$150M Mixed-Use Complex in Works for Downtown Detroit

Plans for the development of Cadillac Centre, a mixed-use project designed to help spur Detroit’s renaissance, have come to the fore. Northern Group Inc. will develop the property at a cost of $150 million. Cadillac Centre will cover the entire Monroe Block downtown on Campus Martius Park.  In terms of architecture, Cadillac Centre will encompass both the old and the new. Leading architect Anthony Caradonna, principal of New York and Roem’s OPUS Architecture and Design Studio Inc., is behind the design of the project, which will feature two 24-story skyscrapers that will be physically linked to Northern Group’s 80-year-old, Beaux-Arts-style Cadillac Tower. Ultimately Cadillac Centre will feature 84 residential apartments, a 40,000-square-foot park, parking to accommodate 800 vehicles, and over 100,000 square feet of retail space to include a 30,000-square-foot market, a 14,400-square-foot fitness and spa facility, and a movie theater. The property will also feature a major green element in the form of a 22,000-square-foot living roof. Officials of the Northern Group will join Detroit’s mayor for the official announcement of the project this Wednesday. Northern Group is relying on private financing for the development and if all goes as the company will break ground on Cadillac Centre in September of next year with an anticipated completion date in December 2011.  Officials of the City of Detroit are in the midst of orchestrating a revitalization program, making efforts to overcome the ramifications of major job losses in the automobile manufacturing sector, as well its consistent ranking as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. One of the most significant demonstrations of faith in the return of the Detroit-area market occurred September of last year with the announcement of  plans for the mixed-use 1.6 million-square-foot Motown Technology & Sports Facility  New York City-based Northern Group specializes in readapting architecturally significant commercial and residential poetries in urban areas across the United States. In addition to its assets in Detroit, the company has a portfolio that includes projects in Los Angeles, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Memphis.