Dive Brief:
- Detroit's Downtown Development Authority has approved a $700 million, 1.2-million-square-foot, mixed-use building plan that includes what would be Detroit's tallest building, according to The Detroit Free Press.
- Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert is behind the project, which would feature 250 residential units; a nine-story podium with commercial, office, technology and arts space; an underground commercial development with parking; with some of that space in a 734-foot, 52-story skyscraper, Curbed Detroit reported. The building would be on the former Hudson's department store site.
- Gilbert's development company Bedrock will utilize the recently passed Michigan Thrive Initiative, which offers incentives to build on brownfield sites. If Gilbert gets the necessary tax incentives for the project, construction could begin this year, with completion scheduled for 2020.
Dive Insight:
This is just the latest development Gilbert has proposed for downtown Detroit. The billionaire also wants to build a $1 billion mixed-use complex — anchored by a 23,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium — on the site of a jail now under construction. I
In exchange for being able to build there, he and his company, Rock Ventures, have proposed to deliver to the city a $420 million jail and criminal justice center nearby, with no additional investment required from Detroit beyond the $300 million it originally had budgeted for the jail. The proposal is under consideration, and a county executive has requested $500,000 to conduct a thorough study of the plan before accepting or rejecting it.
Downtown Detroit has also seen significant development on the part of the Ilitch family, Little Caesars founders and owners of the Red Wings NHL team. Their efforts include a new hockey arena and a surrounding project called District Detroit. The undertaking aims to revitalize the area with new housing, transportation, commercial and entertainment space with the arena at its core.
