Cadillac Centre to include residential, retail and entertainment space
January 6, 2008
By JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and private developers are days away from announcing a blockbuster new residential, retail and entertainment center in the heart of Detroit, a project aimed at pumping up downtown's 24-hour buzz and international interest in the city.
The $150-million Cadillac Centre, plans for which were disclosed exclusively to the Free Press, would rise on a parcel known as the Monroe Block, a surface parking lot just east of Woodward Avenue and Campus Martius Park near the Compuware headquarters.
Financing is lined up, and the schedule calls for breaking ground in fall 2009, with tenants moving in late 2011.
The announcement follows by just weeks a decision by Quicken Loans to relocate its headquarters and 4,000 employees from Livonia to downtown Detroit, a move that could be completed at about the same time as Cadillac Centre.
With a striking design that could become a new architectural icon for the city, Cadillac Centre would include two, 24-story apartment towers connected by a 12-story link that would house a six-screen movie theater, health club and spa, restaurants and stores.
Northern Group Inc., a New York-based real estate company that already owns the Penobscot, First National and Cadillac Tower skyscrapers, would build and own the project. Alex Dembitzer, principal and managing partner of the Northern Group, said the ambitious development would help create the lively downtown that city planners have been trying to promote for years.
"We believe in the future of Detroit," Dembitzer said. "We are creating a unique complex that will not only revitalize downtown Detroit living, shopping and entertainment, but will also stir the imagination and excitement about Detroit's future and what we believe it will become in the 21st Century."
Kilpatrick echoed that.
"Detroit is in the midst of the most revolutionary transformation in its history, and Cadillac Centre will help to continue our city's resurgence by bringing a new level of exciting living, shopping and entertainment options to the heart of downtown," he said.
Kilpatrick and Dembitzer have scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center to discuss the project.
A resident of New York, Dembitzer buys and develops real estate throughout the United States. He also builds in Israel, Europe and Africa through development subsidiaries.
Dembitzer began buying and renovating real estate in 1985 in the New York garment district. His portfolio holds more than 10 million square feet of commercial real estate and includes approximately 5,000 apartment units.
He received his bachelor's of science degree from New York University. Prior to his real estate career, he operated a chain of more than 20 high-fashion and discount clothing stores.
Aiming for a landmark
Architect Anthony Caradonna, a professor at Pratt Institute in New York who spends roughly half of each year teaching and designing in Italy, crafted the curvy modernistic design, which would be among the most daring built in Detroit since the Renaissance Center in the mid-1970s.
Caradonna said in a telephone interview that he took inspiration from both the Renaissance Center and from landmark urban destinations, including Rockefeller Center in New York. He spent several days in Detroit researching the city to map out his design.
"Detroit had these amazing tall buildings with these amazingly beautifully designed and ornamented and three-dimensionally vibrant interior spaces," he said. "It's really about raising this piece that fits into this really important puzzle of downtown, linking the spaces around it."
Unlike many other recent projects, Cadillac Centre will ask for no city tax abatements, Dembitzer said. A Wayne County Renaissance Zone program likely will be used to attract national retailers. Northern Group will pay for the project out of its own private sources, he added, and full financing has already been arranged.
The project is the latest in a string of new developments built or announced downtown in recent years. Those include the three permanent casino-hotels and the redevelopment of the long-dormant Book-Cadillac and Fort Shelby hotels. In November, Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, announced he would move his company's headquarters and about 4,000 employees from the suburbs to a yet-to-be-determined downtown site.
Changing the cityscape
If fully realized, Cadillac Centre could rival any of the other recent projects for its impact on the city. Among other advantages, it would complete the circle of buildings around Campus Martius Park in a way city planners have desired for many years.
The project would include 84 apartments, plus a 30,000-square-foot market, more than 100,000 square feet of major retail space, a 14,400-square-foot health club and spa, a 40,000-square-foot public park with water features, more than 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty shops, and 800 parking spaces.
Cadillac Centre would be topped off with a 22,000-square-foot so-called living roof that would collect and filter rain water and help control energy consumption.
Although tenants still have to be found for all of the space, city officials are confident that Northern Group has the experience and financial power to make it happen.
Founded more than 20 years ago in New York, Northern Group acquires and transforms obsolete buildings and neighborhoods in undervalued markets. Besides New York and Detroit, the firm owns properties in Louisville, Ky., Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Memphis, Tenn. It also is a major investor in an Israel-based construction company that builds projects internationally.
Northern Group also owns and is refurbishing the historic 400-unit Alden Park Towers residential apartments on East Jefferson near Belle Isle.
In Detroit's history, the 2-acre Monroe Block site was best known for a row of Civil War-era commercial buildings that were demolished by the city in early 1990. The parcel has been used mostly for parking since then.
