Illitches announce another new development, behind Eddystone

[southen]

So, indeed, it seems that the project managers are using project management software, namely, the timeline for one project [[Eddystone) is dependent on the timeline for another project, the garage.

What we don't know, at least I have no idea, is whether the city has specific requirement for parking for the Eddystone such as one dedicated parking space per housing unit.

Even if the city didn't I would find it hard to believe anyone would want to live next to LCA and not have access to dedicated parking.

"Honey, I had to pay $40 to park the SUV in the LCA garage. Ugh!!!"

Ah, so the Ilitch's can't start working on the Eddystone, or there other announced projects for that matter, until they build one more garage? Or is it that they are incapable of building or working on more than one thing at a time? Their rehabs could be going on in concert with the construction of a garage. Please stop being an apologist for this joke of an organization.

[iheartthed]

The city does have parking rules, and even if they didn't, the banks usually require a lot of parking as well.

imo the city should entirely ditch parking requirements and leave it up to the owners/investors to decide how much parking their projects need.

Not only should the city get rid of parking requirements, they should zone downtown and midtown to have parking maximums! It is an outdated policy that has never worked for dense urban centers.

[emu steve]

Ah, so the Ilitch's can't start working on the Eddystone, or there other announced projects for that matter, until they build one more garage? Or is it that they are incapable of building or working on more than one thing at a time? Their rehabs could be going on in concert with the construction of a garage. Please stop being an apologist for this joke of an organization.

They even have enough electricians to finish their LC headquarters... They are way behind schedule according to our poster.

Read the forum and be informed.

[southen]

Ah I see. I didn't realize that only electricians were necessary to fix up buildings that have been neglected for years by them and that if there aren't any available they aren't able to bring any in. I really hate to see companies like this that have no means struggle to keep up...

[southen]

Can you imagine how far along things would be if the development arm was half as good as the propaganda arm of the company?

[emu steve]

I'll dump this Crains story here. Good fit?

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article..._medium=social

[Zads07]

So no Eddystone announcement in this but to me the big difference is the change from residential to office space.

The 111 Henry St. development was set to be 80 units of residential, but now proposed as 7,000 sqft of office space. The 120 Henry St. development was supposed to be 153 units and now 100,000 sqft office and 20,000 retail. I'm curious as to why that changed.

I do like that they are renovating the Detroit Life Building. Would've loved to see residential and not office space and the same for the Detroit Creamery Building. Not a fan of what that building will look like post 'renovation'

All-in-all, this is big news, but a tad surprising in the switch from residential to retail.

[emu steve]

Is the big story here is going from residential to office/retail?

When I look at this area and folks say: "this building would be a good hotel," or 'this building would be good office space,' or "this building would be good for residential" I would wonder what the proper mix is for that area.

For example, could the area have TOO MANY hotels? Too much new residential coming online at the 'same' time? etc.

I assume that in a perfect world DEMAND drives development rather than say, "Gee those N number buildings are sitting empty so let's develop them [[irrespective of the demand for whatever they will be)."

[masterblaster]

I'll dump this Crains story here. Good fit?

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article..._medium=social

I hope all of these projects are built in the next several years!

What I am really excited about is the construction of new OFFICE space. We need more people WORKING in the downtown area if it is ever going to come back fully. There have been so many conversions of older office buildings to residential, so it is good to have new office space where companies can locate.

I think that the office space is better than residential immediately adjacent to the arena. Who wants to live right next to an arena and deal with all of that traffic congestion for 100 days out of the year?

[emu steve]

I'll dump this Crains story here. Good fit?

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article..._medium=social

BTW, does this article suggest why construction was stopped on Henry? [[Olympia apparently decided to make changes to their development plans).

It seemed kind of like last fall things ground to a halt.

[ASilvaman]

I hope all of these projects are built in the next several years!

What I am really excited about is the construction of new OFFICE space. We need more people WORKING in the downtown area if it is ever going to come back fully. There have been so many conversions of older office buildings to residential, so it is good to have new office space where companies can locate.

I think that the office space is better than residential immediately adjacent to the arena. Who wants to live right next to an arena and deal with all of that traffic congestion for 100 days out of the year?

A.lot of people would love to live near a development like this, Detroit is no different than any other city when it comes.to people who would enjoy the excitement and people such as yourself would hate it. I lived near an arena in Chicago and loved ever moment.of the crazy traffic and loud noise. Selling units near such developments has never been an issue and I don't see now. Most people living in such developments rely on public transit or walking.

[emu steve]

A.lot of people would love to live near a development like this, Detroit is no different than any other city when it comes.to people who would enjoy the excitement and people such as yourself would hate it. I lived near an arena in Chicago and loved ever moment.of the crazy traffic and loud noise. Selling units near such developments has never been an issue and I don't see now. Most people living in such developments rely on public transit or walking.

I absolutely agree with you.

I realize that neither the Wings nor Pistons made the playoffs, but I went to a Wizards home playoff game 10 days ago. The excitement in the streets was great.

I even thought of going to Hooters for the 2nd playoff game [[Hooters is a few block walk). Watching the game at home on HD TV is great but being at the game or watching near the venue is better.

In Detroit, folks can go out on the plaza and gather with a bunch of others and watch the game on the video board. Folks in Toronto did it at a big park.

Too bad there were no Detroit playoff games.

I can think of the times I was in Detroit for the Tigers' playoff runs in the last dozen years. I remember 2006 World Series where folks with or without a ticket came down for the fun, before, during and after the game [[I had a hard time finding a place to park even though the number of tickets sold was still capacity). There were 10s of thousands of fans who came down who were outside.

