Big plan for Troy complex cheered
Shopping, housing by 2010 described as boost for region
May 1, 2007
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Defying a weak real estate market, developers unveiled plans Monday for the ambitious Pavilions of Troy, a $300-million project to rise on the site of the former Kmart Corp. headquarters.
Architectural renderings of the project -- the biggest new real estate proposal in many years in southeast Michigan -- depict a multipart retail and residential development clustered around a long central courtyard running north off Big Beaver Road.
In proposing a walkable, outdoor-oriented mix of shopping, offices, residences and entertainment, the developers are bidding to create a new downtown in the heart of suburbia.
The Pavilions, if built, would replace the empty Kmart headquarters on a 43-acre site in the heart of Oakland County's commercial district, at Big Beaver and Coolidge adjacent to the Somerset Collection mall.
Despite the harsh climate for real estate, political leaders expressed delight at the proposal.
"I think this is great news for Troy, great news for Oakland County, and for that matter great news for southeast Michigan," Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said at the unveiling of the plans.
The lead developer is Richardson Development Group of Reston, Va. BlackRock, a New York-based real estate investment company, will provide equity financing. Boorn Partners, an Ohio-based development firm with experience in mixed-use developments, is also a partner in the project.
The project needs the approval of the City of Troy, where many officials greeted the proposal with enthusiasm. Mayor Louise Schilling called it "the beginning of our renaissance in Troy."
Developer Hunter Richardson, who has worked on similar projects in Virginia and elsewhere, said developers would file their formal application with the city within a week. He hoped for approval by the end of this year, with construction to begin in 2008 and the first phase ready for opening in 2010.
Another example of New Urbanism
Borrowing from the principles of the design trend known as New Urbanism, most of the buildings in the Pavilions surrounding the central courtyard would rise two to about five stories, and would have retail shops on the first floor and residential units above.
These design principles -- sometimes summarized as "live-work-play" -- lay behind efforts to revitalize many older urban centers, including the downtowns of Detroit, Royal Oak and many other communities. But the Pavilions of Troy would be the first such new, stand-alone project, at least on this scale, to be built in southeast Michigan.
At the Pavilions, the central courtyard would be designed as a town square, in which entertainment such as a skating rink and concerts would cluster.
"What you want is as much activity within a 5-minute walking radius of the center of the project," Richardson said. "You want people living there, working there, in order to make it active even at times when it's not historically active."
Schilling said the project also fits with the principles of the Big Beaver corridor study, a vision that would transform Big Beaver from a traffic-dominated highway to a mixed-use urban center.
A boost for Big Beaver corridor
Other phases might follow if the first one succeeds, but the first would have all the major elements, including retail, residential, office and entertainment.
"It's a balancing act as to how you create these things," Richardson said. "It's got to feel complete so that there's never a gap in your experience."
He acknowledged that an outdoor-oriented development faces challenges in Michigan, which typically experiences three or four months a year of wintry weather. He said his team believed that high winds and rain were bigger problems than snow, and that his planners were taking that into account as they designed the Pavilions.
The project could rejuvenate the Big Beaver corridor, which in the past couple of years has experienced two big hits -- the departure of Kmart and the abandonment, at least for now, of the highly touted Monarch project, a proposed high-rise condominium development scrapped for lack of market demand.
Patterson said the Pavilions shows that Big Beaver remains important.
"I think Big Beaver will be Oakland County's main street, there's no question about that," he said. "Big Beaver will continue to be the main corridor for development in this city, and this city will continue to be the crown jewel in Oakland County as far as economic development."
Shopping, housing by 2010 described as boost for region
May 1, 2007
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Defying a weak real estate market, developers unveiled plans Monday for the ambitious Pavilions of Troy, a $300-million project to rise on the site of the former Kmart Corp. headquarters.
Architectural renderings of the project -- the biggest new real estate proposal in many years in southeast Michigan -- depict a multipart retail and residential development clustered around a long central courtyard running north off Big Beaver Road.
In proposing a walkable, outdoor-oriented mix of shopping, offices, residences and entertainment, the developers are bidding to create a new downtown in the heart of suburbia.
The Pavilions, if built, would replace the empty Kmart headquarters on a 43-acre site in the heart of Oakland County's commercial district, at Big Beaver and Coolidge adjacent to the Somerset Collection mall.
Despite the harsh climate for real estate, political leaders expressed delight at the proposal.
"I think this is great news for Troy, great news for Oakland County, and for that matter great news for southeast Michigan," Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said at the unveiling of the plans.
The lead developer is Richardson Development Group of Reston, Va. BlackRock, a New York-based real estate investment company, will provide equity financing. Boorn Partners, an Ohio-based development firm with experience in mixed-use developments, is also a partner in the project.
The project needs the approval of the City of Troy, where many officials greeted the proposal with enthusiasm. Mayor Louise Schilling called it "the beginning of our renaissance in Troy."
Developer Hunter Richardson, who has worked on similar projects in Virginia and elsewhere, said developers would file their formal application with the city within a week. He hoped for approval by the end of this year, with construction to begin in 2008 and the first phase ready for opening in 2010.
Another example of New Urbanism
Borrowing from the principles of the design trend known as New Urbanism, most of the buildings in the Pavilions surrounding the central courtyard would rise two to about five stories, and would have retail shops on the first floor and residential units above.
These design principles -- sometimes summarized as "live-work-play" -- lay behind efforts to revitalize many older urban centers, including the downtowns of Detroit, Royal Oak and many other communities. But the Pavilions of Troy would be the first such new, stand-alone project, at least on this scale, to be built in southeast Michigan.
At the Pavilions, the central courtyard would be designed as a town square, in which entertainment such as a skating rink and concerts would cluster.
"What you want is as much activity within a 5-minute walking radius of the center of the project," Richardson said. "You want people living there, working there, in order to make it active even at times when it's not historically active."
Schilling said the project also fits with the principles of the Big Beaver corridor study, a vision that would transform Big Beaver from a traffic-dominated highway to a mixed-use urban center.
A boost for Big Beaver corridor
Other phases might follow if the first one succeeds, but the first would have all the major elements, including retail, residential, office and entertainment.
"It's a balancing act as to how you create these things," Richardson said. "It's got to feel complete so that there's never a gap in your experience."
He acknowledged that an outdoor-oriented development faces challenges in Michigan, which typically experiences three or four months a year of wintry weather. He said his team believed that high winds and rain were bigger problems than snow, and that his planners were taking that into account as they designed the Pavilions.
The project could rejuvenate the Big Beaver corridor, which in the past couple of years has experienced two big hits -- the departure of Kmart and the abandonment, at least for now, of the highly touted Monarch project, a proposed high-rise condominium development scrapped for lack of market demand.
Patterson said the Pavilions shows that Big Beaver remains important.
"I think Big Beaver will be Oakland County's main street, there's no question about that," he said. "Big Beaver will continue to be the main corridor for development in this city, and this city will continue to be the crown jewel in Oakland County as far as economic development."
No comments:
Post a Comment