Here's Model D's guide to investing downtown. Also check out our guides to visiting and moving to downtown Detroit.The before and after picture in downtown Detroit is enough to put any TV makeover show to shame.
It’s easy in the everyday hustle and bustle to overlook how much has happened in the past few years. When you tally it up, though, it’s clear there has been a tremendous transformation in the heart of the Motor City — and not just because the big leagues played a couple games here.
Hosting the Super Bowl this winter and baseball’s All-Star Game last summer helped move things along, but much of the investment can be credited to investors’ commitment and desire to be in the city. Downtown developments include:
• Compuware’s $400 million, 15-story headquarters in 2003, now also home to a
Hard Rock Cafe,
Borders and
Ben & Jerry’s.
• GM’s $500 million renovation of the
Renaissance Center, where it moved its world headquarters.
• At least 67 new businesses opening downtown in the past 36 months, with at least 20 new restaurants.
•
Ford Field, which brought the Lions downtown, next to the Tigers’ new den,
Comerica Park.
• New housing options — at least 400 new units with more planned.
• A new state-of-the-art, $30 million
YMCA.
• Streetscaping projects, adding trees, lighting, roads and sidewalks to areas along Woodward, Washington Boulevard and Gratiot.
•
Campus Martius, a new town square that hosts music, ice-skating and more.
• Detroit Economic Growth Corp.’s $12 million façade improvement program, which matched private funds to give face-lifts to more than 70 buildings and lots.
• A new pedestrian wayfinding system, including kiosks with maps and arrows pointing to major attractions.
• A Michigan State Housing Development program that gave 17 downtown building owners up to $150,000 each in matching grants to make them more “retail ready.”
And that’s just a start: A new office tower is nearly finished near Compuware; the riverfront will soon have miles of the
RiverWalk complete; new restaurants and small businesses are announcing openings all the time; and new places to live like the Vinton Building and 1001 Woodward are coming on line.
The big games and celebrations marked a significant milestone in downtown Detroit’s transformation; yet, the commitment among business, community and government leaders too see Detroit’s transformation through to the finish has not waned. And more investors and businesspeople are seeing real opportunities to be part of that renaissance.
The heart of the regionWhen business owners talk about the city, they wear their passion for Detroit on their sleeves. Detroit, they say, is where everything happens, and they don’t want to be any place else.
“Detroit is the center for Southeast Michigan. Not Royal Oak. Not Clarkston. Not Auburn Hills,” says Adam Laurie, co-owner of the new
Buzz Bar on Larned near Greektown. “As far as what we wanted to do, being a bar and having live music, being downtown made a lot of sense. The heart of the issue is it is a phenomenal city, people need to respect that and show a lot of love.”
Peter Karmanos, CEO of
Compuware, has shown a lot of love in a big way. Ask him if he feels vindicated locating his company’s headquarters downtown, and he replies with an adamant: “There’s never been any question.” Moving downtown, he says, “was the right thing to do.” And he’s never looked back.
"It's about really believing in the city," says Frank Taylor, whose Southern Hospitality Restaurant Group runs some of the premier restaurants in the city — including
Seldom Blues,
Sweet Georgia Brown, and the
Detroit Breakfast House & Grill. "I just really think the city is on its way."
Miller Canfield, the largest law firm in the state, is also headquartered downtown. Its Jefferson offices house about 130 attorneys. “There’s a lot of activity downtown,” says CEO Thomas Linn. “Half our lawyers are trial lawyers. The major courts in Michigan are here — the Federal court, bank court and Wayne County Circuit Court.”
Not only is downtown the center of business, entertainment, sports and culture, it’s also the region’s hub. Interstates 94, 75, 96, the Lodge, Woodward, Grand River, Michigan and Jefferson funnel into the heart of the city.
Linn also says the proximity to Windsor, where his firm has a satellite campus, is also a bonus. The tunnel downtown makes it easy for Detroiters and Windsorites to come back and forth in just a few minutes, offering easy access to each others’ assets. He says if you look at the more than 4 million people in metro Detroit and add in 400,000 living across the river, “that just adds and makes it a bigger, more important commercial center.”
Desire for an urban lifestyle Chris Leinberger, head of the
new real estate program at the University of Michigan and a national expert on emerging housing markets, says 20 years ago most downtowns “had the life sucked out of them.” Now, however, there’s a proven market for urban living, and what’s being seen in Detroit is being seen all over the country. “It’s happening, and it’s because the market wants it,” he told the audience at the Downtown Detroit Partnership’s annual meeting.
The desire for downtown living has meant that Detroit’s Central Business District is becoming a bona fide neighborhood. Residents live along lower Woodward in lofts, they live in
Riverfront Condominiums, slick apartments in the
Kales Building on Grand Circus Park, and in
lofts in Greektown and
along Woodward.
As more planned projects are completed — including
1001 Woodward,
Broderick Tower and the condo transformation at the
Riverfront Condominiums — more rooftops will come downtown.
Aaron Alston is part of the partnership that’s rehabbing the
Vinton Building on Woodward. The 12-floor structure will become a mix of residential, office and first-floor retail. By year’s end, Alston plans to be one of the building’s residents, too. He says more people want a 24-hour city, and they want to live, work and recreate all within easy walking distance to their homes. Living downtown means “your life takes place right outside your door,” he says.
And these developments are attracting a diverse range of tenants, from college kids to people their parents’ age. There are even families with young children. Alston says two of the tenants in the Vinton Building have kids.
