Developers pull plug on apartment, condo projects in Detroit

**313WX** · January-29-20, 06:07 PM

The more things change, the more things stay the same...

https://m.metrotimes.com/detroit/dev...t?oid=23712262

**Seven&wyo** · January-29-20, 06:28 PM

Yeah, there's so much demand that the developers are having a hard time finding people to build the buildings resulting in higher costs. We've been over this.

**EGrant** · January-29-20, 10:43 PM

This article is a lot of hot air and very little substance. Olympia doesn't develop properties? What incredible breaking news!

Plus, no mention of the parking requirements that often drive up the cost of these projects [[and the need for incentives). I guess it's more fun to look at developments from the first half of the previous decade while writing this this aimless, meandering piece.

**Gistok** · January-29-20, 11:27 PM

As I mentioned on another thread... the price per ton of cement has gone up more than 50% since 2013.

But the construction worker shortage in metro Detroit has also affected prices and project delays. During the great recession of 2008-2009, many construction workers have left the area, never to return. Even the ones that remain go for temporary jobs in other metro areas. Some local construction companies find that they make more money sending their Detroit area workers to other metro areas [[for months at a time) and pay their room and board there. This adds to the shortage of workers for Detroit projects. This probably also affects Gilbert's projects, which is why the big ones are pushed forward a year or two.

**Metro25** · January-29-20, 11:33 PM

Why has cement gone up so much?

**Gistok** · January-29-20, 11:41 PM

This is dated to 2018... but it mentions price increases for construction materials....

https://www.concreteconstruction.net...-new-tariffs_o

**313WX** · January-29-20, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by EGrant

This article is a lot of hot air and very little substance. Olympia doesn't develop properties? What incredible breaking news!

Plus, no mention of the parking requirements that often drive up the cost of these projects [[and the need for incentives). I guess it's more fun to look at developments from the first half of the previous decade while writing this this aimless, meandering piece.

There were very few developments of significance taking place in the first half of the decade because the region was still recovering from the city's bankruptcy and the Big 3's collapse.

In any event, the article just reinforces the fact that Detroit is always the last one in and the first one out when it comes to developments. Not even with the aid of Gilbert's capital this go around could that cycle be broken.

The labor shortages, cost of materials and zoning requirements that aren't the most favorable affect every major or rapidly growing city in the country, yet none of them are experiencing as much of a slow down in construction as Detroit.

**Metro25** · January-30-20, 12:00 AM

Who said Detroit was out? There's billions in construction going on right now as you type. A bunch of new ones starting too. Not every project always works out exactly as announced, that's usual business.

It seems this is happening all over the US as well, so you're wrong.

A recent AIA survey found that about 15% of architecture firms in the U.S. have seen projects canceled, 40% have seen projects significantly delayed or put on hold and 30% have seen projects scaled back.

https://www.constructiondive.com/new...ish-ow/568295/

**Lowell** · February-01-20, 10:40 AM

Add the Michigan Opera Theater's planned high rise tower to the downtown new development implosion.

New Detroit high-rise plan halted

Frank Witsil
Detroit Free Press USA TODAY NETWORK
The Michigan Opera Theatre confirmed Friday it's pausing a plan to develop a new building, just days after Bedrock Detroit acknowledged it is scaling back the size of its Hudson tower and will no longer be in the running for bragging rights as having the city's tallest building.

The opera company said the driving force behind its decision was changing market conditions.
...

At 480 feet, one height reportedly envisioned for the opera building, the new highrise would have changed the city's skyline, making it one of the city's tallest structures, just under the 496-foot tall Guardian Building and slightly more than the 475-foot tall Book Tower.

And parking still rules it seems...

But Hobbs said the opera company's vision - after receiving several proposals - is “on hold” because the proposals “did not significantly improve our revenue over what we already earn from the surface lot and the parking center.”

https://freep-mi.newsmemory.com/?pub...ae8cd0_134352d

**EGrant** · February-01-20, 10:51 AM

Wasn't that Opera House plan more of a "here's what you could do on this site" rather than an actual development plan? I feel like a lot of people here and in other places didn't have much faith it would happen as soon as it was announced.

**dtowncitylover** · February-01-20, 10:56 AM

Looking forward to the next "Unbuilt Detroit" Free Press article.

**Johnnny5** · February-01-20, 11:38 AM

Is that Ficanos former crony Turkia Mullin working on this project? I guess I always assumed she would have left town after the payout she received for not working on the airport project, or the cash from her shady looking home sale in the middle of the "boom" years of Michigan in 2007. LOL.

https://www.detroityes.com/mb/showth...e-you-go-hmmmm

"Turkia Mullin, a real-estate executive working on the project, says the development team is "committed to having construction underway by the end of February." "

**313WX** · February-01-20, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by Johnnny5

Is that Ficanos former crony Turkia Mullin working on this project? I guess I always assumed she would have left town after the payout she received for not working on the airport project, or the cash from her shady looking home sale in the middle of the "boom" years of Michigan in 2007. LOL.

https://www.detroityes.com/mb/showth...e-you-go-hmmmm

"Turkia Mullin, a real-estate executive working on the project, says the development team is "committed to having construction underway by the end of February." "

I don't know of any other Turkia Mullin.

