The property had been called North Troy Corporate Park untilEmmes bought the site, says Mark Collins with CBRE. Since then, theproperty lost almost 500,000 sf when EDS moved out and over to theGM-owned CenterPoint park in Pontiac. However, Siemens recently signedabout 51,000 sf on two floors in Thatcher Centre, at 5555 New King,one of eight of the buildings on the campus. Collins tellsGlobeSt.com that he's negotiating with firms for another 300,000 sfof leases. "Emmes is really taking a hands-on approach, and haveworked hard to put together an identity for the property. Forexample, all the buildings have been renamed after bridges, such asthe Thatcher is named after a bridge in Balboa, Panama, and theMarlowe Centre is named after a bridge in the UK."

He says times have been difficult in the Detroit area, andespecially for office-heavy Troy. "The market here is soft, youhave to scratch and claw for every deal. The current office vacancyin Troy is 26.8%, as compared to the rest of the Detroit market at24.1%. However, though Troy has been hit hard, in the first quarterwe saw 98,000 sf of absorption. While the total sf in the city is13.5 million sf, 100,000 sf is not too dramatic, but we're hopingthat trend will keep developing," Collins says. "I think Balusterwill be well-positioned when the market comes back."

The spokeswoman says her company believes in Troy, and inOakland County, "one of the best counties in the US." She saysthere's a lot of upgrading going on at the park, which alsoincludes tenants Worklife Financial, the Henry Ford Rehmann Groupand ADP. Thatcher, for example, will be getting a brand new lobbyand elevator cab updates, and the entire campus is undergoing alarge landscaping program and new monument signage, she says. "Ourbig strategy is repositioning the asset and putting the portfolioback out in the community," the spokeswoman says. "We're alsolooking to court companies from outside the area. With a vacancy of600,000 sf, there's no way we're getting that from the Troy officemarket alone."