Marquette Building in downtown Detroit sells for $5.8M

[TTime]

It sounds like his children and other business associates have been allowed to allocate a significant portion of his funds since the 90s so it's not out of the question that a few million bucks of his fortune were spent without his knowledge or permission but either way the money somehow found its way to Detroit.

[Junjie]

The same article was written when the Chinese bought the Scott/Free Press buildings and the "journalists" were trumping how savvy Chinese investors were clamoring for Detroit real estate.

Fast forward to today, and every person in Detroit would have rather had Gilbert buy the Scott Tower.

This is nothing more than journalists rushing to be the first person to "beat their chests" to say they figured out who bought a building. Big deal.

Let's get excited about results. Not slumlords.

It's a fair point. My impression is that this guy is different than those Chinese companies. I think a lot of Chinese investors are simply looking for places to park their money abroad, and real estate is a natural place for this. Be especially skeptical of any Chinese company claiming to know the first thing about the kinds of preservation and renovation needed for many of these buildings in Detroit. But my guess is that Carlos Slim [[or his representatives) are actually "in business", not just looking for a dumping ground for his cash.

[archfan]

He should know if a company that he's chairman of is financing deals with his money. He at the very least would have to approve the deal.

With his money, a middle manager may have $5M approval authority.

[detroitbob]

$5M plus rehab costs is a good amount...still has a lot of catch up to get to the level of Gilbert's investment in downtown Detroit. Remember DG just dropped 100M on Ally Center.