DDI, chinese firm that bought david stott/free press.. not maintaining buildings
UPDATE: Stott Building Flooded and Frozen. Jump to Latest Discussion >>
List of Stott Threads here.
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"Six months ago, a group of Chinese investors purchased the David Stott Building and the former Detroit Free Press building.
Now, the broker who sold the buildings at auction to Shanghai-based DDI Group and one of the main tenants in the Stott building are concerned that the investors won’t spend what's needed to maintain and lease them out, let alone renovate them.
DDI Group purchased the 210,000-square-foot David Stott Building on Griswold Street for $9.4 million and the 302,000-square-foot Free Press building on West Lafayette for $4.2 million in September.
Ryan Snoek, a real estate consultant who coordinated the sale on behalf of the seller, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Luke Investments LLC, said malfunctioning elevators recently hampered a busy Saturday night in February at the Skybar, which takes up a part of the first floor and the entire 33rd floor of the Stott building.
Guests were either forced to wait extended periods of time on the ground floor when only one of the two elevators was working, or trek down dozens of flights of stairs to get to the first floor when both elevators were out of order.
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Snoek also said there have been basic maintenance issues such as a lack of snow removal at the former Free Press building.
Staff in the Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering & Environmental Department and the Department of Public Works said Tuesday afternoon that no complaints have been filed concerning the former Free Press building.
The Stott building is 15 percent leased. The former Free Press building is vacant.
Full Article at Crains
god dammit... here we go again.. i don't understand why they would sink all that money and just... blah.. this shit is really annoying
David Stott being neglected. Flooding and frozen pipes. this is infuriating
This is absolutely horrible. This is a key skyscraper in the Capitol Park district, and is absolutely gorgeous. When DDI bought it so many people [[myself included) were praising a Chinese investment group for diversifying the ownership of buildings downtown. If you recall, Gilbert was beat out by DDI LAST SECOND in the online bidding for this. Imagine if gilbert was able to take control of the building. I guarantee there would already be progress and new tenants already moved into the building.
http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...t-building.php
Every time the city takes a few steps forward something like this sets it back. I wish the city would seize the building from these jackasses because they clearly don't care for the building and are just another slum landlord trying to capitalize and make a quick buck. The thing is when they did purchase the building it actually was not in bad condition at all! sky bar just opened their top floor and there was a new office tenant that had just moved in.
Now sky bar was FORCED to close their top floor because DDI REFUSED to maintain the elevators and keep them safe for daily use. and now the pipes are bursting and the building is flooding. Rant over.. but this is really grinding my gears