$150M Cadillac Centre envisions shops, residences
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- The decades-long quest to bring major retailers back downtown received an encouraging boost Wednesday with the formal launch of a $150 million skyscraper project planned for the heart of the city.
Cadillac Centre, intended to fill an empty city-owned block east of Campus Martius Park, aims to be a new downtown architectural icon, according to the developers and city officials.
The center is a sleek, modernistic vision -- two 24-story towers of sculpted glass and metal that will hold 84 apartments or condominiums, a green "living" roof, a multiplex cinema, sports bar and 800 parking spaces.
Perhaps the center's most audacious goal is the space reserved for major retail: 130,000 square feet, along with another 25,000 square feet for boutiques and specialty shops.
During the official unveiling Wednesday at Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's office, developer Alex Dembitzer talked as if luring national retail chains to Detroit was commonplace.
"We are talking to a number of national retailers and . a number have approached us," said Dembitzer, principal and managing partner of Northern Group Inc., the New York group behind the project. "We have no concern."
While it was far too soon to name names, Dembitzer said the project will attract "a combination of what people want and need" in Detroit. The retailers they are talking to include "multi-state operations, global-type companies. The kind of things you see in the suburbs, or some you don't see in the suburbs but want to see."
Dembitzer added: "We believe in the future of Detroit."
Downtown a retail desert
The current Detroit is a city famous for being a "have not" when it comes to retail. Until late 2006, there were more Starbucks coffee shops at Detroit Metro Airport than within the entire city, which still boasts a population of 918,000, according to U.S. Census estimates.
The city is home to only two multi-screen movie theaters and only one big-box retailer -- a Home Depot perched on the edge of the town at Seven Mile Road. The number of national grocery stores is so far below average that it's become a major political issue.
But city officials and downtown real estate analysts contend Detroit's urban core finally is ready to lure national retailers.
"For the last five or six years, Detroit's downtown has had the most remarkable turnaround in the country," said Christopher Leinberger, who directs the University of Michigan's real estate graduate studies program and is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
He added that several research surveys show there is enough population and density downtown to attract big-box retailers. "There is pent-up demand for it. Yes, this can work."
Detroit's 'Rockefeller Center'
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- The decades-long quest to bring major retailers back downtown received an encouraging boost Wednesday with the formal launch of a $150 million skyscraper project planned for the heart of the city.
Cadillac Centre, intended to fill an empty city-owned block east of Campus Martius Park, aims to be a new downtown architectural icon, according to the developers and city officials.
The center is a sleek, modernistic vision -- two 24-story towers of sculpted glass and metal that will hold 84 apartments or condominiums, a green "living" roof, a multiplex cinema, sports bar and 800 parking spaces.
Perhaps the center's most audacious goal is the space reserved for major retail: 130,000 square feet, along with another 25,000 square feet for boutiques and specialty shops.
During the official unveiling Wednesday at Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's office, developer Alex Dembitzer talked as if luring national retail chains to Detroit was commonplace.
"We are talking to a number of national retailers and . a number have approached us," said Dembitzer, principal and managing partner of Northern Group Inc., the New York group behind the project. "We have no concern."
While it was far too soon to name names, Dembitzer said the project will attract "a combination of what people want and need" in Detroit. The retailers they are talking to include "multi-state operations, global-type companies. The kind of things you see in the suburbs, or some you don't see in the suburbs but want to see."
Dembitzer added: "We believe in the future of Detroit."
Downtown a retail desert
The current Detroit is a city famous for being a "have not" when it comes to retail. Until late 2006, there were more Starbucks coffee shops at Detroit Metro Airport than within the entire city, which still boasts a population of 918,000, according to U.S. Census estimates.
The city is home to only two multi-screen movie theaters and only one big-box retailer -- a Home Depot perched on the edge of the town at Seven Mile Road. The number of national grocery stores is so far below average that it's become a major political issue.
But city officials and downtown real estate analysts contend Detroit's urban core finally is ready to lure national retailers.
"For the last five or six years, Detroit's downtown has had the most remarkable turnaround in the country," said Christopher Leinberger, who directs the University of Michigan's real estate graduate studies program and is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
He added that several research surveys show there is enough population and density downtown to attract big-box retailers. "There is pent-up demand for it. Yes, this can work."
Detroit's 'Rockefeller Center'
The Cadillac Centre project got its official start Wednesday morning, when the board of the Downtown Development Authority approved the development agreement with Northern Group.
The agreement gives the developer a year and a half to determine whether it's feasible to build the project on a city-owned block known as the Monroe Block. Groundbreaking would take place in September 2009 and the project would open late 2011.
With passage of the development agreement, the city agreed to sell the 1.95-acre parcel to Northern Group for $1 once the group secures financing. Northern Group intends to invest up to $25 million of its own money, according to city economic development officials. The rest will come from private financers.
At a news conference later in the day, Mayor Kilpatrick hailed the project as the next step in the "revolutionary transformation of the next Detroit." The project's architect, Anthony Caradonna, said the Cadillac Centre will be Detroit's "Rockefeller Center," referring to the famed New York building and public space.
In another move to attract national retailers, Kilpatrick noted that a Wayne County Renaissance Zone program is being created to provide tax breaks for new stores.
While the news conference was upbeat, Mayor Kilpatrick acknowledged the difficulties of revitalizing downtown retail. "Everything that we do in the city of Detroit presents challenges. We just overcome them. We have never had a wide open paved road."
The agreement gives the developer a year and a half to determine whether it's feasible to build the project on a city-owned block known as the Monroe Block. Groundbreaking would take place in September 2009 and the project would open late 2011.
With passage of the development agreement, the city agreed to sell the 1.95-acre parcel to Northern Group for $1 once the group secures financing. Northern Group intends to invest up to $25 million of its own money, according to city economic development officials. The rest will come from private financers.
At a news conference later in the day, Mayor Kilpatrick hailed the project as the next step in the "revolutionary transformation of the next Detroit." The project's architect, Anthony Caradonna, said the Cadillac Centre will be Detroit's "Rockefeller Center," referring to the famed New York building and public space.
In another move to attract national retailers, Kilpatrick noted that a Wayne County Renaissance Zone program is being created to provide tax breaks for new stores.
While the news conference was upbeat, Mayor Kilpatrick acknowledged the difficulties of revitalizing downtown retail. "Everything that we do in the city of Detroit presents challenges. We just overcome them. We have never had a wide open paved road."
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