If you can believe it, Dan Gilbert has a fourth Grand Circus Park Building in mind

[daniel_duggan]

Not confirmed by Quicken, but confirmed by plenty of other people in town, Dan Gilbert won the auction on the tax auction at 1550 Woodward Ave. He'll be sitting on four buildings near Grand Circus Park.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...nd-circus-park

[English]

You mean, Dan Gilbert Park...

[gumby]

You mean, Dan Gilbert Park...

If he keeps all this up and succeeds... I don't see why not.

[313WX]

This is good news in fact.

If all of the empty buildings are purchased and occupied, then when/if there's another economic expansion, we can start getting some new towers down there.

[corktownyuppie]

About a year ago, I was at Cliff Bells and ran into the guy whose title company was handling all the title work for a major housing project in Grand Circus Park. If memory serves, I think it was the Broderick Tower development. This was during the time when the project was still trying to get loans approved to fund the project.

He introduced me to his two guests, two bankers from Birmingham who were some of the decision makers/influencers who were evaluating whether or not the project could be supported. He was giving them a tour of the downtown area to show them that the critical mass of interest was already downtown and that the gaps just needed to be filled in.

They basically said, "As you could expect, we were naturally skeptical of the project. We just didn't think the demand for housing is here. But I'm impressed with how much life and vibrance is down here -- from the socioeconomic demographic necessary to fill these expensive apartments."

I asked them if they'd ever been to Cliff Bells or Town Pump or Centaur before, and they responded that usually they come in for a Tiger game and leave...but now they're starting to believe that the demand and the money is finally here to take a risk on a major project. What Gilbert is doing is far more valuable than the rehabilitation of a building. He is rehabilitating investor confidence, which is so much more important than any one building or buildings.

I know that some laughed about this 2020 Detroit "Bus Tour" bringing in suburbanites into the city, but we really need to take every opportunity we can to bring the investor class and the capitalists back into the city. When other wealthy people -- and by wealthy, I'm not talking the six-figure salary wealth, I'm talking about the people and/or the institutions that can stroke a $500,000 or $1,000,000 check to invest in a project -- you'll see Capitol Park turn into a vibrant enclave with residential and retail, you'll see all of Michigan Avenue look like downtown Berkley/Royal Oak/Birmingham. This will create jobs and economic activity.

People talk. Perceptions change. People talk. Perceptions change.

I like that Gilbert is doing much of his investing without require total subsidy from the DEGC or grants. That will demonstrate to others that Detroit is SAFE. Not the safety we think about with crime, necessarily...though that is a component. Detroit is a SAFE PLACE TO INVEST YOUR MONEY. You tackle that hurdle and overcome that perception gap, and the momentum you see in downtown/midtown/corktown/southwest Detroit will start to expand organically.

This is why I find the Kilpatrick behavior so damaging and tragic. Not only was he stealing from the coffers for his own gain. But the damage he did was to tell every potential developer and investor, "Don't risk investing your money in the city. The game is rigged."

In any case, props to Dan Gilbert for pushing on his vision to start making Detroit a real city again. It's about time.

[Woodward's Cousin]

Good post above. One observation I would make is that redevelopment in Detroit has historically ebbed and flowed based, in part, and in addition to broader market forces, on how prospective developers grade the city administration on competence and corruption.
Example, the Hudson's Building was imploded at the behest of some frustrated civic leaders early in Archer's term, just when a concerted effort to identify a competent developer might have borne fruit with respect to a re-use of the building.
More recently, the December superceding indictment of Kwame Kilpatrick and other alleged actors in the alleged "Kilpatrick Enterprise" references a developer interested in pursuing an adaptive re-use of Ford Auditorium, only to be scared off by the alleged extortion of local officials or persons of influence.
So, we were treated to Mayor Bing claiming a great victory in demolishing Ford Auditorium.
That said, Gilbert's actions show that he does not currently see corruption as a major impediment in his projects, and for that we should be grateful, if not rapturous. Competence , vision, and a strong appreciatiopn of historic preservation are all terribly important as well.

[Danny]

Dan Gilbert is actually buying Downtown Detroit and turn it into his city called Gilbertown. Let the empire of Quicken begin. What's next buying every last black community in Detroit, kick out the po-folks, rehab every last home and move his young professionals in.

[detmsp]

Dan Gilbert is actually buying Downtown Detroit and turn it into his city called Gilbertown. Let the empire of Quicken begin. What's next buying every last black community in Detroit, kick out the po-folks, rehab every last home and move his young professionals in.

I really hope that was a joke

[stromberg2]

Bravo to Corktownyuppie's post! Spot on!

Stromberg2

[stromberg2]

I really hope that was a joke

It wasn't.

