Tagged: woodward avenue

Just as his father did fifty years ago, Martin Luther King III will address an expected march of thousands in Detroit.

This year Detroit celebrates the 50th anniversary of the day Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before 25,000 people at Cobo Hall in Detroit and declared, "I have a dream this afternoon." This was just two months before the historic March on Washington.

Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert and his Rock Ventures LLC, have added another Detroit landmark to their real estate portfolio.

The investment group announced Monday it had purchased the One Woodward Avenue office tower.

The Detroit Free Press has more:

The 333,000-square-foot, 26-story building is about 60% occupied. Major tenants include the Detroit Regional Chamber and the law firms Fraser Trebilcock Davis & Dunlap, and Kitch Drutchas Wagner Valitutti & Sherbrook.

As with Gilbert’s other downtown buildings, Rock Ventures plans to renovate the building to accommodate what Gilbert envisions as the city’s emerging roster of technology employers.

Built in 1962, One Woodward was designed by famed architect Minoru Yamasaki and was originally built for the Michigan Consolidated Gas Co., now part of DTE Energy. The design is often called an early predecessor of the Yamasaki design for New York’s World Trade Center.

The building is the tenth downtown property acquired by Gilbert and Rock Ventures since January 2011.

“We continue to bet big on Detroit, and this purchase reinforces our commitment to the exciting entrepreneurial action on Woodward Avenue,” Gilbert said in a statement.

Gilbert now owns nearly 2.5 million square feet of office space in Detroit, making him the second-largest private owner of downtown property behind General Motors, Crain’s reports.

- Jordan Wyant, Michigan Radio Newsroom

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood met with Michigan officials today to discuss the development of a regional transit authority to oversee a light rail line in Detroit.