Plans for the Joe Louis Arena Site

[Funaho]

I agree. It's time to end the ridiculousness and get people back into the office!!

A hybrid model could be reasonable, depending on the workplace, but employees should spend *at least* 3 days in the office per week

So, people have to go back into the office only to prop up commercial real estate?

[stinkytofu]

What's going on in Detroit is pretty normal is most big cities. The reluctance to go back to the office. It's especially bad in New York. Where I am now in Austin it's one of the quickest markets to go back to the office. Hopefully Detroit can soon too and we can see new projects spring up and old ones put on hold resume. I'm actually thinking of moving back to the Detroit area because real estate is so expensive where I am it's like California minus the views. Pass. I just wish Detroit woukd axe the damn no fault insurance for goodness sake. Smdh. When I lived in Dearborn heights in 2015 my shitty 2000 Chrysler Sebring was over $200 a month for car insurance and I had good credit and no accidents or tickets.

Yup, this is happening absolutely everywhere.

The way people work has permanently changed. While some folks in here are advocating that Gilbert "force" his employees into the office five days a week, that's just not going to happen. If he implemented that, he'd lose a lot of his employees as they'd look for gigs elsewhere.

The world has changed, downtown has to evolve. Lots of demand for housing still, need to start renovating some offices into residential. The office demand will never be - at least for the foreseeable future - what it was a few years back. We're still only getting about 25k workers downtown daily, while it was about 70k pre-pandemic.

Oh, and the RenCen is screwed as an office building. Long term I think they need to look at making a tower or two residential.

Lastly, no, it's not "embarrassing" what is going on downtown. It's just...the way the world has evolved. It sucks, but it is what it is. We have to evolve with it as a city.

[K-slice]

You know why people don't want to go back to the office? Because most of them have a half hour or more commute! A nice stressful 80mph drive to start each morning through traffic.

As a society we have two options:

Go back to dense, connected communities where the majority of people live within 10 mins of their work, and could bike, or even [[this one may shock you) WALK! I know the average American's typical long walk is from the kitchen to the recliner.

Or, we can keep going down this road of everyone works at home and aspires to own a 3,000 sqft McMansion, on a 1 acre lot of turf grass, in an ecologically devastated subdivision.

[mikeg19]

I think most companies will evolve and implement a hybrid model. 3 days in office/2 days home, depending on function or need for face to face. Most people can do their job from home, but I think a lot of people like being in the office. Unless you have a dedicated space in your home, not your kitchen counter or dining table, to work at, I think it's easier to be at work and actually work.

[Atticus]

Most importantly, we need to get away from a one-size-fits-all mentality when it comes to housing, be it urban, rural, or suburban. There are people who value urban living, there are people who value suburban living, there are people who value rural living. And to each their own.

Part of what set Detroit, the region, and the state so far back was that, for the last half of the 20th century… Urban living was deemed undesirable, and public perception and government policy in Michigan continued to reinforced that. Everything was geared towards pushing people to the suburbs.

Finally we, and other places, came to our senses and realized that having vibrant urban cities and downtowns people WANT to live in is a good thing. But it shouldn’t be forced, and likewise we shouldn’t make the same mistake and force people who want to live in the suburbs to live downtown. Otherwise we are making same one-size-fits-all mistake again in reverse.

The new focus of Downtown should not be let’s cater to those who are FORCED to work there, but rather have a built urban environment that attracts people who like urban living, while realizing that won’t be everyone. The region suffered so long with the City vs Suburbs battle, and the last thing we should want is to recreate that battle through the realm of “to work from home or to not work from home”.

[Gistok]

I think most companies will evolve and implement a hybrid model. 3 days in office/2 days home, depending on function or need for face to face. Most people can do their job from home, but I think a lot of people like being in the office. Unless you have a dedicated space in your home, not your kitchen counter or dining table, to work at, I think it's easier to be at work and actually work.

Yup... I'm just surprised that this is not already the standard in office work environments. Back in the 1990s our office at the phone company instituted workweeks where you could work up to 2 days a week at home, as long as you were in the office on Thursday's... when we had our office staff meetings. The phone company [back then it was called Ameritech] was not the most cutting edge work location, so the prospect of going to a hybrid work scenario is nothing new.

Like many companies... periodically we did "rightsizing", where the bottom 10% of the ranked employees were terminated, and some new blood was brought in. For companies that do that... being SEEN is important to help saving your job. So total WAH can be detrimental to your job security.

[ShadowSoarer]

Below is an update on the Louis:

Attachment 42190

[mikeg19]

Taking bets now, what date does the Louis overtake the Hudson's site tower in height..........

[southen]

Taking bets now, what date does the Louis overtake the Hudson's site tower in height..........

While I have been critical of the pace of Hudson's they two can't be compared. Hudson's has a semi complex design with lots of programming. What is going up at JLA didn't require excavation other than footings and it is going to be the most basic ass box you've ever seen. When you put minimal effort in it doesn't take too long to build vertical. Huntington Tower is a good example of this as well.

[Jason]

I think Hudson's is already taller than JLA will be when it's done.

[ShadowSoarer]

Updated rendering for The Louis:
Attachment 42217

https://600associates.com

[mikeg19]

And we have aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..........Glass box that looks like an office building?

Man no balconies? That stinks, would be awesome to be able to sit out and look over the river or downtown with that view on a nice night.

[Gistok]

It looks like that certain "je ne sais quoi"... or in English... crap...

[kuuma]

it's fine, it's whatever. nice to have some density and a fresh face on the skyline. what really cracks me up is the grassy field with a bunch of rendered humans walking around, especially when we know the Cobo Center's concrete butt is just out of frame!

was the idea for 2nd or 3rd ave to be reconnected down to this plot and have more towers to fill out the block?

[1953]

It will be a building, that, we can say for sure.

Guess its better than a dirt lot!

[[Seriously, who keeps giving these guys architecture licenses?)

1953

[401don]

It will be a building, that, we can say for sure.

Guess its better than a dirt lot!

[[Seriously, who keeps giving these guys architecture licenses?)

1953

Yeah, considering how much prime riverfront land has sat empty for decades and that it's right after the pandemic we should be thrilled these guys got shovels in the ground. They got the land as part of the bankruptcy settlement but as far as I know didn't ask for any additional incentives, which seems necessary to get any new construction built these days.

[EGrant]

I hope they have more plans for the giant field - I'm just picturing trash blowing around a sea of dead grass in late summer.

[Dmberko11]

Yeah, considering how much prime riverfront land has sat empty for decades and that it's right after the pandemic we should be thrilled these guys got shovels in the ground. They got the land as part of the bankruptcy settlement but as far as I know didn't ask for any additional incentives, which seems necessary to get any new construction built these days.

I'm with you on that perspective.
It's a nice box. Do wish it had balconies like others are saying. Looks like an office building indeed

[Infrastructure]

I’m here for the 4 car DPM train.

[kuuma]

this is coming along pretty efficiently. 12 floors up and they're already putting glass in. if the city can work out a revision to the concrete pasta cutting this off from the rest of downtown, it's possible to see it become a pretty attractive nook filled out by the other hinted towers down here.

[K-slice]

They better give anyone renting the 3rd floor a break on the rent, unless they are a big fan of loud trains running 10 feet outside their window.

Really though, this is a great addition to the riverfront.