**Metro25** · February-01-20, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by EGrant

Wasn't that Opera House plan more of a "here's what you could do on this site" rather than an actual development plan? I feel like a lot of people here and in other places didn't have much faith it would happen as soon as it was announced.

Our local media is truly terrible. This was never proposed, never even had a developer, was nothing but PR release. It's like if I had a picture of a "planned high rise" in my notebook.

BUT THE SKY IS FALLING OMG OMG

**Metro25** · February-01-20, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

Add the Michigan Opera Theater's planned high rise tower to the downtown new development implosion.

There is no implosion it's the usual process of development. The majority of proposals in say Chicago change programming or the height gets reduced or whatever if you follow that. Chicago media however probably wont treat their readers like morons and spin dumb stories.

Meanwhile every major renovation continues forward. We're getting an elite university campus. A high tech engineering and startup campus in Corktown. Massive residential mixed use developments like City Modern are finishing up. Wow such an implosion.

**Gistok** · February-01-20, 01:38 PM

The Detroit Opera House site was problematic from the start. DOH was interested in developers that could have included the semi-new $20 million DOH parking garage next door, but not taken away any revenue streams or parking from the DOH [[they depend on that money to put on their operas and other events). Also DOH wanted some banquet and Opera performance intermission space in the lower floors of the high rise.

I don't think they found any developers that could accommodate all of the DOH needs, and still develop the tower... the financial numbers may just not have added up... especially when factoring in the building cost increases in the last 2 years.

**Danny** · February-02-20, 05:01 PM

Rules the Real Estate Business:

1. You buy the land where production, business hubs and people will meet.

2. Luring investors to your land and excite them with your marketing tricks.

3. Once you have your tactics in your hands. The banks will come to you and give a you big loan ideal in which you will pay it off in the flash along with the debt of your investors.

That will be a lesson you Roxbury Group!!!

I learn that trick from the Pulte Family.

**bartocktoo** · February-04-20, 11:07 AM

In news related to the Opera House building, I have scrapped plans to build a 25-story tower on my Harper Woods lot.

**Wesley Mouch** · February-08-20, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by bartocktoo

In news related to the Opera House building, I have scrapped plans to build a 25-story tower on my Harper Woods lot.

When you build your 6-story tower, your neighbors will be thrilled with your decision. Thank the lord that they didn't built that 25-story monstrosity!

With the recent advent of zoning, and our obsession with 'public input', we've moved a lot of power from developers, investors, and banks to city planners and community activists.

Development is a political process now. Announce a monster building. Get beaten up. Build your modest tower. Public and planners happy. And you get what you really wanted in the first place.

But if you ask for what you really want, you will still only get half of it.

Ask any Persian rug seller.

**hybridy** · March-06-20, 01:47 PM

Lafayette West value engineered to death

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...truction-costs

AFTER:

BEFORE:

**Seven&wyo** · March-06-20, 05:32 PM

I wonder if between the construction costs and saturation of downtown residences will developers start focusing on multifamily housing on the outskirts of the downtown area[[ Lasalle Gardens, Dexter and Grand Blvd, etc).
There have been a lot of renovations in the area and the housing stock is beautiful and wholly unique to Detroit [[unlike some of the newer residences)

**southen** · March-07-20, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by hybridy

Lafayette West value engineered to death

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-e...truction-costs

AFTER:

BEFORE:

It feels like in the first rendering they just plunked a building design down without incorporating the rest of the site into it. I hope that the townhomes are still going to be a part of the plan and not just four mediocre buildings that are a minor step up from DuCharme Place.

Given that 375's days are numbered and Gilbert and Ross are going to do some big things a block away I think this is a shortsighted move. Oh well. My brain will explode the day a project in Detroit isn't scaled by 40% by the time shovels go in the ground.

**Gistok** · March-07-20, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by southen

Oh well. My brain will explode the day a project in Detroit isn't scaled by 40% by the time shovels go in the ground.

... or on the day the last caisson is bored!!

**masterblaster** · March-11-20, 10:27 AM

Why can't they build any mixed-use projects in Lafayette Park? Residential with coffee shops & retail.

**mikeg19** · March-11-20, 10:55 AM

These articles continually make me wonder how the Illitch backed Eddystone actually DECREASED in cost for the renovation. It's gonna be the most shoddy renovation work this area has seen.