Calling Out Dan Gilbert: Monroe Block Should Be Mainly Residential

I'm calling you out, Dan Gilbert. Monroe Block should be mainly residential. The nature of the activity around Campus Martius and Cadillac Square Park deserves to have residential nearby. The Monroe Block is ideal for that. I could see apartments with balconies facing Cadillac Square Park. Of course retail on the ground level and parking above that. Maybe even a vertical movie theater with two or three screens.

I am so glad that the Meridian office complex did not get built. The design sucked, and it lacked the residential component that I'm talking about. Dan Gilbert has made a lot of good choices in terms of where residential and commercial should go. The Monroe Block with the Meridian complex was not his best plan for an area. Hopefully he will consider plans that include the majority residential on the Monroe site. It's a huge property but one that is in the heart of the action. Residential, in my mind, is the best way to go. What do you think, Dan?

I agree, I will include a hotel with the residential component. There's no centrally located hotel in the business district. Having both will make Campus Martius even more attractive and will only enhance 24 hour foot traffic. Maybe the park will stay open later. I do see residential balconies and ground floor retail being included, maybe our first real skyscraper since Detroit One Center, hopefully just as tall. I hope the same is planned for the Bates Garage site also. The possibilities are huge, I say go big or go home.

What brought about this post, royce?

But I do hope something good happens with the National Theatre

What makes anyone think Dan gives a crap about what we think on here or even pays attention?

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Originally Posted by royce

I could see apartments with balconies facing Cadillac Square Park. Of course retail on the ground level and parking above that. Maybe even a vertical movie theater with two or three screens.

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do you mean a residential, retail, and entertainment complex? we already approved one of those. :cool:

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Originally Posted by gumby

What makes anyone think Dan gives a crap about what we think on here or even pays attention?

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Their corporation has entire teams of folks who, among other things, scan the web for the mere mention of words associated with their family of companies. Being that DYES is considered the top discussion forum for the metro area, I'm certain that the great eye of Gilbert trains it's gaze our way on the regular. Not to mention that some of their employees regularly post updates on this site...

That building in the pic above is hideous IMO, and looks like the site would have required the demo of the theater. Am I mistaken about that?

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Originally Posted by detroitsgwenivere

Their corporation has entire teams of folks who, among other things, scan the web for the mere mention of words associated with their family of companies. Being that DYES is considered the top discussion forum for the metro area, I'm certain that the great eye of Gilbert trains it's gaze our way on the regular. Not to mention that some of their employees regularly post updates on this site...

That building in the pic above is hideous IMO, and looks like the site would have required the demo of the theater. Am I mistaken about that?

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Right, Dan Gilbert has a team scanning this website and cares what peons have to say...

I agree with Gumby on this one.

Dan Gilbert caring to listen to this site is like you caring to listen to a panhandler on the streets of Detroit for two hours.

You only need to google hater sites like ripoff reports to realize that he's been ignoring sites like this for decades. If you were Gilbert, which would you be doing? Schmoozing with upper echelon types like Warren Buffett that will increase the vast wealth in your treasure room or listening to time wasting complainers?

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Originally Posted by gthomas

I agree, I will include a hotel with the residential component. There's no centrally located hotel in the business district. Having both will make Campus Martius even more attractive and will only enhance 24 hour foot traffic. Maybe the park will stay open later. I do see residential balconies and ground floor retail being included, maybe our first real skyscraper since Detroit One Center, hopefully just as tall. I hope the same is planned for the Bates Garage site also. The possibilities are huge, I say go big or go home.

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IIRC the owners of the Cadillac Tower were courting a hotel, though the market is saturated already...

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Originally Posted by detroitsgwenivere

Their corporation has entire teams of folks who, among other things, scan the web for the mere mention of words associated with their family of companies. Being that DYES is considered the top discussion forum for the metro area, I'm certain that the great eye of Gilbert trains it's gaze our way on the regular. Not to mention that some of their employees regularly post updates on this site...

