This was authored by Curbed contributor MJ Galbraith.
The Downtown Detroit Partnership and the owners of downtown's David Whitney Building hosted the Downtown Stakeholders Meeting Monday evening. While the Whitney is far from completed (space heaters and port-o-johns, yes!), any excuse to gather in the atrium of this downtown beaut is fine by us. Downtown building owners, business owners, non-profits, media members, and curious on-lookers alike huddled together as four of Detroit's most notable developers showed off their Powerpoint skills. Well, their interns' Powerpoint skills. Either way, representatives from JC Beal Construction, the Roxbury Group, Karp and Associates, and Bedrock Real Estate Services had some news on their most famous of projects and we were there to lap it up. If you're into the details, this post's for you.
Fred Beal, president for JC Beal Construction, had these tidbits to share on the Broderick Tower.
· 900 double hung windows have been replaced
· 3 of the 4 sides have received exterior restorations
· The first 30 floors have been dry walled
· Amazingly, there were 600 sober people downtown on Opening Day, passing the Broderick breathalyzer for the April 5th open house
· More than 80 of the 125 apartments have been reserved
The Roxbury Group's David Di Rita, principal, discussed his company's new darling, the David Whitney Building. The Whitney is set to become one of the Aloft brand's boutique hotels.
· There will be 136 hotel rooms and 108 apartment units
· The building's exterior will be restored as close as possible to its pre-1959 modernization. We're talking cornice work, people!
· The original penthouse signage and mast will be restored
· Besides the 2 bars that come with every Aloft hotel, a third is currently being sought after. The Roxbury Group is looking for someone to fill 3,000 square feet on the Woodward side of the building. They've had interested parties but still haven't found what they're looking for
· All tax incentives sought have been secured and they are now working on the financing structure
· Construction begins mid-2012 with a late 2013/early 2014 completion date
Richard Karp of Karp and Associates dished on the still fresh Capitol Park announcement, of which his firm is tasked with redeveloping three Capitol Park buildings.
· They will be working with the Kraemer Design Group architects
· The buildings to be redeveloped are 1145 Griswold (lofts/apartments), 1212 Griswold (office space, retail space, lofts/apartments), and the Farwell Building (lofts/apartments)
· 1145 Griswold will be the first to receive attention in January 2013. Another building will start 6 months after that and the last 6 months after that. Each will take 14 months to finish, putting the Captiol Park job somewhere at the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016
· $85 million is the current costs estimate
· The three buildings will provide downtown with 233 new lofts
Bedrock Real Estate Services contact man Bruce Schwartz dropped Quicken news and branding all over the atrium.
· Regarding retail, they are beginning the phase of deciding "who goes where"
· Quicken refers to their buildings as "Hardware" and their people and businesses as "Software". We're not making this up
· They are looking to add 1,000 employees and 600 interns downtown
· The Somerset Collection is getting the band back together for the summer
· Several dozen retailers have contacted Bedrock for space
By our count, that's 466 new apartments and lofts Downtown by 2016. At $2,500 in first year renter's incentives, that's $1,165,000. Numbers!
· Broderick Breathalyzer Alert [Curbed Detroit]
· David Whitney Building Books a Partnership For Boutique Hotel [Curbed Detroit]
· Dan Gilbert's Building Rebrand-O-Matic Claims Another Victim At The Dime Building: You Will Now Call It Chrysler House [Curbed Detroit]
· David Whitney Building Books a Partnership For Boutique Hotel [Curbed Detroit]
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