Final details laid out for Gilbert's next development in downtown Detroit
Dan Gilbert's real estate firm has finalized the details of its long-in-the-works Monroe Blocks development in downtown Detroit, now set to begin construction next week.
Bedrock's chief lobbyist, Jared Fleisher, laid out the development's latest two-phase plan Wednesday afternoon for members of the Downtown Development Authority, who unanimously approved it.
Now called The Development at Cadillac Square, the development has been significantly scaled back from an original, $800 million-plus version dating to before the COVID-19 pandemic that was heavy on new office buildings and never got started. This latest version is also a bit smaller than a 2023 iteration that included a third phase,
'We've consolidated and simplified the plan into two phases,' Fleisher said. 'COVID changed this downtown and downtowns across the country. It's all about growing our residential population and creating the kind of entertainment amenities that are the new lifeblood of our downtown, because banking on office ain't gonna do it."
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A groundbreaking is scheduled for April 17 on the first component of the revised project's initial phase: a 70,000-square-foot venue for ultra-high-definition viewing of sports and other live events, known as COSM Detroit.
The venue will go at the corner of Monroe Street and Campus Martius, on the previous site of the "Monroe Street Midway." It would have seating for 700 people under its "shared reality dome," with an adjacent lounge, dining hall and outdoor deck bringing total capacity to about 1,500.
Fleisher also revealed that the second component of the initial phase, to be built next to COSM, will be a 34,000-square-foot Market Hall. The Market Hall would be developed by London-based The Venue Group and feature an array of local restaurant concepts, local retail brands and space for live music.
COSM and the Market Hall are expected to draw tens of thousands of people to downtown every month, he said.
The development's second phase must break ground by Oct. 1, 2026, under the newly approved DDA agreement. It calls for construction of new housing — between 250 to 280 units — as well as 42,000 square-feet of new retail space. The second phase also calls for a new parking structure with 950 to 1,100 spaces.
The development plan no longer includes a third phase, which was to have some 400,000 feet of office space and an additional 17,000 square feet of retail, and get started by January 2028.
The Monroe Blocks was one of four Bedrock projects in downtown approved in 2018 for a then-new Transformational Brownfield development incentive, collectively worth up to $618 million. The others are the still-ongoing Hudson's site project, the finished Book Tower restoration and the completed expansion to the back of One Campus Martius, formerly known as the Compuware Building.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Final details laid out for Gilbert's next downtown development
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