Dan Gilbert buys 1001 Woodward

[DetroitPlanner]

When I toured the Broderick Tower last August, the leasing agent said that Beal had just signed some paper work to do work on the Book Tower; turning it in to 360 rental units. She said this was the next big project they had slated and would be ready by 2015. Since then, I have heard nothing, but it was interesting to hear and she seemed to have quite a few details.

Does anyone have any insight to this?

Leasing agents are salesmen. If you would do your own homework you would probably find out what is going on. I don't know of anything moving forward there, but I work on infrastructure policy.

[mwilbert]

I know, there are still a lot of gaps and smaller buildings that are still vacant, but is it crazy to think that in the next 5-10 years, downtown might be out of renovation options and may be looking at a new construction boom?

It is kind of crazy. Not completely impossible, but crazy. Remember that essentially everything being done downtown is subsidized in a variety of ways. There is a finite amount of money available for those subsidies, so while you can have continued improvement, you can't have a boom until rents are high enough to make unsubsidized development affordable.

Could luxury downtown rents be that high in 5-10 years? I suppose so, but it doesn't seem likely.

[stasu1213]

I know what the prices to park are in Chicago and New York. My comment was precisely stated, and I believe indefensible. Parking ain't the same in Detroit...unless Gilbert goes on a rampage buying the dirtlots up so he can corner that market! Then he'll move to hostilly takeover the Parking Bureau and start writing dayglow tickets to anyone who dares park on the street...

Chicago and New York have other reliable means of trapsortation to getting around. Detroit does not besides a slow bus

[Scottathew]

Side note on this thread, surface parking lots should be taxed to hell, so that people either build something, sell it, or pay taxes on a place that's not making them anything and eventually do one of the first things.

Gilbert seems to agree with you, he's the anti-Illitch. He's bought many parking garages and is even building one! His vision is clearly a vertical CBD.