DETROIT-Quicken Loans Inc. has bought the 505,000-square-foot Chase Tower and also Two Detroit Center, a 1,095-space parking garage. The purchase, following eight months after the company moved its headquarters to four floors of the Compuware building nearby, was reportedly done for almost $27 million.
Quicken left its headquarters in Livonia, MI in August to begin a move of its 4,000 employees, some who work for spin-off companies, to downtown Detroit. About 1,700 employees made the move so far from the former headquarters and satellite offices, a company spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com.
The move flaunted mid-30s vacancy rates in the city and a distaste to locate in the city by other firms due to crime and bad schools, as well as a lack of retail and housing.
The Sterling Group sold the 14-story Chase Tower, which has been an office building for numerous banks throughout the years at 611 Woodward Ave. After Bedrock Management Services LLC, Rossetti Architects and Sachse Construction renovate the 52-year-old building, Quicken will locate hundreds of its employees to the tower, which is across from the Compuware building. JP Morgan Chase will also continue occupancy in the Chase building, and office and retail tenants will be sought to take the remaining space, Quicken said in a statement.
Quicken closed in January on another building purchase in the downtown, the 50,000-square-foot Madison Theater office building from owners Broadway Property Partners LLC. The theater was torn down years ago. The company said plans to create a business incubator project in the Madison building.
Rock Holdings, Quicken’s parent company, is owned by founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert, whose real estate deals are more known in Cleveland, where he owns the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and plans to build a casino. However, with this continued movement in downtown Detroit, Gilbert is joining the ranks of the major property owners downtown, including Mike Ilitch of Little Caesar’s Pizza (also owner of the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings teams), businessman Marty Maroun and Compuware owner Peter Karmanos, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes Hockey Team (though to be fair, he’s also owner of the Detroit Whalers junior hockey team).
The deal brings more development to Detroit’s Campus Martius district, which started its resurgence when Karmanos built the Compuware building in 2003. Matt Cullen, president and COO of Rock Cos. (and a long-time expert on Detroit economic development, said in a statement that it’s hoped that more businesses moving and working downtown will encourage retail and multifamily development in the city.
“With the amount of Quicken Loans-related employees working and moving downtown, as well as Compuware, Blue Cross, GM and others, the interest in real and sustainable retail in downtown Detroit is becoming more and more apparent,” Cullen said. “When you add to all of this the concept of the M-1 Light Rail running curbside along Woodward Avenue, you have a true opportunity here for something very special to develop in downtown Detroit.”
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