DETROIT | Development & Construction: Motown Lowdown

[skyfan]

Can't wait to see what this thing is going to look like...

Dan Gilbert's tower on Hudson's site to set 'high-water mark' for rent

Businessman Dan Gilbert's top aide predicted Thursday that a residential tower planned for the site of the old Hudson's store will set a new "high-water mark" for apartment rents in the city of Detroit.

Matt Cullen, president and CEO of Rock Ventures, Gilbert's umbrella entity for his wide-ranging families of companies, said the planned residential tower would represent just one component of a multi-purpose building on the site on Woodward Avenue just north of the One Campus Martius building, the former Compuware headquarters.

We’re doing a lot of work to understand it," Cullen said. "It’s a complicated site. And we’re trying to make sure we hit the market right relative to the different components of it. There are certain things that we know. It’s going to be mixed use. It going to have some significant retail. It’s going to have a significant civic component to it. And honestly that’s what we’re wrestling with a lot, trying to figure that out, make sure that we hit the mark with it."

Cullen said the "podium" portion of the building will probably measure four to six stories and a residential tower of unspecified height will rise above that. The rental rates for the apartments "will certainly set the high-water mark for rents in the city as well, just given the nature of it," Cullen said.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...tial/85304910/

[animatedmartian]

New wave of Detroit apartments opens to big demand
JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press. June 4, 2016.



Demand for market-rate housing in and around downtown Detroit has been outpacing supply for several years, encouraging developers to take a chance on the city's nascent revival and dive headlong into constructing new apartments.

Now a major wave of these residential projects — roughly 700 units from early in the year through this summer — are finally opening their doors. The outcome so far is surpassing many people's already high expectations: multiple new buildings are full or nearly 100% leased, even before tenants are allowed to move in.

The intense demand suggests that greater downtown Detroit's rental market could support additional waves of fresh building supply and remain hot. It is also giving landlords reason to continue raising rents, although the size of the year-to-year jumps could subside as more new apartments hit the market.

....

http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...mand/85296384/

In relation to all the new apartments, parking is also becoming a premium. $100 a month is the average for any new apartments with on-site or nearby parking.

[animatedmartian]

Cool little throwback to when the Penobscot building was announced on the Free Press. Interesting that the planned drawing seems a quite a bit different from what was actually built.



Historic Detroit

[The North One]

That's interesting to see the old design for the penobscot. I like what was actually built a lot better.

Another fun fact is that the "H" shaped setbacks of the Penobscot were the direct influence for the design of the Empire State Building, a lot of workers were involved with the erection of both structures.

It's also great and not so surprising to see the Forest Arms having such success. Residential demand for downtown is at an all time high, a skyscraper on Hudson's could be easily filled.

[99spartan]

So I know that we've been getting a lot of hints about the Hudson's site tower, but what do you guys all think the final design will be like? I'm hoping for something that is very significant looking, tall, and has a lot of national retailers.

[animatedmartian]

WCCCD to expand facilities at downtown, Downriver campuses
By Blake Froling, Crain's Detroit Business. June 8, 2016.





Wayne County Community College District plans to build new facilities at its Downriver and downtown campuses.

WCCCD said it will build a two-story, 80,000-square-foot health and wellness center affixed to the downtown campus to provide training for students pursuing careers in related fields. The center, at West Fort Street and Trumbull Avenue in Detroit, will cost $25 million as part of WCCCD's capital reinvestment plan. Construction is set to be completed by fall 2018.

"We're very excited to provide a state-of-the-art center to expand our students' learning, as well as the opportunity to improve overall health and wellness to community residents," WCCCD Chancellor Curtis L. Ivery said in a statement. "Our mission has always been to provide pathways to better lives through higher education. Healthy minds and bodies are an integral part to living a great life, and this center will provide numerous outlets to achieving that."

The center will provide certificate and associate degree programs for fields such as fitness training, sports management, sports medicine, kinesiology, physical therapy and sports conditioning. Students in WCCCD's Health Sciences department as well as members of the community will also be able to use the new facilities.

Hannah-Neumann/Smith in Detroit is the architect for the center. Construction is projected to begin spring 2017.

....

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...river-campuses

[skyfan]

Originally Posted by 99spartan

So I know that we've been getting a lot of hints about the Hudson's site tower, but what do you guys all think the final design will be like? I'm hoping for something that is very significant looking, tall, and has a lot of national retailers.

SHoP the architectural firm designing the building is known for doing bold and modern designs. It's safe to say it's not going to look anything like that's ever been built here. 20-40

http://www.shoparc.com/

[Docta_Love]

Work on the Cass Plaza Building is beginning to near completion, pic thanks to detroit yes.

[animatedmartian]

Gilbert's Brush Park plan offers bold new look in Detroit
John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press. June 12, 2016.

