Hudson's Site Building Thread

[emu steve]

And remember, 250 at Hudson's site and how many potentially at the 'fail jail' site?

Will those be fairly pricey, as well? So around 2020, two big residential buildings coming on line?

Yes, I think it would be too much competition for smaller projects.

I think the Hudson's site will be a great winner but might take a lot of oxygen out of the high end rental market.

The fail jail site could do similar.

[Junjie]

And remember, 250 at Hudson's site and how many potentially at the 'fail jail' site?

Will those be fairly pricey, as well? So around 2020, two big residential buildings coming on line?

Yes, I think it would be too much competition for smaller projects.

I think the Hudson's site will be a great winner but might take a lot of oxygen out of the high end rental market.

The fail jail site could do similar.

Feels odd to be more optimistic than emu steve but I disagree. Barring, of course, a larger economic meltdown, I don't see this doing damage to other developments. There's not exactly an excess of modern, purpose-built, first class high-rise residences in Detroit. I'm willing to believe there are 250 people in a region of 4.3 million who don't care to live in a renovated older building or weird garage-top condo complex but would love to live in a flashy, new, tallest-in-the-city tower right on top of Woodward.

This is something for a different post somewhere, but ultimately it goes to what you think the long-term future of Detroit is. We've seen plenty of articles on the bifurcation between struggling smaller towns in the US and booming big cities that increasingly concentrate companies, people, small businesses, education, and the arts. Is Detroit the biggest example of a failing small town, or a latecomer to the economic magnet game? I hope it's the latter. Dan Gilbert is trying to drag it there. He's betting that this makes downtown more attractive to further development rather than soaking up the remainder of a permanently small market. If you think this is the crest of the market and it prevents further growth, then maybe you think we're sort of in graph A. But I guarantee you Gilbert thinks we're in graph B.

[rbdetsport]

I completely disagree with the idea that this could flood the market. We are living in a different time than when the Renaissance Center was built. The RenCen was built during a time that offices were flooding out of cities across America. The Class A office space of the RenCen took away tenants for lower quality buildings because at that point it was a race to Class A office space. Right now, Detroit has a shortage of office space. That market is not going to be flooded any time soon.

In terms of residential, I believe strongly like most other city planners, that synergy is a real thing. If the national housing market is growing, and a neighborhood gains more improvements and amenities, the demand will ultimately grow. With retail and office being such a large piece of the Lower Woodward redevelopment "puzzle", we are gaining more possible users through this new development, and in turn, more demand. This is happening in Midtown Atlanta right now. There was a slight lull in the market and it took some time for the market to pick back up after the recession, but once a synergy began from a couple of new developments, new proposals began to flood into the marketplace. Now there are at least ten cranes in the air building high-rises for apartments. Once these are all built, and if these new residents do not depend solely on the single-occupancy vehicle, then we will continue to see more cranes rising into the sky.

[archfan]

Don't forget they will be able to sell those 250 spots during the construction of the building, so the sales will get stretched out. I just hope they go to full time residents, rather than to folks looking for a Detroit pied-a-terre. Selling these to rich ex-Detroiters would be tempting, but full time residents would contribute to the vibrancy downtown.