[animatedmartian]

Dan Gilbert's tower on Hudson's site to set 'high-water mark' for rent
John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press. June 2, 2016

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.

Speaking with the Free Press at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference, Cullen said the organization is still working out its plans against a year-end deadline to have the deal finalized for the city-owned site.

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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.

Apartment rental rates in the greater downtown have risen rapidly in the past few years from about $1.25 per square foot to about $2 per foot now. Cullen acknowledged that an upscale tower on the iconic Hudson's site would be priced above that level.

But Cullen emphasized that Gilbert's organization needs city approval for transfer of the site and its plan to meet a required affordable rent component in all city-supported projects.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan declared that new development receiving city assistance would reserve at least 20% of its units as "affordable," or generally residents making no more than 80% of regional median income levels. Since Gilbert would be getting a city-owned site for the project, the Duggan goal would certainly apply to it.

Cullen said the New York-based architecture firm SHoP and the Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates continue to work on what appears to be an architecturally innovative design for the site.

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