New Plans for the Failed Bloomfield Park
A local developer has a "new" concept for the failed Bloomfield Park development... Seems like a bit of a tired concept to me, does that area really need more places to shop?
http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...park/25934537/
Quote:
A developer has unveiled designs for how it hopes to transform the failed and blighted Bloomfield Park into Oakland County's next hot shopping spot and residential development.Conceptual renderings presented to local officials this week by Southfield-based REDICO call for razing most of the rusting parking garages and other half-built structures on the 80-acre site, which fronts Telegraph Road and straddles Pontiac and Bloomfield Township.
In their place would come new retail buildings, offices, a grocery store, theater and a hotel, perhaps even a fitness center. There would be a new senior living complex, several apartment or condo buildings, 18 townhouses and three dozen single-family houses.
The Bloomfield Park name also would disappear. This re-imagined project is called Village at Bloomfield. The price tag: $180 million.
Conceived in the 1990s as an upscale and amenity-filled "lifestyle center," Bloomfield Park was to rival Somerset Collection mall and include up to 80 shops and restaurants, a luxury hotel, high-end fitness center, "Class A" office space, hundreds of residences, two lakes and an ice-skating rink.
The project was scaled back over time and, after delays, construction crews broke ground in late 2006 on the $350-million first phase. But all work halted in November 2008 amid the recession.
In the six and a half years since, the modern ruins of Bloomfield Park have stood as the biggest failed development project in Oakland County in decades.
This week REDICO executives presented two sets of conceptual renderings in what would be the first of many procedural steps needed before redevelopment work can begin. Buildings on the map would not necessarily get built as they appear, and REDICO has yet to name which commercial tenants would go in.
Officials plans have yet to be drawn up or submitted to the Bloomfield Park Joint Development Council, a three-person body that must approve final designs.
"It was an opportunity to introduce our conceptual plan and we are encouraged by the response," Dale Watchowski, REDICO's president and CEO, said in an e-mail.
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/a691...066-plan-2.jpgThe second of two conceptual renderings for the proposed redevelopment of Bloomfield Park, to be renamed Village at Bloomfield. Received on April 17, 2015. [[Photo: REDICO)
Earlier this year, another REDICO executive described how the developer envisionshaving "daily needs"-type retail on the site on a more modest scale than was proposed a decade ago for the old Bloomfield Park.
"The vision for this site initially, going back some years, was more of a Somerset 2.0," REDICO's Craig Willian said in February. "We're not going there with this."
REDICO and its California-based equity partner, PCCP, or Pacific Coast Capital Partners, last fall bought foreclosure rights to Bloomfield Park from the former project's mortgage holder, Wells Fargo Bank. The bank's redemption period runs until mid-July, so any redevelopment work would not happen until afterward.
If all goes well, the demolition phase of the project could begin as early as late this year, Watchowski said. The project would likely then be built in phases with no projected completion date.
"Conceptually, it all looks very very good," said Bloomfield Township Supervisor Leo Savoie, one of the three development council members.
REDICO did identify the senior living complex as an American House Senior Living Community. American House is an affiliated company of REDICO.
About 95% of the project site is in Pontiac; the rest is in Bloomfield Township.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/acf6...AHJQF4.1-0.jpgBuy PhotoMap of Bloomfield Park [[Photo: Martha Thierry/Detroit Free Press)
Bloomfield Park timeline
1992: Local developer Craig Schubiner begins buying and assembling parcels of land off Telegraph near Bloomfield Township's border with Pontiac. The site was home to two streets of rental homes and a closed drive-in theater.
1999: Schubiner unveils his original vision for the Bloomfield Park residential, retail and commercial town center, complete with 15- to 20-story buildings.
2001: Schubiner turns to Pontiac after Bloomfield Township officials object to his $2-billion plan and its massive scale.
September 2001: Pontiac voters approve the annexation of about 95% of Bloomfield Park.
2002: Pontiac and Bloomfield Township settle disputes and form development and revenue-sharing arrangements for Bloomfield Park.
2006: Schubiner hands over most development duties to New York-based Coventry Real Estate Advisors and shopping center expert DDR.
November 2006: Ground is broken on Bloomfield Park's $350-million first phase.
November 2008: Construction stops as financing evaporates in the economic downturn. Nearly $250 million in capital already has poured in.
August 2012: Jurors in Oakland County Circuit Court deny Schubiner's claim to collect damages from Coventry and DDR for supposedly bungling a good project.
August 2013: Mortgage holder Wells Fargo reaches tentative deal to sell foreclosure rights to Grand/Sakwa Development, but the deal eventually unravels.
October 2014: REDICO and its equity partner buy the foreclosure rights
Late 2015: Demolition of the parking garages and other half-built structures could begin.