January 6, 2008
By JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and private developers are days away from announcing a blockbuster new residential, retail and entertainment center in the heart of Detroit, a project aimed at pumping up downtown's 24-hour buzz and international interest in the city.
The $150-million Cadillac Centre, plans for which were disclosed exclusively to the Free Press, would rise on a parcel known as the Monroe Block, a surface parking lot just east of Woodward Avenue and Campus Martius Park near the Compuware headquarters.
Financing is lined up, and the schedule calls for breaking ground in fall 2009, with tenants moving in late 2011.
The announcement follows by just weeks a decision by Quicken Loans to relocate its headquarters and 4,000 employees from Livonia to downtown Detroit, a move that could be completed at about the same time as Cadillac Centre.
With a striking design that could become a new architectural icon for the city, Cadillac Centre would include two, 24-story apartment towers connected by a 12-story link that would house a six-screen movie theater, health club and spa, restaurants and stores.
Northern Group Inc., a New York-based real estate company that already owns the Penobscot, First National and Cadillac Tower skyscrapers, would build and own the project. Alex Dembitzer, principal and managing partner of the Northern Group, said the ambitious development would help create the lively downtown that city planners have been trying to promote for years.
"We believe in the future of Detroit," Dembitzer said. "We are creating a unique complex that will not only revitalize downtown Detroit living, shopping and entertainment, but will also stir the imagination and excitement about Detroit's future and what we believe it will become in the 21st Century."
Kilpatrick echoed that.
"Detroit is in the midst of the most revolutionary transformation in its history, and Cadillac Centre will help to continue our city's resurgence by bringing a new level of exciting living, shopping and entertainment options to the heart of downtown," he said.
Kilpatrick and Dembitzer have scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center to discuss the project.
A resident of New York, Dembitzer buys and develops real estate throughout the United States. He also builds in Israel, Europe and Africa through development subsidiaries.
Dembitzer began buying and renovating real estate in 1985 in the New York garment district. His portfolio holds more than 10 million square feet of commercial real estate and includes approximately 5,000 apartment units.
He received his bachelor's of science degree from New York University. Prior to his real estate career, he operated a chain of more than 20 high-fashion and discount clothing stores.
Aiming for a landmark
Architect Anthony Caradonna, a professor at Pratt Institute in New York who spends roughly half of each year teaching and designing in Italy, crafted the curvy modernistic design, which would be among the most daring built in Detroit since the Renaissance Center in the mid-1970s.
Caradonna said in a telephone interview that he took inspiration from both the Renaissance Center and from landmark urban destinations, including Rockefeller Center in New York. He spent several days in Detroit researching the city to map out his design.
"Detroit had these amazing tall buildings with these amazingly beautifully designed and ornamented and three-dimensionally vibrant interior spaces," he said. "It's really about raising this piece that fits into this really important puzzle of downtown, linking the spaces around it."
Unlike many other recent projects, Cadillac Centre will ask for no city tax abatements, Dembitzer said. A Wayne County Renaissance Zone program likely will be used to attract national retailers. Northern Group will pay for the project out of its own private sources, he added, and full financing has already been arranged.
The project is the latest in a string of new developments built or announced downtown in recent years. Those include the three permanent casino-hotels and the redevelopment of the long-dormant Book-Cadillac and Fort Shelby hotels. In November, Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, announced he would move his company's headquarters and about 4,000 employees from the suburbs to a yet-to-be-determined downtown site.
Changing the cityscape
If fully realized, Cadillac Centre could rival any of the other recent projects for its impact on the city. Among other advantages, it would complete the circle of buildings around Campus Martius Park in a way city planners have desired for many years.
The project would include 84 apartments, plus a 30,000-square-foot market, more than 100,000 square feet of major retail space, a 14,400-square-foot health club and spa, a 40,000-square-foot public park with water features, more than 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty shops, and 800 parking spaces.
Cadillac Centre would be topped off with a 22,000-square-foot so-called living roof that would collect and filter rain water and help control energy consumption.
Although tenants still have to be found for all of the space, city officials are confident that Northern Group has the experience and financial power to make it happen.
Founded more than 20 years ago in New York, Northern Group acquires and transforms obsolete buildings and neighborhoods in undervalued markets. Besides New York and Detroit, the firm owns properties in Louisville, Ky., Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Memphis, Tenn. It also is a major investor in an Israel-based construction company that builds projects internationally.
Northern Group also owns and is refurbishing the historic 400-unit Alden Park Towers residential apartments on East Jefferson near Belle Isle.
In Detroit's history, the 2-acre Monroe Block site was best known for a row of Civil War-era commercial buildings that were demolished by the city in early 1990. The parcel has been used mostly for parking since then.
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