Chemical Bank [Now TCF Bank] to move their headquarters to Detroit

[JonWylie]

Largest Michigan based bank is putting their headquarters smack dab in the city. Corner of Woodward and Elizabeth to get a new 20 story building to house over 500 employees. Absouletely terrific news. Great locations, new building, new employees.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...nging-500-plus

[gumby]

Great news for Detroit and even though the headquarters is moving it doesn't sound like it will be a huge loss for Midland as it states they will keep staffing levels the same there.

[dtowncitylover]

Taking bets on which will be completed first. LC's new HQ or this HQ.

Very exciting and I hope they follow thru!

[EGrant]

Rendering, hot off the presses.

[dtowncitylover]

Rendering, hot off the presses.

It's not that big a lot, I wonder if they're going to incorporate the back of the Michigan Mutual Building...

[Atticus]

It's not that big a lot, I wonder if they're going to incorporate the back of the Michigan Mutual Building...

Great news.

The rendering basically implies the giant parking ramp building for Grand Park Centre is going away. Note this ramp [[which looks like a building) is on Elizabeth Street but is directly attached and connected over the alley to the large Grand Park Centre building which is on Adams facing Grand Circus Park.

Long story short, one existing building is losing its attached parking garage, but it looks like the new garage will be bigger with an expanded footprint going to Woodward, with the HQ built above.

I am guessing there will be some arrangement for Grand Park Centre occupants to park in this new ramp, and wonder if a connection will be rebuilt. Again though, great news for the city. I just wish they could “hide” the parking ramp portion better on the Woodward frontage.

Added: The other interesting tidbit is that the HVAC for the Grand Park Centre is above the mentioned attached parking ramp that is going away. I wonder how that aspect will work out also. In any event, I hope this project also “activates” the alley between Elizabeth and Adams, like many of Gilbert’s projects have been doing recently.

[dtowncitylover]

Great news.

Thanks for the clarification! I've never really studied that building before, but this is indeed good news.

[Zads07]

Awesome news to see another parking lot gone and a building that contributes to the tax base of the city replacing it.

Great for Detroit and for Michigan.

I'll take bets that this is finished before Little Caesars.

[EGrant]

We're probably at least two years out from this building being done. If they can't finish the LC HQ in that time, then something will really have gone wrong. Who's the resident bookie on this forum?

[hybridy]

The new building is slated to have not only office space, but also retail, parking and luxury condominiums.

so is this new building spanning all the way back to cliff bells

[Atticus]

so is this new building spanning all the way back to cliff bells

The rendering makes it appear like it will only include the surface lot adjacent to Woodward, and the previously mentioned garage behind Grand Park Centre. It appears like both Cliffs Bells and the surface lot behind Cliffs Bells are outside the project limits.

[mikeg19]

Rename Comerica Park as Chemical Bank Park. At least they have a HQ right here in Michigan.

Anyways, that is awesome news. Man, how the hell are all these projects going to be staffed with all of them coming online now? There must be a lot of out of state tradesmen that will be brought in for these massive jobs.

[EGrant]

Rename Comerica Park as Chemical Bank Park. At least they have a HQ right here in Michigan.

Summer nights at The Chem have a certain ring to it.

[Honky Tonk]

Summer nights at The Chem have a certain ring to it.

I bet we get a lot more "visitors".

[Zacha341]

Yeah that name for a bank is off-puting as it is!

Summer nights at The Chem have a certain ring to it.

[Honky Tonk]

Yeah that name for a bank is off-puting as it is!

I don't know, in my younger days I spent many a night in Chemical Park.

[jcole]

Yeah that name for a bank is off-puting as it is!

Well, Midland; Dow Chemical...

[Dan Wesson]

Summer nights at The Chem have a certain ring to it.

I bet we get a lot more "visitors".

Yeah that name for a bank is off-puting as it is!

I don't know, in my younger days I spent many a night in Chemical Park.

Better living through chemistry...

