtzman has been fully engaged in Detroit.

Once known as one of the city's top residential developers, Holtzman moved on to the suburbs and then the rest of the United States with his Village Green company during the times when most of the region's developers did the same thing.

Before his business break-up with Gilbert "Buzz" Silverman, the then-named Holtzman and Silverman company developed a slew of single family and apartment buildings. The Riverfront Apartments, Elmwood Park Plaza, Virginia Park subdivision and the redevelopment of the historic Fyfe Building apartments are on the list. Now, as Village Green, the Farmington Hills company owns and operates 40,000 units around the country.

He had a lot to say about his future role in residential development in Detroit yesterday, when I had a chance to corner the third-generation developer at the grand re-opening for Detroit City Apartments, the 29-story apartment complex at 1431 Washington Blvd., just north of the Westin Book-Cadillac.

"And now I see it as a time for companies like Village Green to jump back in," he told me. "And the inspiring part is that it's a business reason. An economic reason. It's time to invest in Detroit as a business decision."

In Detroit City Apartments, he sees a first phase to a much larger jump into the market.

And that's been quite an undertaking.

Known in the past as Trolley Plaza over the years, and recently as Washington Square Apartments, the 351-unit building has carried the image of a tired downtown apartment building in recent history. It was cool in 1981, when it was built, and has slipped.

Village Green had been managing the property, and Holtzman said that Chicago investment company Avergis and Associates Inc. approached him with the idea of being an investor in the building.

"I said I'd do it, but only if there are some changes made first," he said.

He bought in and made some changes.

In the last year, Holtzman formed a joint-venture with Avergis, with the venture now owning the building. Holtzman was short on details about the ownership structure and the price.

In the last year, he's added an amazing rooftop deck on the 4th floor and renovated the penthouse units which boast an amazing view of both Comerica Park and the Detroit River. He added a "Sky Bar," a lounge area for residents on the 29th floor with pool tables, flat screen TVs and a fireplace.

The next phase is a complete overhaul to the exterior, he said, to get rid of the tired look to the building.

The building is essentially full, he said, and while that's good for him, he said it's a problem for Detroit. One that he wants to help fix.

"I have a lot of ideas to propose, a lot of ideas that I will be proposing to everyone in the very near future," he said. "We need housing. We need it in phases, in different prices and forms, but we need to get it out there at affordable levels."

Holtzman calls for 1,000 units a year, for the foreseeable future to address the needs for the city.

That would be about 1,000 units more than we've had for the last few years. And most of the product in Detroit has been renovation; the Studio One building on Woodward near Midtown, in fact, was the first new construction apartment complex built in almost a generation.

Holtzman has been a major developer in the past. And when he starts pointing at Detroit buildings near his Detroit City Apartments as "good ideas" for new residential and mentioning things like the Capitol Park redevelopment, it's a sign that things will likely happen.

This is Trolley Plaza. Grey tower under Book Tower. I've always thought of it as a very ugly tower. Even for one that's not empty and dirty.


A Cold Day in Detroit by Eridony


Gloomy Cityscape by Eridony


Detroit Cityscape by Eridony

[DTW]

I wonder how they plan to change the exterior.

[north 42]

I love the idea of lighting up more buildings in downtown detroit, I live across the river in Windsor and have the RenCen in view from my condo terrace, and the new lights look amazing! The brighter Detroit looks, the more people will want to live and work there.

[DetroitSky]

A few new things happening downtown I've noticed:

-Slices, a pizza restaurant, recently opened in the 1001 Woodward garage
-Jazz Convenience Store opened over the summer in Lower Woodward
-Hudson Cafe will be opening soon where the Detroit Breakfast House (I believe that's what it was called) was
-Buhl Bar will open soon in the Buhl Building and is being developed by the Roxbury Group who's also opening The Auburn
-a new art gallery is open at 1260 Library