DETROIT—REDICO, a Southfield, MI-based company, and several partners just won this week's auction by Auction.com of the historic Fisher and Albert Kahn buildings with a bid of $12.2 million. The online auction, which started on June 22 and closed on June 24, attracted nearly 50 registered bidders to the Auction.com platform.
The two Art Deco buildings have a total of 776,502 square feet and are located in the city's New Center district several miles north of downtown. REDICO officials say it's time to launch a significant renovation project in this neighborhood, long overshadowed by all of the development activity in the CBD and nearby Midtown.
“The downtown along Woodward Ave. and Midtown around Wayne State University have really been the focus of development over the last three to four years,” Dietrich Knoer, chief investment officer, REDICO, tells GlobeSt.com. “But with the imminent arrival of the M-1 rail, New Center development is the next step in Detroit's comeback.”
Although the city's bankruptcy has made national headlines, it has not impeded a hefty rate of growth. Healthcare, tech and creative companies have all set up shop in the CBD to attract the millennials that want to live downtown. Companies like Quicken Loans, DTE Energy, Title Source Inc., Chrysler and Blue Cross Blue Shield, among many others, have taken over buildings throughout the CBD and filled them with thousands of workers.
The city kicked off construction of the M-1 system last summer, and when complete the three-mile streetcar line will allow residents, workers and shoppers to zip back and forth between New Center and the CBD.
“That alone will generate activity on the retail side,” says Knoer. And as home to Henry Ford Hospital, the flagship of the Henry Ford Health System, New Center already has a major employment anchor.
Built in 1931, the ten-story Kahn building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and is connected by an underground tunnel to the Fisher building, built in the 1920s and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The 30-story Fisher already has a variety of uses. It houses, for example, the Fisher Theatre and the offices of Detroit Public Schools.
“What's missing is a residential component,” says Knoer, and the new owners will focus on adding that to complement the many office and warehouse buildings in and around the CBD that developers have renovated into multifamily communities. The downtown apartment community has gotten so tight that “there are also a number of ground-up multifamily developments on the drawing board.”
REDICO's partners in the Fisher and Kahn effort includes developer Peter Cummings, John Rhea, managing partner, RHEAL Capital Management, and New York-based HFZ Capital Group.
Rhea says that “with proper investment and attention to service, the Fisher and Kahn buildings can resume their rightful place as anchors in this important reemerging Detroit community."
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
