$25 million condo investment to top Book-Cadillac parking garage

The DDA and Roxbury Development, LLC have entered into an agreement for “air rights” on top of the Book Cadillac parking garage, to be constructed at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Griswold, the current site of the Commerce Building.

Roxbury plans for approximately 80 condo units and will lease or buy 120 of the garage’s 528 parking spaces. The agreement is valued at $750,000, which is what the DDA will spend to build the garage to higher specifications that will permit additional floors to be added for the condos.

This is the first such deal in Detroit, and Roxbury’s James Van Dyke explains their interest. “We look at this project as an opportunity to add value to a corner that will be a very prominent corner, and we should start looking at all [Downtown] intersections like that. Every parking deck that the DDA puts up is an opportunity for development, even if it starts at the 11th floor.”

Roxbury has long their eye on the Capitol Park area, where they keep their offices in the David Stott Building. Van Dyke points out the area’s building stock, layout and accessibility to main corridors such as Michigan Avenue, Grand River and Woodward. Van Dyke sees this project, branded The Griswold~Capitol Park, as “a great transition project” for the area.

While design details are not finalized, Roxbury intends for The Griswold~Capitol Park to “complement the architecture of the Book Cadillac,” says Van Dyke. Each unit will have a terrace balcony, which is an opportunity that new construction affords them.

The entire project will cost $40 million with the parking garage; the condo development alone is a $25 million investment. Roxbury hopes to begin construction at the end of 2007.

Source: James Van Dyke, Roxbury Group