Making a splash For retailers and restaurants, more rooftops mean more customers. Factor in the area’s daytime visitors and office workers, and local and national retailers are getting the picture that downtown’s market is growing.
Recently, a CVS pharmacy opened on Woodward near Campus Martius, across from a Ben & Jerry’s and a Borders bookstore. In the past year, dry cleaners, florists, clothing stores and coffee shops have come downtown. Residents say there’s a market for more retail, especially a grocery store or gourmet market.
Laurie of Buzz Bar says locals make up a good part of his regular customers — and bars and restaurants need their regulars. “It’s key to business,” he says. “It’s the age-old the chicken and egg thing. People wouldn’t want to move downtown because there were no businesses to support the people, and businesses wouldn’t want to move downtown because there were no people to support the businesses.”
But Laurie says more residents downtown plus the employees from neighboring offices like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the Renaissance Center and the casinos, make for a healthier market. “There’s a lot more community. It definitely doesn’t hurt.”
Aida Brown, co-owner of the new
Innergy Day Spa and Tearoom in Greektown, also says downtown residents have been a boon. But she’s also been pleasantly surprised to find that customers are willing to drive downtown from elsewhere.
“People don’t mind the commute and the parking. That was one of the things we were afraid of, but it really hasn’t been an issue,” she says. “People are coming from different parts of the metro area because they heard about us.”
Word-of-mouth, and an ability to make a bigger splash, have proven to be an advantage on the downtown market, she says. Plus with entertainment and dining options like the nearby casinos and Greektown restaurants, it’s easy for people to factor some spa time into making a daylong downtown outing, she says.
She and business partner Keli Hearon originally had opened in Farmington after an initial hunt downtown didn’t pan out. The Farmington location had ample parking and all the amenities they’d hoped for, but it just wasn’t clicking. “We didn’t really get a lot of business,” says Brown. “There was so much spa-wise already that it was saturated there with Birmingham, Bloomfield, Farmington. We were like, ‘We picked the worst area.’”
They decided to look downtown again, and took a chance on a brownstone on Beaubien, a couple blocks from the Greektown casino. The response, Brown says, has been a complete 360. “With the tearoom, the uniqueness of it, people were really like, ‘This is what downtown needs,’” she says. “That is like — wow. When it’s your dream, you don’t know if other people are going to get it, to accept it. But people get it. They get the feel of what we are trying to do.”
Incentives and assistanceLaurie says that fellow businesspeople have been welcoming downtown. As for dealing with permits and red tape, he says it can be challenging but not prohibitive. “There’s bureaucracy everywhere, Detroit’s is just a little bigger,” says Laurie. “If you have yourself together and you know what you are doing, and you know who to talk to,” then it’s not like you are going up against some big monster.”
A good first stop for prospective business owners is the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. The DEGC is a public-private agency committed to spurring development in the city, especially downtown.
Alston of the Vinton Building says working with the DEGC was key to getting his project going. “The folks there are dedicated to trying to help and assist developers,” says Alston.
The
DEGC Web site has resources for outside businesses looking to move into the city, as well as opportunities for entrepreneurs wanting to do business here. Additionally, the site offers information on city’s requests for proposals — i.e. opportunities to do business with the City of Detroit — and basic information on the myriad tax credits, grants and incentive programs available to those who want to open up shop downtown.
DEGC’s free services for entrepreneurs also include project-planning assistance, help identifying locations, and demographics and other business data. DEGC also can help steer business owners through permitting and regulatory processes.
Directions to Downtown
From the East:
Take I-94 West and merge onto I-75 South/Chrysler Fwy via Exit 261A toward Toledo. Continue onto I-375 South/Chrysler Fwy via Exit 51C on the left toward the Civic Center. Turn slight left onto Jefferson Ave. E and turn right onto Woodward, arrive Downtown.
From the North:
Take I-75 South and continue onto I-375 South/Chrysler Fwy via Exit 51C on the left toward the Civic Center. Turn slight left onto Jefferson Ave. E and turn right onto Woodward, arrive Downtown.
From the West:
Take I-96 East and take the I-75 North/M-10 exit on the left toward Flint/Civic Center. Continue to the M-10/Lodge Fwy exit toward Rosa Parks Blvd/Civic Center and then exit on the left toward M-10/Lodge Fwy/Civic Center. Take the M-10 South exit toward the Civic Center and then merge onto John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 South. John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 becomes Jefferson Ave. Turn left onto Woodward, arrive in Downtown.
From the South:
Take I-94 East toward Detroit and merge onto I-96 East/Jefferies Fwy via Exit 213B toward Canada. Continue to the I-75 North/M-10 exit on the left toward Flint/Civic Center. Take the M-10/Lodge Fwy exit toward Rosa Parks Blvd/Civic Center and then exit on the left toward M-10/Lodge Fwy/Civic Center. Take the M-10 South exit toward the Civic Center and then merge onto John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 South. John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 becomes Jefferson Ave. Turn left onto Woodward, arrive in Downtown.
Take I-75 North toward Detroit and continue to Exit 49 to M-10/Lodge Fwy/Rosa Parks Blvd/Civic Center. Exit on the left toward M-10/Lodge Fwy/Civic Center. Take the M-10 South exit toward the Civic Center and then merge onto John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 South. John C Lodge Fwy/M-10 becomes Jefferson Ave. Turn left onto Woodward, arrive in Downtown.
Photos:CompuwareErnst and YoungThe Renaissance CenterThe Kales BuildingDavid Broderick TowerThe Vinton BuildingFord FieldCampus Martius ParkThe RiverWalk
All Photographs Copyright Dave Krieger