[Zads07]

Per Kirk Pinho of Crain's Detroit, no update on when things will start on the previously announced renovations of United Artists Theatre, Alhambra, American Hotel and Eddystone. Although it seems HistoricDetroit.org says work has begun so that's good.

https://twitter.com/kirkpinhoCDB/sta...179140/photo/1

[emu steve]

https://www.freep.com/story/money/20...two/564275002/

[southen]

I look forward to the next update 6 months from now with even fewer details and still missing start times.

[Atticus]

I too was intrigued by the switch from residential to office space. And while I have been a critic of Olympia redevelopment’s “efforts” at times, I am at least willing to admit that Olympia generally tends to make sound business decisions that benefit their own financial interests [[even if it often means we historical preservationists end up shaking our heads at the decision). So the fact that Olympia thinks more office space benefits their business interests is intriguing... and I think that alone is a good sign for the City. After all, at some point Detroit will need even more places for people to work, for all the people choosing to move back in to the city. So that part I am glad to see.

At a more local level, I am a bit disappointed to not see more residential uses around the arena. I realize that residential around a venue is a more difficult sell, as there is a good segment of the population that won't want to live with all the traffic and other issues that a stadium/arena creates. However, a residential component adds a nice 24/7 balance of usage to an arena area that is otherwise busy when something is going on, and dead otherwise. With office instead, you get a 9 to 5 flurry of activity, but off times activity remains dead when events arent occurring. So that worries me some.

But overall, this is a good thing. And if even half of what they promise in today’s announcement actually comes to fruition, it would still be a good thing. So I will patiently wait, and be curious to see how much of this [[and of Olympia’s other announcements) actually starts construction over the next 12 months.

[restoretheroar]

Ilitch family's two favorite phrases are "pre-contruction work" and "site-prep"

[masterblaster]

A.lot of people would love to live near a development like this, Detroit is no different than any other city when it comes.to people who would enjoy the excitement and people such as yourself would hate it. I lived near an arena in Chicago and loved ever moment.of the crazy traffic and loud noise. Selling units near such developments has never been an issue and I don't see now. Most people living in such developments rely on public transit or walking.

The buildings on Henry "Street" [[it is more like a plaza/mall than a street now) and Temple street are literally 25 feet from the arena. I think that living so close to the arena with all of the noise and traffic would grind on someone after a while. I hope to heck that more residential is built, but literally 25 feet away... I guess I am just talking out of my ass.

For instance, one block away are those 3 historic apartment buildings that the Ilitches wanted gone, the American Hotel, and the Alhambra Apartments - those are all residential projects that will bring more people 24/7. Plus across Woodward, you have the City Modern and just down Temple Ave, you have that 1920's Wayne County Building being converted to a hotel. So more people are going to be living in the vicinity.

[Eric_c]

A.lot of people would love to live near a development like this, Detroit is no different than any other city when it comes.to people who would enjoy the excitement and people such as yourself would hate it. I lived near an arena in Chicago and loved ever moment.of the crazy traffic and loud noise. Selling units near such developments has never been an issue and I don't see now. Most people living in such developments rely on public transit or walking.

Honest questions: why did you move and when you did, did you move into a similar area? Are you in Detroit's stadium area now?

[hybridy]

I look forward to the next update 6 months from now with even fewer details and still missing start times.

my previous employer was looking at 1922 Cass as a sole tenant 12-18 months back. guess leadership didnt want to get into bed with illitch.

[southen]

my previous employer was looking at 1922 Cass as a sole tenant 12-18 months back. guess leadership didnt want to get into bed with illitch.

Interesting. I wonder what state that building is actually in. A few companies passing on the property might be what is prompting the renovation.

[emu steve]

This is probably why Olympia put out the information on their development plans ahead of this...

"On Wednesday afternoon, Chris Ilitch along with Quicken Loans Inc. founder Dan Gilbert, whose Bedrock is a major downtown Detroit land owner, will be on a panel together at the conference discussing the city’s development. "

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2018/04/30/olympia-build-3-buildings-renovate-3-others-midtown/564618002/

[swingline]

Skippers Rule applies to these announced projects, especially the ones now earmarked for office space. How many different announcements have there been for the Detroit Life Building? The Ilitch Organization will not build office space on spec. If they are only just now marketing the buildings it will be months before they sign any tenants. They won't start construction until pre-leasing gets to something well in excess of 50% which means no shovels or other activity until probably next spring if ever. Hopefully the city can stave off the inevitable parking lot expansions that the pizza pizza people will seek in the meantime. [[Probably won't see any press releases about those.)

[Atticus]

Skippers Rule applies to these announced projects, especially the ones now earmarked for office space. How many different announcements have there been for the Detroit Life Building? The Ilitch Organization will not build office space on spec. If they are only just now marketing the buildings it will be months before they sign any tenants. They won't start construction until pre-leasing gets to something well in excess of 50% which means no shovels or other activity until probably next spring if ever. Hopefully the city can stave off the inevitable parking lot expansions that the pizza pizza people will seek in the meantime. [[Probably won't see any press releases about those.)

I keep wondering if at some point Ilitch will try and “combine” all of these projects into one massive “project”, and then apply for the big “Transformational” tax credit that Gilbert got last year for the Hudson/ MonroeBlock/ BookTower “project”.

Ilitch and crew love their tax breaks and subsidies [[not that I blame them), and this might be a way for them to cash in big time. Of course if they got the approval for the Transformational Tax Credit, then they’d actually have to follow through with their projects to fully cash in.

[Bradley]

Personally, I can't wait for TigerTown