Stromberg2

[Richard]

A - I like that Gilbert is doing much of his investing without require total subsidy from the DEGC or grants. That will demonstrate to others that Detroit is SAFE. Not the safety we think about with crime, necessarily...though that is a component. Detroit is a SAFE PLACE TO INVEST YOUR MONEY. You tackle that hurdle and overcome that perception gap, and the momentum you see in downtown/midtown/corktown/southwest Detroit will start to expand organically.


B-The game is rigged


It is being funded with grants and subsidized they were received before the lockout.It was discussed here already.


The game is still rigged so while what is happening may be nice , the way it is happening and went down is not so nice.

Anybody that believes that Detroit is so bad that no outside investors will invest large sums and provide jobs on a large scale needs to do a bit more research into the politics side of doing business in Detroit

When you start seeing news of large scale outside investment in Detroit that is when you will see the largest hurdle being knocked down and know that things are moving forward.IMHO

[agrahlma]

He is rehabilitating investor confidence, which is so much more important than any one building or buildings.

Great post above. Also, with regard to the impact on investor confidence --- I could not agree more!!

[Gistok]

In all the Gilbert discussions I keep thinking in the back of my mind about the United Artists Building/Theatre.

I bet that GIlbert's future plans in GCP were hinged on what Ilitch was going to do with this complex. The stabalization of the UA may have been an important precondition for Gilbert's interest in the area. Gilbert may decide to develop the UA as residential in the future, since that is what appears to be happening to much of the GCP towers. And the UA gives the added possibility of a performance venue with residential above [[at least the theatre is finally mothballed). When Gilbert states that he wants to make downtown exciting again... a use for the UA could be a big part of that.

And then there's the Fine Arts Building facade, it too is stabilized. It would make for a very classy facade with a new building behind it.

[DetroitPlanner]

I really hope that was a joke

It beats the contrived 'Necklace District'

4,000 sq ft is not a very big space. Is this the old Church's Chicken?

[erikd]

Good post by corktownyuppie...

IMO, the most exciting aspect of Dan Gilbert's downtown investment is that he seems to understand the benefits of urbanism, unlike many of the other major downtown investors over the last few decades.

When you look at many of the major downtown projects in recent decades, you see a pattern of developments that are designed to be inwardly focused and isolated from the rest of downtown. The Ren Cen, the BCBS campus, the DTE campus, the MGM complex, and most of the Ilitch Empire have been designed in this fashion. If you walk up Third Street from Bagley, you will be flanked by two major corporations that have spent billions to construct these mega-complexes, but the entire stretch is completely devoid of any storefronts or street life. The end result is section of downtown that is not conducive to pedestrian usage, and is actually quite miserable to walk through. It is fairly similar to the experience of walking around the outside of a large suburban shopping mall or office park.

The most exciting and wonderful thing about the Dan Gilbert projects is that he is not only embracing, but celebrating and championing, the concept of urbanism and vibrant street life. His plan is not only to reinvigorate historic downtown buildings, but to also reinvigorate the streets and surrounding neighborhoods. His strong support of the Woodward light rail line, plus his strong support of bringing back storefront retail, plus his lack of desire to tear down adjacent properties to make way for attached parking, all add up to a major investor who seems to actually get it.

If Dan Gilbert can actually make this vision a reality, it might be the most transformative Detroit development in decades.

[Mackinaw]

Good conversations here.

Though those of us with preexisting high comfort levels with Detroit may laugh, the 'bus tours' and rah-rah entrepreneur summits that educate people on Detroit are incredibly necessary, and somebody needs to do them. We all know how large the ignorance [[in the most literal sense of the word) or misinformation on Detroit is in our own metropolitan area, and the large percentage of people currently aged 40-65 who raised people [[with reinforcement from the media) now aged 15-35 who know little to nothing about the city because they weren't allowed to go there, or were told that it was a savage place with nothing to offer except the chance to be shot at by a crackhead. God bless the parents like mine who, despite being realistic and expressing well reasoned disappointment with the state of their city, exposed their children to it and prepared us to be able to competently and rationally analyze the city as adults and be open to the many, many things that can be accomplished and enjoyed in it.

But sadly Dan Gilbert needs to be a fatherly bridge for thousands upon thousands of 1) people with business ambitions who aren't yet aware that they can pursue them in Detroit, 2) people with money who aren't yet sure how or why they should invest it in Detroit and 3) people who simply need a nice place to live but have NO IDEA that they can be living quite well in many areas in Detroit. It's a gift to have the patience and persistence to try to change perceptions. I do it when I can in talking to people who don't have a clue, but Gilbert has incorporated it into his enterprises. I am not ready to vote for his sainthood yet [[let's see what he does with these buildings, and how steadfast his light rail investment is), but he is on the right track.

And yeah, it is GREAT to see a major landlord not named CoD or Illitch. Our urban fabric is becoming sturdier by the day, and the odds of having a downtown that functions like an actual downtown area increasing by the day.