GM and real estate developer Bedrock are moving forward with big renovation plans for the Renaissance Center, according to Fox 2 Detroit. The Detroit complex will be significantly altered with the demolition of two buildings and a major revamp of the rest of the property.
As originally planned, Tower 300 and Tower 400 on the Northeast and Southeast corners will be razed. The central tower – Detroit’s tallest building – will be converted into a hotel on the lower levels and 200 apartments on the upper levels. Tower 100 at the Southwest corner will become an apartment building with 400 “mixed-income” and affordable units, while Tower 200 will remain an office building.
The 103-foot-tall podium surrounding the base of the Renaissance Center towers will be removed. Jared Fleisher, Vice President of Bedrock’s parent company, called the podium a “Berlin wall-like structure” that’s “impossible to navigate.”
“We remove the podium, we open the site, we reconnect downtown to the riverfront – the sight line from downtown to the riverfront – and for the first time in 50 years, you’ll be able to walk right up to the front door of the towers,” said Fleisher.
The newly freed-up space will be used for a new public park inspired by Chicago’s Millennium Park. Meanwhile, space currently taken up by parking lots will be converted into a shopping center similar to Chicago’s Navy Pier. An overarching goal of the project is to make the Renaissance Center “truly public infrastructure,” in Fleisher’s words.
The cost of the Renaissance Center project is estimated at $1.6 billion. The plan is for $1 billion to come from Bedrock and $250 million to come from GM, while the rest will be covered by public funds. It’s expected that $100 million will come from Detroit and $250 million will come from Michigan.
Some $350 million toward the project being publicly funded was faced with pushback from the public and some lawmakers in Lansing. “It was a mistake on my part to talk about it (as) ‘this is the number’ rather than ‘this is the policy, this is the use of the funds we’re talking about,'” Fleisher said.
GM will officially move its headquarters to Hudson’s Detroit in 2025 but has not specified a more precise timeline for the process. Hudson’s will be GM’s fourth headquarters location in Detroit since 1911.
Comments
You laughed a few years ago when I said bulldoze it, I was half right.
Stupidest idea gm has had! Utterly p****d about it to a point, I will never own another new gm product. May trade the ones I have as well! This won’t improve or benefit anyone! Just more demolition of Detroit. Nothing iconic on the skyline!