David Whitney Building secures final $8.5 million in funding, will begin construction immediately

A recent $8.5 million investment by the State of Michigan in the David Whitney Building has made headlines recently. This money finally enables the Whitney Partners, LLC to move forward with construction.
 
The Whitney Partners are the Roxbury Group, the Detroit-based real estate development and consulting firm that is heading up this renovation project and most recently completed the Auburn, a new construction project in Midtown, and Troy-based investment firm Trans Inn Management Inc.
 
"The $8.5 million is coming as a loan being lent to us through the Michigan Community Revitalization Program," says David Di Rita, owner of the Roxbury Group. "It is enormously important. It closed the remaining funding gap between all of the other credits and incentives."
 
So far the project has received $9.8 million in a state brownfield redevelopment tax credit and $12.4 million in state historic tax credits. "We still had about $8.5 million to bring to the deal to get financing closed and that’s what this will do. It was the final piece."
 
At press time the Whitney Partners were working to close on overall financing for the project. Construction will start immediately once the funding is in place.
 
"We won’t be announcing when we close the financing deal," Di Rita says. "We will just start construction and that’s how people will know."

So keep an eye out for those construction cranes.
 
The David Whitney Building has sat empty since 2000. The Roxbury Group bought the building in 2011 for $3.3 million. The renovation will create 105 residential apartments, a 136-room Aloft Hotel (a Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide property), a new and improved People Mover station, and ground floor retail.
 
"We’re very proud of the fact of being able to (secure funding) within 24 months of getting the building," says Di Rita.
 
They are targeting early 2014 for full completion of the project, which is expected to cost $82.5 million and create 75 jobs.
 
Source: David Di Rita, Owner, The Roxbury Group
Writer: Nicole Rupersburg

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