Dan Gilbert’s latest building buy may be the next big tourist attraction for downtown Detroit.
Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC purchased the 114-year-old State Savings Bank building at 151 W. Fort St. at Shelby Street for an undisclosed price. The deal closed Friday, according to Steve Apostolopoulos, co-founder and managing partner of the building’s seller: Triple Properties Detroit LLC, an American arm of Toronto-based Triple Properties Inc.
Bedrock’s public relations team confirmed the purchase, but would not disclose more specifics.
“We have not determined what kind of use we would like to deliver for this building, yet,” Robin Schwartz, public relations director for Bedrock, said in an email to Crain’s. “We will dive deep and research like we always do so we can make the best possible decision that fits best with all of downtown.”
But Stan Finsilver, executive vice president of Farmington Hills-based Friedman Integrated Real Estate Solutions LLC, told me Saturday afternoon that Bedrock purchased the vacant building with the intent for him to open the Detroit Car Museum there.
Gilbert has openly talked about the need for a car-centric tourist destination in the city where he has been buying properties at Warp Speed since 2011.
So could the 92,000-square-foot building eventually become a car museum? Time will tell.
Last year, Triple Properties had floated a proposal to demolish it and build a $30 million parking garage.
“We had other options with different users,” said Apostolopoulos. “We didn’t have any plans to sell the building, but this was such a compelling land use and we said it will definitely benefit the area.”
Finsilver said Saturday afternoon said he has 501(c)3 status for the Detroit Car Museum, as well as a trademark, logo and website that’s in development. Investment figures and a possible opening date have not yet been determined.
Regardless, it could be pretty cool.
Finsilver talked about things like opening a diner in the building, a drive-in movie-inspired area for people to take in classic car flicks, and other things.
Whether the museum will actually end up in the State Savings Bank building will depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is parking in the area, Finsilver said.
If a fenced, guarded parking solution for 200-400 vehicles can’t be found, Finsilver will look elsewhere in the city – perhaps in Midtown along Woodward Avenue – for the museum.
“I just want in my lifetime for there to be a Detroit car museum, and my goal is it for to be in the city of Detroit,” Finsilver said. “I’ve got to raise the money because museums can’t exist just on entry fees and what the diner makes and those kinds of things.”
Triple Properties purchased the building in 2012 for $700,000 from Bloomfield Farms LLC, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service. Bloomfield Farms is registered to Cullan Meathe, the former owner and chairman of Taylor-based Metro Cars Inc.
Triple is also the owner of the 996,000-square-foot Penobscot Building at 645 Griswold St., tenants of which the parking garage would have serviced had the State Savings Bank building been razed. The 2012 Penobscot sale was for $4.8 million.
The Detroit Historic Commission denied Triple Properties’ request to demolish the building in August 2013.
“We acquired other land now to accommodate a parking deck about two blocks away,” Apostolopoulos said.
Triple also owns the Pontiac Silverdome, which it purchased at auction in November 2009 for $583,000 and operates under Triple Sports & Entertainment LLC.
The 80,235-seat stadium had been built for $55.7 million and opened in 1975 as home of the Detroit Lions until they left for Ford Field downtown in 2002.
Gilbert has bought over 60 properties – buildings and parking decks – in the last few years totaling more than 9 million square feet. His investments and renovations have topped $1.3 billion.
This is just his latest.
Crain’s first reported last month that Bedrock and Meridian Health have agreed to purchase the 1.1 million-square-foot Compuware Corp. headquarters building at Campus Martius.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings by Compuware said the purchase price, which also includes an attached parking garage with more than 2,000 spaces, was for about $142 million. That deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