[jcole]

Apparently, even Midland is not too sure what's going on:

"It's a little bit unclear to Midland, we haven't really had direct conversations with Chemical Bank," said Brad Kaye, Midland's city manager. "Initially with the merger that took place back in 2016 the comments that came from Chemical Bank was that the headquarters would stay here in Midland, they've not carried through on that and so we're disappointed in that. But at the same time we recognize that they're looking for growth throughout the Midwest and not just Midland itself."

http://www.abc12.com/content/news/Ch...489158711.html

[Jason]

It's amazing to me that a bank is building a dedicated hq [[for the purposes of PR and recruitment etc) and an architecture firm is getting to design an hq midrise in a prominent location... and this is what they all came up with and they're all happy with it. Why is Detroit so awful at designing things and why is Detroit so oblivious to the fact that it's so awful at designing things? It's like a husband has been teasing his wife for weeks about the delicious meal he's going to cook for their anniversary and the night finally comes and he picked up McDonalds, but it's been sitting on the counter for an hour so he had to microwave it, and she brags to her coworkers about it the next day.

They also need to tell their employees that they're going to be in a downtown and that they're going to have to walk. The building is right next to the People Mover and the Q-Line. The building doesn't need to be 1/3rd parking garage. They don't seem to consider this site to be valuable enough to maximize the money making part of the building [[offices) over parking. Can you even call it a bank hq when there's more garage than hq?

Overall great news though.

[southen]

It's amazing to me that a bank is building a dedicated hq [[for the purposes of PR and recruitment etc) and an architecture firm is getting to design an hq midrise in a prominent location... and this is what they all came up with and they're all happy with it. Why is Detroit so awful at designing things and why is Detroit so oblivious to the fact that it's so awful at designing things? It's like a husband has been teasing his wife for weeks about the delicious meal he's going to cook for their anniversary and the night finally comes and he picked up McDonalds, but it's been sitting on the counter for an hour so he had to microwave it, and she brags to her coworkers about it the next day.

They also need to tell their employees that they're going to be in a downtown and that they're going to have to walk. The building is right next to the People Mover and the Q-Line. The building doesn't need to be 1/3rd parking garage. They don't seem to consider this site to be valuable enough to maximize the money making part of the building [[offices) over parking. Can you even call it a bank hq when there's more garage than hq?

Overall great news though.

I wouldn't put too much stock into the rendering. I am sure the parking component is accurate but it looks to me like they slapped something together for an announcement, otherwise we would be given a lot more views and looks of the structure.

I agree that the parking taking up so much of the structure is a sad commentary on the city and the state of public transit. Sadly Detroit isn't close to that tipping point where developers can assume that the people occupying the building will live in the city or live sans automobile.

[Atticus]

I wouldn't put too much stock into the rendering. I am sure the parking component is accurate but it looks to me like they slapped something together for an announcement, otherwise we would be given a lot more views and looks of the structure.

I agree that the parking taking up so much of the structure is a sad commentary on the city and the state of public transit. Sadly Detroit isn't close to that tipping point where developers can assume that the people occupying the building will live in the city or live sans automobile.

Renderings rarely look worse than the finished product. The goal of the rendering is to woo the viewers.

That being said, regrettably I understand why that much parking is “deemed” needed. I understand the business side, and the parking is needed to make the development happen. That all being said, couldn’t the architect have come up with anything better to cover or hide the parking floors?

I would even be in favor of the faux windows we used to see in 1990s architecture. Anything to make it less glaring... please. Again, I understand why the parking has to be there, but why can’t the outside of the building at least allow us to pretend it isn’t there?

[douglasm]

I'm not sure what they're moving. According to the Midland Daily News, they are going to retain their 500 person staff in Midland.

https://www.ourmidland.com/news/arti...photo-15916310

[Jason]

I'm not sure what they're moving. According to the Midland Daily News, they are going to retain their 500 person staff in Midland.

https://www.ourmidland.com/news/arti...photo-15916310

So basically what happened is they bought Talmor Bancorp in 2016, and this office building is going to consolidate those offices. They already have 100 employees downtown [[idk if these are Chemical employees or old Talmor employees), and then there's however many old Talmor employees spread around in the suburbs. And then there's employees that they expect to hire because they're trying to expand their business in the Detroit area.

[MSUguy]

The parking is for two building I doubt the Mutual building is would sell their garage without those spaces being replaced