Not since the Lafayette Park project a half-century ago has Detroit seen a residential development as ambitious as Dan Gilbert’s Brush Park project that breaks ground in a few weeks.

For one thing, the project — about 100 for-sale units and about 300 rental apartments on 8.4 acres just north of downtown — will come in at the top end of the price range for any rental or for-sale projects in the greater downtown when it opens in a year or so.

But more significantly, Gilbert’s people are breaking new ground architecturally. Gone are the faux historical styles that marked so many of Detroit’s recent projects. Instead of duplicating the peaked roofs, gables, chimney stacks and bay windows that pass for authenticity, Gilbert’s team opted for a bold modernist look.

This will be unlike any recent residential project in Detroit. The clearest analogy may be Lafayette Park. Built in the 1950s and led by modernist master Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, it introduced sleek glass and steel buildings with flat roofs and great expanses of glass married to a thoughtful park-like plan. It created something new in Detroit and remains among the city’s most successful districts.


Gilbert’s team told me that the Brush Park project aims to do much the same — to usher Detroit into a new era of residential design that will set a standard for the quality of materials and urban planning. And it will do so by integrating the new modernist buildings with four of Brush Park's historic Victorian mansions that are being preserved and renovated.

“We didn’t play it safe,” said Steve Ogden, director of development for Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services. “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile.”

The project cost was initially estimated at $70 million but will go higher, Gilbert's team said, although the final cost is not yet estimated.

.....

Five Cool Facts in Brush Park Project

1. Multiple rooftop terraces create the urban equivalent of backyards and community gardens.

2. Projects allows residents to "age in place," moving from rental apartments to family-style condos to senior living

3. A park-like greenway traverses the project as a recreational amenity.

4. Modernist architecture creates bold new look for Detroit's revival.

5. Lots of retail and commercial space built into the ground floors of some buildings.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/rea...ggan/85640230/

[dc_denizen]

What a cool project!

[mousquet]

Looks like some contemporary Euro masterplan. No skyscraper, but some fair low or mid-rise fabric over, in a dense urban manner.

Glad they're not going post-modern pastiche style at all, unlike many things I see over my kind of conservative suburb. They're trying to mimic historic architecture and materials, but in the end it only looks awkward and cheesy like some wannabe affluent-looking stuff from the 19th century. That's no sophisticated taste.

Here, things appear contemporary and properly planned however. Besides, as any US state, Michigan is wealthy and most likely creative enough. They could probably cover the entire ruined neighborhoods with this kind of redevelopments, which would be some very solid foundation.

[The-New-Tony-Detroit]

I love the designs!

[The North One]

The new renders look great, I was actually worried about this project going dark but it seems to be in full force. I'm glad they went all out with the modern design because a faux traditional look would be horrendous, it's incredibly hard to replicate traditional elements and if architects get the slightest proportion wrong the entire building ends up looking like a cheap disneyland knock-off.

It seems like there is some mid-century influence (in a good way). It also looks like they took some design ideas from the high-line in New York. The only building I'm not really feeling is the red corner mid rise, maybe they could go with something else before construction is finished.

[Docta_Love]

I especially like the Lafayette Park analogy. But yea definitely a big step forward from what we've seen, its a very encouraging sign especially considering that it is seen as the eastern link on a greater Brush Park redevelopment that eventually connects in with Eastern Market.

[dc_denizen]

Now build 50 more of these!

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by The North One

It also looks like they took some design ideas from the high-line in New York.

I was thinking the same thing the moment I saw it. I hope it translates well to reality.

This also makes me extremely curious about what's in store for the former Hudson's block.

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

This woman should get off her phone and get a handle on her child as we learned from the Cincinnati Zoo that 4-year-old kids like to jump from high places.

[Teakwood]

Originally Posted by subterranean

This woman should get off her phone and get a handle on her child as we learned from the Cincinnati Zoo that 4-year-old kids like to jump from high places.

It would appear that the child is the next door neighbor. Either way, Detroit could probably save some money on their fireworks display, as only around 2 out of 20 people in that rendering are even facing them as they go off, including said child.

[subterranean]

Originally Posted by Teakwood

It would appear that the child is the next door neighbor. Either way, Detroit could probably save some money on their fireworks display, as only around 2 out of 20 people in that rendering are even facing them as they go off, including said child.

You know the Star-Spangled Banner, right? That cool part where it goes: "...and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air?", for which fireworks are supposed to represent? This is what they were talking about. This rendering was made on March 7th, just a random Monday. The gentrifiers are coming, the gentrifiers are coming!

[Docta_Love]

Good progress over at DuCharme place in Lafayette Park seems to be nearly completed, photo by of Lowell of Detroityes.