Dive Brief:  

• Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert's development company Bedrock has updated plans for its new mixed-use tower in Detroit — poised to be the city's tallest building — increasing its price tag by $125 million to a total of $900 million and raising its height by 65 feet, MLive.com reported.

• Bedrock officials said the original plans were five years old and needed an overhaul. The updated design shows two main structures instead of one connected by a walkway featuring bars and restaurants.

• Taxpayers will subsidize 10% of the 1-million-square-foot project while Gilbert and other investors will pick up the rest of the tab, The Detroit News reported. Project officials said construction should start in December, as planned, but could not commit to the original plan for completion in 2020.

Dive Insight:

Gilbert has been a driving force in the redevelopment of downtown Detroit, where there is $5.4 billion in real estate projects in progress or being planned during the next three years, according to real estate research firm CBRE. Multifamily projects are estimated to account for almost $900 million of that amount as employees follow employers downtown in order to live closer to work.

Another major project Gilbert has planned for downtown Detroit is a $1 billion Major League Soccer stadium and mixed-use complex on the site of an under-construction county jail. To convince the county to let him build the sports venue there instead, Gilbert has offered to construct a $520 million criminal justice center in another part of downtown, with the county only responsible for $380 million plus land costs.

After weighing that proposal against a $269 million to $317 million bid from Walsh Construction to move forward with the jail project as planned, Wayne County officials said they favor Gilbert's plan, but his development company for the project, Rock Ventures, must still work out the details of the purchase as well as determine how to use the existing jail bonds.