Fowling Warehouse to Open in Ypsilanti

Royal Oak resident Scott Brown is opening a Fowling Warehouse location in Ypsilanti. The original Fowling Warehouse was established by Chris Hutt in 2014. The game is part football/part bowling. Prior to finding the Ypsilanti space, Brown looked in Lansing, Lake Orion and Indianapolis. His Ypsilanti location will be the sixth in the franchise. Other locations include Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Hamtramck. All have opened in last seven years. No opening date is set yet for the Ypsilanti location, but it will feature 20 indoor fowling lanes. Players may bring in their own food or have it delivered, and two bars will be on site.

Detroit’s Core City Project Breathes New Life Into Buildings and Land

The Core City neighborhood, located west of Woodbridge and about 2 miles from downtown, is one of the most unique real estate projects in the city and the state. It currently spreads across six existing commercial buildings, 10 recently built Quonset hut apartments, plus one large Quonset hut split into eight live-work space. It will be expanding early next year to include more housing. The old commercial buildings are filled with office and retail tenants. The buildings surround a new public space park filled with shade trees and artwork. The Core City project is the brain child of developer Philip Kafka and his real estate company, Prince Concepts.

 

NTT Ltd Subleases Its Headquarters Space in Southfield Town Center

 NTT Communications Corp., Formerly know as Secure-24, has walked away from its 100,000-square-foot headquarters in the 4000 Town Center high rise in Southfield. They’ve put the space up for sublease along with a 9,000-square-foot property in Auburn Hills. The company signed the Southfield lease in September 2019, prior to the pandemic. The bad timing of the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the company’s recent listing of the property. The asking price is $19 per square foot.

 

 

Landmark Office Real Estate Up For Grabs

Nearly 800,000 square feet of prime office space across four landmark properties in Troy and Pontiac are up for grabs. They join the Fisher Building and the former UAW-GM Center for Human Resources in Detroit. That totals 1.8 million square feet between the six buildings that has come available in the last 30 days! The sale of these buildings has implications for the upside down office market. According to a second-quarter report, Detroit’s office market vacancy rate increased to 16.8%. That’s an increase of 2 percentage points from a year ago.

Renowned Detroit Hotel Sale and Renovations Pending

The Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit is under a pending deal. Chicago-based Oxford Capital Group, the same company that broke ground on a new Godfrey Hotel in Corktown,  is buying the 453-room hotel. Downtown Detroit hotels took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Book Cadillac has been delinquent on its mortgage since spring 2020. With the sale, Oxford Capital will assume $77 million in debt to prevent the hotel from going into foreclosure. The company will spend at least $16.5 million on renovations and maintenance. It’s seeking a 12-year Commercial Redevelopment tax break that’s valued at over $26 million.

Corktown Parking Deck Sold for $15.6 Million

The Ford Motor Company sold a 1,250+ space parking deck for an estimated $15.6 million. Howard Luckoff, Jim Ketai and the Rakolta family who make up the Corktown Mobility Hub LLC purchased the property. Devon Industrial Group is currently constructing the deck. It should be finished by the second quarter next year. Ford will hold the master lease for the garage, and Luckoff and Ketai’s Vokal Ventures will operate it. According to Richard Bardelli, Ford’s construction manager in Corktown, the sale is in keeping with Ford’s plan to bring on development partners. The deck includes an autonomous vehicle testing area, e-bike and e-scooter stations, charging stations for electric vehicles and automated payment technology and smart guidance systems.

Detroit’s Revitalization Could Have A New Focus

The global pandemic has turned many things upside down. The office markets around the U.S. are one of those things. Congress may offer developers incentives to repurpose old office buildings into residential, institutional, hotel or mixed-use spaces. While Mayor Mike Duggan has come out in support of the Revitalizing Downtowns Act, area developers do not have active plans to utilize it should the law be passed. The number of Detroit’s residential units lags behind other downtown areas. The legislation isn’t limited to downtown redevelopments but could be used to convert old office properties in the suburban locations into new uses as well.

 

Chaldean Community Foundation Plans Affordable Housing Projects

The Chaldean Community Foundation has broken ground on its first mixed-use affordable housing site and has another$25 million project in the works. The Macomb County site which got under way on Friday, Oct. 1, will bring 135 apartments and street-level retail to Sterling Heights. It’s a beginning toward addressing the long-term housing needs of almost 1,000 families who go to the foundation for assistance. It will include 9,000 square feet of retail for the Chaldean community. The foundation is negotiating a purchase of more than 6 acres in Farmington Hills for a new Chaldean Community Foundation Campus. The Farmington Hills campus will house a new office for the Chaldean Chamber, a satellite office for the foundation and a senior living center.

 

Multifamily Building Permits At Highest Levels in Decades

The 2021 total of multifamily housing construction building permits in southeast Michigan has exceeded the total for the last 20 years! So far, 1,762 permits have been issued, making 2021 the best year since 1998. Even as the housing market continues to stay hot, many people are more interested in renting. Along with multifamily housing, new home construction is also up. August was the 15th straight month in which more than 300 permits were issued.

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Duggan Predicts Office to Residential Shift

According to Detroit mayor, Mike Duggan, downtown Detroit is in for a dramatic shift in the next 2-3 years. He predicts that Detroit’s office buildings will be repurposed from offices into housing. He believes that this shift will be a national trend. He points to a 16-story apartment building near Greektown as an example. With more construction going on than in the last 50 years, the majority of it is residential, manufacturing and distribution.