Gilbert buying 4 NEW properties [[Bates Garage, 126 monroe) New High-Rise Possible

[ABetterDetroit]

A mortgage guy "buying" different properties under individual LLCs isn't buying. There's literally zero risk to him what-so-ever. Every new Gilbert acquisition just means there's no competition to buy and moving forward, they'll be no competition when rental rates are established.

Then why don't you do it to? Sounds like you have it all figured out.

[erikd]

Yeah, nor is the prospect of a garage next door to the National Theatre, even if it is as 'cool' as the Z-lot. Why the garage-first mentality? Build some buildings.

There should not be any DDA development agreements that allow only a garage, even a garage with retail. Perhaps the DDA was thinking just this with the Bates site, which is why there is going to be a high-rise there "at some point." The DDA/DEGC should also, for future reference [[though it's too late, really), consider breaking up large parcels. No need for new superblocks. Spread the opportunity and create a more interesting cityscape.

While I totally agree with your statements in general, I think that this is actually an exception to the garage/parking first mentality that has been the prevailing mindset over the last 40-50 years in Detroit.

Gilbert has purchased and has renovated/is renovating dozens of downtown buildings with no on-site parking. Just on Broadway, he has the Madison, Eureka, Cary, and now the 3 additional buildings on the 1300 block, all of which have no parking. The same goes for the 5-6 buildings that he has in Capitol Park, the 5-6 buildings that he has on the 1400 and 1500 blocks on Woodward, plus the Dime and the Federal Reserve building.

If he is renovating and filling all of these buildings without attached parking, and not demolishing any buildings for parking, I have no problem with him building one garage [[with tens of thousands of new storefront retail square footage) on two crappy surface parking lots, and another parking garage [[also with ground floor retail) as a replacement for an old crumbling garage.

It seems clear to me that Gilbert absolutely has a "buildings-first" mentality, but our lack of quality mass transit creates a situation where the tenants of these buildings demand some type of consistently available and reliable parking in proximity to their buildings.

If Gilbert can renovate and fill 30 buildings that were mostly empty or vacant, without any building demolition, and make it work by building two new garages on previously underutilized and run-down properties, which were already used for parking, it is a huge win in my book.

[erikd]

It makes no sense that most of the major parking decks in downtown are dedicated for municipal or business purposes and are 100% closed in the evenings. Perhaps the bigger issue is having parking decks dedicated to 9-5 business and closed evenings and weekends.

This is something that I have said for years, but the realistic opportunities are somewhat limited. There has been a tiny bit of movement on this, most notably with the underground Grand Circus Park garage, which is finally now being utilized not only for the 9-5 office crowd, but also for the residents of the Kales and Broderick Tower.

Much of downtown [[other than Greektown) has been largely devoid of regular night/weekend activity for so many decades, the standard operating procedure has been to cater to the 9-5 office crowd, the few really large weekend/evening events, and then just close up shop for the rest of the time.

Now that downtown is really starting to see regular weekend/evening activity, and increasing residential demand, we are seeing some shortages of reliable 24/7 parking availability, but many of the large garage operators aren't really positioned well to take advantage of these new market opportunities.

On a macro scale, there is absolutely no shortage of downtown parking spaces, but when you take it down to the block-by-block scale, there is. All those huge parking garages on the west side of the financial district sit closed and empty on nights and weekends, and theoretically, they could be opened and used to service the influx of residential/office/entertainment traffic on Broadway, Woodward, and Capitol Park, but in reality, nobody wants to park their car at Fort and First, or Cass and Congress, and then walk a half-mile to their office or apartment at Clifford and Woodward, or Broadway and Gratiot. It's just not a practical arrangement.

I do think that we could do a little better in this regard, and there are certainly some opportunities to better capitalize on our existing downtown parking, but probably not as much as it would seem. The night/weekend activity is almost exclusively located east of Griswold, while the vast majority of the underutilized parking garages are located west of Griswold.

[stasu1213]

I am exicited that Gilbert had purchased more buildings. I am concern that one person will decided how downtown Detroit should be. I would like multiple ideas from more develoopers

[emu steve]

This is something that I have said for years, but the realistic opportunities are somewhat limited. There has been a tiny bit of movement on this, most notably with the underground Grand Circus Park garage, which is finally now being utilized not only for the 9-5 office crowd, but also for the residents of the Kales and Broderick Tower.

Much of downtown [[other than Greektown) has been largely devoid of regular night/weekend activity for so many decades, the standard operating procedure has been to cater to the 9-5 office crowd, the few really large weekend/evening events, and then just close up shop for the rest of the time.

Now that downtown is really starting to see regular weekend/evening activity, and increasing residential demand, we are seeing some shortages of reliable 24/7 parking availability, but many of the large garage operators aren't really positioned well to take advantage of these new market opportunities.

On a macro scale, there is absolutely no shortage of downtown parking spaces, but when you take it down to the block-by-block scale, there is. All those huge parking garages on the west side of the financial district sit closed and empty on nights and weekends, and theoretically, they could be opened and used to service the influx of residential/office/entertainment traffic on Broadway, Woodward, and Capitol Park, but in reality, nobody wants to park their car at Fort and First, or Cass and Congress, and then walk a half-mile to their office or apartment at Clifford and Woodward, or Broadway and Gratiot. It's just not a practical arrangement.

I do think that we could do a little better in this regard, and there are certainly some opportunities to better capitalize on our existing downtown parking, but probably not as much as it would seem. The night/weekend activity is almost exclusively located east of Griswold, while the vast majority of the underutilized parking garages are located west of Griswold.

I think the 'market' will take care of this. As soon as parking entrepreneurs see the demand which occurs outside their pre-defined window of operations, they will adjust.

Parking is one resource which supply and demand can work out very well.

As demand increases, the supply will be increased to meet that demand at the right location and price.

[Danny]

All is well in Gilberttown,

[Eber Brock Ward]

I am exicited that Gilbert had purchased more buildings. I am concern that one person will decided how downtown Detroit should be. I would like multiple ideas from more develoopers

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...Large-Projects

Gilbert is not even doing the majority of stuff downtown and in the city, let alone is he the one person running the show.