Move over Dan Gilbert? Well not quite. I caught this very interesting read in today's Free Press about 28-year-old Brad Foster who just acquired the 211 Tower, a 28-story building at 211 West Fort St. that is across from Detroit's federal courthouse--a name that is likely to appear in these pages in the future.

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My knee-jerk thought was "this must be daddy's money" but I was quite wrong. This "kid" has an impressive entrepreneurial boot-strapper story dating back to a computer repair business that he started at age 10 and grew to 25 employees. As detailed in the excellent JC Reindl article, he went on to acquire a string of businesses, an MBA from Wharton, then ever-larger real estate acquisitions.

His latest moves, which includes acquiring the 14 story Tower 14 [next to abandoned Northland Mall, the Lahser Center I & II on Lahser Road and Central Park Plaza on Central Park Boulevard in Southfield], strike me as gutsy plays in view of the dim prospects for commercial real estate created by the pandemic and the work-from-home movement that has resulted.

But maybe that's the beauty of youth. You have the time to roll the dice and if it doesn't work, time to recover. Good luck Brad!