Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert's real estate arm announced today it will build a 1,300-space parking garage with 33,000 square feet of retail space in downtown Detroit.
That amount of retail space on the ground floor of the garage would translate into roughly 10 new stores, depending on how much space each one takes. No retailers have been identified yet.
Construction on the 535,000-square-foot Z-shaped retail and parking development is expected to start this month and take a year to complete.
The structure will zigzag from the corner of Broadway and East Grand River to the corner of Library and Gratiot, occupying what is now a surface parking lot.
The announcement came from Rock Ventures, the real estate arm created by Gilbert and his partners to manage his development work. Rock Ventures said the new project is meant to ease parking shortages in and around Detroit's central business district and to bring much-needed retail and dining options to downtown.
"Downtown Detroit's population is growing every day, as new start-ups launch and other companies move downtown. In two years alone, the number of people who work in the central business district has increased by more than 10,000 people," Gilbert said in a statement. "These folks need parking, and more places to eat and shop. Our new development will help meet some of this demand."
Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher99@freepress.com ___
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