Somerset Collection owner buys former Kmart headquarters

**Danny** · January-07-10, 09:09 AM

We might look at the Somerset Mall 3. If this new supermall was built, it would be the Michigan's first largest mall and possibly the 3rd largest mall in the world.

**R8RBOB** · January-07-10, 09:21 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

We might look at the Somerset Mall 3. If this new supermall was built, it would be the Michigan's first largest mall and possibly the 3rd largest mall in the world.

Great, another mall. Like isn't Oakland County saturated with malls? Get a piece of property, build a mall with goods made in China.

**hybridy** · January-07-10, 09:29 AM

Answer-------Mixed-use TEXAS DOUGHNUT-who's with me?

**Detroitnerd** · January-07-10, 09:46 AM

Troy has a glut of office space. If I remember right, as far as cities in Michigan, it has the third most office space, behind Detroit and Southfield, something like 15 million square feet of commercial space, after booms in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Basically, the way the freeway corkscrews through there, they knew in the 1970s they'd get all the development they wanted.

Unfortunately, some bills are coming due. In a lot of ways, tax revenues were predicated on growth, and by the early 2000s, Troy's commercially zoned land was mostly built out. Also, Troy never really had a downtown, which is a liability these days. And though they didn't accept every blueprint developers proffered, there was really no overarching plan. Plus, it was all really designed to be car-centric. They're grappling with those things now. I guess we'll see how well they do as sites like this become available for redevelopment.

**Hermod** · January-07-10, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Troy has a glut of office space. If I remember right, as far as cities in Michigan, it has the third most office space, behind Detroit and Southfield, something like 15 million square feet of commercial space, after booms in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Basically, the way the freeway corkscrews through there, they knew in the 1970s they'd get all the development they wanted.

Unfortunately, some bills are coming due. In a lot of ways, tax revenues were predicated on growth, and by the early 2000s, Troy's commercially zoned land was mostly built out. Also, Troy never really had a downtown, which is a liability these days. And though they didn't accept every blueprint developers proffered, there was really no overarching plan. Plus, it was all really designed to be car-centric. They're grappling with those things now. I guess we'll see how well they do as sites like this become available for redevelopment.

I worked for the Engineering Department for the City of Troy back in the summer of 1959 when they had just incorporated the township as a city. The impetus for incorporation was that adjoining cities were cherry-picking high tax value land for annexation from the township. As a city, Troy was immune from annexation of its land.

At the time I worked for the city, city hall was located in what is now the historical museum up on Livernois and Wattles [[17 Mile). DPW had a quonset hut over on Crooks. They were just beginning to put in subdivisions and we did a lot of surveying in them for city sewers and city water as the subs had been built with wells and septic tanks. I was on the survey crew. At the time, I-75 was just on paper and every time we would show up to survey for sewer or water lines and set stakes in someone's front yard, they would call the city in a panic that we were going to run I-75 right through their new house.

Troy did have a "downtown" at that time. It was a little strip of stores on Rochester Road just north of Big Beaver [[16 mile) which had been the unincorporated village of Big Beaver.

Commercially, Troy was built beginning with strip shopping centers at the major road intersections.

**Detroitnerd** · January-07-10, 10:18 AM

Interesting insights, Hermod. Must have been quite a sight to see panicky homeowners.

Yeah, technically, Troy has had one or two spots over the last century or two that were sort of like downtowns, but they never took the way Birmingham did. [[Of course, Birmingham had a river running through it, giving its early mills power.) And then, of course, with the multimillion-dollar freeways being laid out with government money, they never had a chance after that.

I believe Troy incorporated in 1955, after some other communities annexed some of its industrial-zoned land in the south. [[I think it was Birmingham and Clawson.) What was the motto? "The City of Tomorrow ... Today!" And man did they build it all in the grand "Futurama" style. It's funny to look back and see how our idea of the future has changed.

**iheartthed** · January-07-10, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Troy has a glut of office space. If I remember right, as far as cities in Michigan, it has the third most office space, behind Detroit and Southfield, something like 15 million square feet of commercial space, after booms in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Basically, the way the freeway corkscrews through there, they knew in the 1970s they'd get all the development they wanted.

Unfortunately, some bills are coming due. In a lot of ways, tax revenues were predicated on growth, and by the early 2000s, Troy's commercially zoned land was mostly built out. Also, Troy never really had a downtown, which is a liability these days. And though they didn't accept every blueprint developers proffered, there was really no overarching plan. Plus, it was all really designed to be car-centric. They're grappling with those things now. I guess we'll see how well they do as sites like this become available for redevelopment.

I believe Troy also has the highest office vacancy rates in Michigan.

**Detroitnerd** · January-07-10, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I believe Troy also has the highest office vacancy rates in Michigan.

Are you sure? If so, that'd surprise me. Anybody have a link to a handy site that has statistics?

**iheartthed** · January-07-10, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Are you sure? If so, that'd surprise me. Anybody have a link to a handy site that has statistics?

Yeah, surprised me too. Here is a link to a Grubb-Ellis report from 2Q09 about Metro Detroit vacancy rates:

http://www.grubb-ellis.com/PDF/metro...fice2Q2009.pdf

This shows that Troy is a close second to the CBD in terms of vacancy rates. But I think I remember a later report saying that Troy had surpassed the CBD in terms of vacancies.