BEHIND BING: Investors lined up for Watermark condo site
Backers are in athletics and business
May 2, 2007
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Detroit business and civic leader Dave Bing has lined up an all-star roster of sports and business leaders to invest in Watermark Detroit, a $60-million luxury residential development planned for the city's east riverfront.
Those investors include Detroit Super Bowl Chairman Roger Penske, NBA veteran Derrick Coleman, Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars, and DTE Energy Chairman and CEO Tony Earley Jr.
Other investors in Bing's project include Gregory Jackson, founder and president of Detroit-based Prestige Automotive Group, the largest group of African-American-owned dealerships in the country, and Tyrone Davenport, chief operating officer of the Dr. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Bing is to introduce his investors and unveil new renderings of his project this evening at the Detroit Athletic Club.
Despite a weak real estate market and competition from other new housing projects, Bing said his Watermark would attract buyers based on its location just steps from the city's new RiverWalk, as well as its design and amenities.
"I feel very confident that with the product we're going to present, we'll be very competitive," he said Tuesday.
First announced last year, Bing's Watermark is one of three condominium projects planned for the city's east riverfront where cement silos stood for decades. The Watermark will feature 112 units in three formats including a nine-story building and a row of town houses.
Prices will range from the high $300,000s to more than $1 million, or about $300 per square foot. That price level, while historically high for Detroit, is in line with what other new downtown projects have been fetching, including condos at the Book-Cadillac Hotel and at a condo project near Bing's, the @water Lofts.
Bing is CEO of the Bing Group and president of Spingarn Development, the company that is building Watermark.
Any project launched today must deal with the weakest home-sales market since the early 1980s. Sales of existing houses have been slow for more than a year, and new home construction is running at only about 25% of normal levels.
Even so, waterfront property remains a draw.
"The view will be just magnificent," Bing said. "The east riverfront district is the hottest place in the state of Michigan."
Backers are in athletics and business
May 2, 2007
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Detroit business and civic leader Dave Bing has lined up an all-star roster of sports and business leaders to invest in Watermark Detroit, a $60-million luxury residential development planned for the city's east riverfront.
Those investors include Detroit Super Bowl Chairman Roger Penske, NBA veteran Derrick Coleman, Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars, and DTE Energy Chairman and CEO Tony Earley Jr.
Other investors in Bing's project include Gregory Jackson, founder and president of Detroit-based Prestige Automotive Group, the largest group of African-American-owned dealerships in the country, and Tyrone Davenport, chief operating officer of the Dr. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Bing is to introduce his investors and unveil new renderings of his project this evening at the Detroit Athletic Club.
Despite a weak real estate market and competition from other new housing projects, Bing said his Watermark would attract buyers based on its location just steps from the city's new RiverWalk, as well as its design and amenities.
"I feel very confident that with the product we're going to present, we'll be very competitive," he said Tuesday.
First announced last year, Bing's Watermark is one of three condominium projects planned for the city's east riverfront where cement silos stood for decades. The Watermark will feature 112 units in three formats including a nine-story building and a row of town houses.
Prices will range from the high $300,000s to more than $1 million, or about $300 per square foot. That price level, while historically high for Detroit, is in line with what other new downtown projects have been fetching, including condos at the Book-Cadillac Hotel and at a condo project near Bing's, the @water Lofts.
Bing is CEO of the Bing Group and president of Spingarn Development, the company that is building Watermark.
Any project launched today must deal with the weakest home-sales market since the early 1980s. Sales of existing houses have been slow for more than a year, and new home construction is running at only about 25% of normal levels.
Even so, waterfront property remains a draw.
"The view will be just magnificent," Bing said. "The east riverfront district is the hottest place in the state of Michigan."
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