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$150 million complex planned for downtown Detroit


DetroitMan

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This development is going to be huge for downtown. The design is growing on me since the last time we saw the renderings. The renderings from before were much darker than what are shown in the free press. I can't wait for the project. I am also pretty happy they are waiting on this until late 2009 so the housing market can improve a bit hopefully. Maybe we can see some national retailers in this. Amazing thing is, ALL PRIVATELY FINANCED! THE TIPPING POINT!

Also something to take note of from the features:

"30,000-square-foot market" :)

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I'm still not 100% sold on the design (getting there) but I will say this, I think that if something like that we're going to go somewhere in the city, the Monroe Block is the best place for it, so cheers to that!

Awesome project though, I think we can only keep our fingers crossed given the market the way it is!

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Wow, could this be the mayors big surprise? I can't even imagine anything better than this. "30,000-square-foot market, more than 100,000 square feet of major retail space, a 14,400-square-foot health club and spa, a 40,000-square-foot public park with water features, more than 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty shops, and 800 parking spaces." This is exactly the thing that downtown needs. Reading every little detail brings a smile to my face :yahoo: But I'm a little confused on the big glass wall on the tower behind the center. Is that necessary??

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Wow, could this be the mayors big surprise? I can't even imagine anything better than this. "30,000-square-foot market, more than 100,000 square feet of major retail space, a 14,400-square-foot health club and spa, a 40,000-square-foot public park with water features, more than 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty shops, and 800 parking spaces." This is exactly the thing that downtown needs. Reading every little detail brings a smile to my face :yahoo: But I'm a little confused on the big glass wall on the tower behind the center. Is that necessary??
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Wow. That is very cool. The building is certainly unique for DT. I can't say that I don't like it; I think it will definetly grow on me. But like others have stated it is a bunch of positives.

- Private financing

- Apartemts vs condos

- National retailers

- A small movie theater

- A green living roof to boot.

I think this will be excellent for the city. I can't wait to see it begin construction.

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Cool, heres a new link

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...60626&imw=Y

As well as a Video

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...IDEO01/80105072

So this will include a market, major retail, movie theater, spa/ health club, appertments and parking.

Sounds like everything Downtown Detroit has needed to make it more livable.

Any chance the major retail would be a Macy's? I don't know why but I really want it to be. Would be a good place for christmas time for window shopping and fancy toy dispays like they had days long ago (i.e. a chrismas story).

Hope it goes through, thanks

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Well, the wait until a late 09 ground breaking isn't necessarily due to the housing market, although that has something to do with it. But the article stated, as a more clear reason, that the developer and the DEGC don't have any tenants lined up yet. It's all conceptual and a lot of things can change.

In terms of chicken vs egg and residents vs retail, I think this is going to be a big milestone where we (Detroiters) will start to see a more leveled playing field. It all depends on what retailers and businesses that can be drawn to this site and how successful their presence there will be. In other words, perhaps, we'll see the chicken/egg dispute become less critical because this is one big step toward securing critical mass to the downtown area...along w/ the continued locking in of things like Quicken and the like.

Feed these things with a successful mass transit model, and you have yourself a newly functioning center city that will create the type of attraction that will spread into the neighborhoods which will hopefully make it more easy and enjoyable addressing the major concerns outside of the Central Business District.

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The retail plans call for a 100,000 square foot space which will probably be some type of department store and 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty stores. Here at the top specialty stores in the US:

Top Specialty Store Retailers in the U.S.

Best Buy

GAP

Staples

Office Depot

Toys "R" Us

Could we have one of those in this development?

I hope with the retail, the shops are opened up well to the street level. In the rendering, it looks like people will know what is there and that there is in fact a cinema available unlike the cinema in the RenCen.

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The retail plans call for a 100,000 square foot space which will probably be some type of department store and 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty stores. Here at the top specialty stores in the US:

Top Specialty Store Retailers in the U.S.

Best Buy

GAP

Staples

Office Depot

Toys "R" Us

Could we have one of those in this development?

I hope with the retail, the shops are opened up well to the street level. In the rendering, it looks like people will know what is there and that there is in fact a cinema available unlike the cinema in the RenCen.

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I think all of the stuff that's going in the building is great. I also think that 24 stories is pretty good.

For that glass thing on Cadillac Tower, I agree with them that that part of the building should be more finished than it is, but that glass thing could end up looking weird. At the same time though, I don't think they can make the tower the 35 stories or whatever it would take to get up to the crown. And then you would either be building a separate building next to it (people would want open floors and windows), or you'd be extending the building (which sounds expensive). So the glass thing seems silly but off the top of my head that seems to be the best that can be done right now (other than not building until a bigger building can be built, or building a building that's a lot bigger than it should be right now).

I'm also totally all for reinforcing and expanding "Detroit" architecture. Somewhere I read something about them noticing a lot of atriums in Detroit, so somehow they incorporated or were inspired by atriums. So I think it's good that they're interested in that, but I don't understand how they could pick up on something like that, and totally ignore all of the great hardlined geometric architecture right around it. Chase Tower and the Guardian Building are very geometric like that, and you could probably make the same argument for One Woodward Avenue, 1001 Woodward Avenue, and some other buildings around there. Aside from that, many of the buildings from there are axial or symmetric. 1001 Woodward isn't quite as much as others, but it still continues the street wall, and continues it that way (symetric/axial canyon). The First National Building is part of the larger Caddillac Square/Campus Martius arrangement. I also think that these things are important if one of the goals is to create a somewhat cohesive Rockefeller Center type place at Campus Martius.

I also like that there are towers, because I like towers. I don't like those towers though, lol.

I would be just fine with a IBM Building-esque box crammed up against Cadillac Square, with a shorter base filling out the rest of the lot, and a rooftop patio on top.

::sigh:: Now I want to design a building for there or something, lol.

(sorry for the long post everyone! :lol: )

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It would be great if we could get a department store. I usually hear Macy's, but wouldn't a Parisian be great since it's exclusive to Metro Detroit. Just maybe (wishful thinking) they would move their headquarters to Downtown from Rochester.

A Parisian and a Gap/Old Navy would be the big retail boost that downtown needs.

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I personally think a lot of the design has to do with being different, but the novelty will eventually wear off. I don't know how it will be looked back on, but probably not very well. There are plenty of funky modern buildings from the past that were cool at the time, but ultimately didn't hold up. There are also a lot of great buildings that people didn't like for the same reasons someone might not like this building.

From the signs I thought that it would be Circuit City and K-Mart, but that could also mean a Target.

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