Excerpts from the story:
For many out-of-town visitors, Super Bowl XL marks the first time they’ll see the city of Detroit not as a backdrop for a gritty movie or music video, but a metropolis ripe for investment and development.
Take it from investors and developers from out of town who have been or plan to pour money into the city already, buying long-vacant structures such as the former Book-Cadillac Hotel and Kales and Lafayette buildings.
And they also say that because local investors and developers are more concerned with building in the ’burbs, there’s plenty of opportunity. The Book-Cadillac, Kales and Lafayette buildings, for example, are being redeveloped or have drawn interest by investors from Cleveland, Indianapolis and Florida, respectively.
“The vast majority of the local business community there has given up on the city in terms of development,” said R. Donahue Peebles, a Miami Beach, Fla.-based developer. “They’ve moved on to Troy or Birmingham or other suburbs. What the city of Detroit needs are fresh sets of eyes, and that’s what developers like me bring to the table.”
Peebles, owner of Peebles Atlantic Development Corp., said he is in final negotiations with the city to buy the Lafayette building, where he plans a $45 million residential redevelopment. He also plans to build a luxury hotel on the Detroit River.
“The city of Detroit has to stop beating up the city of Detroit,” said John Ferchill, CEO of the Cleveland-based Ferchill Group, which plans to buy the Book-Cadillac.
Ferchill also owns downtown’s Hilton Garden Inn. He said he has two other major downtown projects in the works but said he wants to progress on the Book-Cadillac before announcing anything else.
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