That building in the pic above is hideous IMO, and looks like the site would have required the demo of the theater. Am I mistaken about that?

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I agree the building once planned for the Monroe Block is hideous. Also, the rendering doesn't appear to be drawn to scale. I started this thread because of what happened to the cancelled Meridian project. That development was poorly conceived in my opinion. That to me was Gilbert's first bad call. Also, his focus seems to be on the Hudson's site, but to me that huge parking lot that fronts Monroe and Cadillac Square Park is calling for residential. A hotel as a part of a development there wouldn't be a bad idea either, and definitely retail/restaurants on the ground floor.

Regarding the National Theater Block [[which is not affected by the rendering). I think Gilbert should include residential in addition to a parking deck with ground floor retail. If Monroe Street is at the "center of town," why not add as much residential as possible?

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Originally Posted by royce

I agree the building once planned for the Monroe Block is hideous. Also, the rendering doesn't appear to be drawn to scale. I started this thread because of what happened to the cancelled Meridian project. That development was poorly conceived in my opinion. That to me was Gilbert's first bad call. Also, his focus seems to be on the Hudson's site, but to me that huge parking lot that fronts Monroe and Cadillac Square Park is calling for residential. A hotel as a part of a development there wouldn't be a bad idea either, and definitely retail/restaurants on the ground floor.

Regarding the National Theater Block [[which is not affected by the rendering). I think Gilbert should include residential in addition to a parking deck with ground floor retail. If Monroe Street is at the "center of town," why not add as much residential as possible?

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that meridian rendering should have never seen the light of day. it was scooped by crains, but was still so schematic. it was never a real project and there isn't enough demand for new office construction downtown. in addition, schostack imho has no business developing multi-story buildings. they should stick to strip malls and lifestyle centers

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Originally Posted by gthomas

I agree, I will include a hotel with the residential component. There's no centrally located hotel in the business district.

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The Book Cadillac is only 2 blocks west, the Aloft 3 blocks north, and Greektown Casino Hotel maybe 4-5 blocks east. I like the idea of residential, but a hotel not so much.

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Originally Posted by downtownguy

The Book Cadillac is only 2 blocks west, the Aloft 3 blocks north, and Greektown Casino Hotel maybe 4-5 blocks east. I like the idea of residential, but a hotel not so much.

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Courtyard @ Millender and Pontch Crowne Plaza just beyond those

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Originally Posted by downtownguy

The Book Cadillac is only 2 blocks west, the Aloft 3 blocks north, and Greektown Casino Hotel maybe 4-5 blocks east. I like the idea of residential, but a hotel not so much.

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LOL It sounds more like if there's no hotel connected right up Gilbert's ass!!!

If it's located anywhere in downtown, it's centrally located. Just because it's not looming over Campus Martius doesn't mean it's not centrally located.

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Originally Posted by royce

I started this thread because of what happened to the cancelled Meridian project. That development was poorly conceived in my opinion. That to me was Gilbert's first bad call. Also, his focus seems to be on the Hudson's site, but to me that huge parking lot that fronts Monroe and Cadillac Square Park is calling for residential. A hotel as a part of a development there wouldn't be a bad idea either, and definitely retail/restaurants on the ground floor.

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The Meridian project had nothing to do with Gilbert. He gave up the rights to the site for that project and allowed Meridian to develop it with Schostak. Once that fell through the rights reverted back to Dan. I am hoping to see something truly mixed use there. A mix of office, residential and hotel in a prominent building there would be great to cap off development surround CMP. I know a lot of people view Hudson's as the more important site, but for my money it is the Monroe Block that needs the higher profile and higher quality development. I would be happy with something that fills the block at the height of Compuware or First National but would be thrilled if we had something similar to One Detroit Center or the Penobscot there in terms of height.

I say we keep Campus Martius commercial, thank you.

