The Florida-based Ashley Furniture Industries is leasing the old Art Van Furniture Inc. headquarters. Ashley Furniture is leasing 186,000 square feet of the 1 million-square-foot-plus property. Ashley Furniture’s lease, along with the square footage that Gardner White is leasing, has filled up about 57 percent of the Art Van property. Operations are expected to start in the building soon. Brasswater currently owns the property.
Birmingham-based developer, Surnow Co., has submitted plans for an 80-foot high, 53,000-square-foot building on the rear of the post office building parking lot. The developer currently has its offices in the redeveloped post office property at 329 Martin St. The building will include 5,400 square-feet of first-floor retail space, about 19,200 square feet of office space on the second and third floors, and six residential units on the fourth and fifth floors. It will also include underground parking with an automated parking system. The project is still in the planning stages.
Stephen Ross and the Ilitch organization have released conceptual renderings showing new retail, housing and office developments in Detroit’s sports venue district. The projects include new construction, as well as reuse of existing buildings. The renderings show a future hotel on Henry Street, an office tower with ground-floor retail space along Woodward Avenue next to Comerica Park, a residential, retail and office development on Park Street, and office, retail and residential development along Columbia Street. Ross and Ilitch are collaborating on the University of Michigan’s planned Detroit Center for Innovation. They expect to break ground on the project in 2023.
Birmingham’s downtown transformation continues with the four-story building planned at 294 E. Brown. Part of the development will house a new, multi-story RH showroom. The building with include office and residential space, underground parking, and rooftop use that will include a pool. The Birmingham planning board reviewed and recommended the final site plan for approval at its April 27 meeting. Some residents are concerned about the development’s spread into their residential neighborhood.
The demolition of the former J.L. Hudson Company department store began this week. Facebook posts show the Harper Woods site in the closed Eastland Shopping Center. Large excavators have removed the outer walls and exposed three stores of the department store and mall. NorthPoint Development purchased the property in 2021. The mall closed in early 2022. Development plans include warehouses and a possibly industrial distribution center.
Sources have identified the Dallas-based Centennial Real Estate company as the new owner of the Fairlane Town Center. The company specializes in mall and open-air shopping center redevelopment. The purchase also includes the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas. Both properties are currently owned by Florida-based Starwood Capital Group, which is delinquent on its commercial mortgage-backed securities debt on the properties. Centennial took over another Starwood mall mortgage earlier this year.
The Ann Arbor City Council recently voted to permit reclassifying over 200 acres around Briarwood Mall under the city’s new TC1 transit-corridor zoning category. The rezoning of 68 properties in the State Street and Eisenhower Parkway commercial area makes way for downtown-style development on the city’s south side. According to the mayor, the council’s steps will create a substantial amount of housing units in the city. The goal is to encourage high-density, mixed-use development. Building height limits range from 550-300 feet and depend on how close sites are to residential areas.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was not enough skilled labor to meet construction demands. That’s even more true now that development has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels in metro Detroit. According to metro Detroit’s largest general contractors, that means less skill on job sites. That, along with continuing supply chain and inflation issues, is causing project managers to scramble to meet demands. The number of Michigan construction workers has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, but it’s still down almost 20% from 20 years ago. The number is not growing fast enough to meet the increasing demand. It’s anticipated that skill trades will account for 47,000 annual job openings through 2026.
The Bagley Development Group has begun its redevelopment of the Ilitch-owned, 18-story United Artists Theater Building at 150 Bagley St. The property is being transformed into a 148-unit residential building called Residences @150 Bagley. It is scheduled to open in late 2023. Twenty percent of the new apartments will be offered at below-market rents for qualified tenants. It will also include about 10,000 square feet retail space on the ground floor.