PONTIAC, MI-The city has received seven bids in its further effort to redevelop the former home of the Detroit Lions football team, the 80,000-seat Pontiac Silverdome. The city has been trying to market the 127-acre property since the team left to the new Ford Field in Detroit in 2002.
Though a bid process has failed before in this depressed city, seven submissions were sent recently to CB Richard Ellis, which was contracted to handle the process for the city. Ray Cochran, the city finance director, says he thinks that the bid review committee will start meeting about the submittals this week. He is on the committee along with city council officials and residents, and members from the Pontiac Growth Group, Oakland County Economic Development and Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The companies who asked to participate in this round include:
-Robert-Thomas Properties of Auburn Hills, which has reportedly asked to lease the property for major events with the option to buy it for $27 million-Smart Park International LLC, a corporation reportedly formed by Danou Enterprises, which has previously submitted bids for a $440-million project that would include a convention center, hotel, stores, offices, theaters, housing and aquarium on the Silverdome site, though the company later backed out citing economic troubles.-Inspire Vision, Dr. Horace J. Davis, Raul Walters, Uptown Village Inc. and local attorney H. Wallace Parker, partnering with Richard F. Mazur., round out the rest of the field. Not much is known about these submissions. Myrna Burroughs with CB Richard Ellis says the city will not be releasing information about the bids until after much consideration.
Burroughs said in a previous interview that bidders were asked to submit a proposal for a corporate campus or mixed-use retail development. Industrial uses were discouraged, she said, though the closest uses to the east in Auburn Hills are mostly flex industrial uses. It's costing the city about $1.5 million a year to maintain the property, which has gone mostly unused since teams practiced there for Super Bowl 2006 in Detroit.
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