1953

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Originally Posted by davewindsor

Right, Dan Gilbert has a team scanning this website and cares what peons have to say...

I agree with Gumby on this one.

Dan Gilbert caring to listen to this site is like you caring to listen to a panhandler on the streets of Detroit for two hours.

You only need to google hater sites like ripoff reports to realize that he's been ignoring sites like this for decades. If you were Gilbert, which would you be doing? Schmoozing with upper echelon types like Warren Buffett that will increase the vast wealth in your treasure room or listening to time wasting complainers?

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I certainly never said Gilbert himself is reading our posts, I said they have employees who comb the web. This isn't rocket science [[get it ;)) it's called the PR team. They aren't necessarily looking for people's shitty opinions, its to keep a lookout for posts from their employees and clients. Scanning the web isn't as consuming as you may believe, software can do this very easily.

QL employees tell me that emails are sent to most of their workers [[like 15000 of them?) containing links to news mentioning any of their companies, Detroit/Cleveland development, and mortgage industry news, every day sometimes multiple times a day. Their sources include the Metrotimes and Deadline Detroit. Technology can do wonders these days, and I hear that QL is ranked the #1 employer in the country for IT workers.

They also tell me that if a client posts negative comments about the Lender on the big social network sites, like Twitter Facebook etc., those people are contacted and asked [[incentivized?) to take the posts down. This practice is used by companies who depend on social media to measure the impact of their large scale branding campaigns.

Most companies make it clear in their handbooks that if caught posting negative comments about your workplace on sites like this one it's grounds for termination, I know mine did. These folks are the largest employer in the area, so looking at sites like DYES is not exactly what I would call "listening to panhandlers." DYES is considered the best metro area online discussion forum in its own right. Lots of development topics to post about.

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Originally Posted by royce

..snip ....I think Gilbert should include residential in addition to a parking deck with ground floor retail. If Monroe Street is at the "center of town," why not add as much residential as possible?

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Thee word on the lips of the development crowd lately has been "residential." There's money to be made with the high rental demand in down/mid/corktown, and many current renters are in the market for single family housing in the same areas, but either cant afford the little that's available, or can't obtain the type of financing needed for homes not considered "move-in ready." Or they just don't want the rehab headache, like myself.

My hope is not only filling Monroe with residential and a parking deck, but by doing so putting pressure on nearby surface lot holders to develop or sell.

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Originally Posted by detroitsgwenivere

QL employees tell me that emails are sent to most of their workers [[like 15000 of them?) containing links to news mentioning any of their companies, Detroit/Cleveland development, and mortgage industry news, every day sometimes multiple times a day. Their sources include the Metrotimes and Deadline Detroit. Technology can do wonders these days, and I hear that QL is ranked the #1 employer in the country for IT workers..

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They send out news from legitimate news sources twice a day on weekdays, and once per day on Saturday and Sunday.
When a friend started at QL, they thought they had the power to scoop my stories first [[I read the news a lot- all day, every day) by using their handy dandy emails. 99.9% of the time, I had already seen the article. This is because they just gather news articles that show up with their keywords that are already published.

And, I actually think that the Monroe block should be commercial. I think Woodward needs to be kept commercial, and since technically, the Monroe block has a tiny corner that touches Woodward as it circles Campus Martius, it counts.
You have Cadillac Square a block away, Millender three blocks away, plus Capitol Park is becoming a mini-residential district. Keep Woodward for business.

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Originally Posted by jmarie

...This is because they just gather news articles that show up with their keywords that are already published.

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That's what I was getting at, keywords, software, etc. Im just trying to point out to sir that this stuff is common, not far fetched.

This is refreshing forDiscuss Detroit...complaining about a billionaire developers plans for a site in downtown Detroit, opps, wait, its not Mile Ilitch...

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Seriously residential, office or hotel are all equally good uses for that site. I haven't seen one reason why one is better than the other. I think it's much more important that a well designed building go there[[i.e not that ugly thing above) than what's in it.