Spring 2020
How a Detroit developer is using innovative leasing to support the city’s creative economy
April 27th, 2020
The 4th Floor of the Fisher Building—a National Historic Landmark in Detroit’s New Center neighborhood—provides an excellent case study. In 2015, mission-based private real estate developer The Platform acquired the building for restoration and modernization, and soon made supporting the city’s creative community a key aspect of its inclusive design strategy.
Open ArticleWinter 2019
Detroit’s Fisher Building About To Get Serious Renovations
February 17th, 2020
The Fisher Building on W. Grand Boulevard is one of Detroit’s cooler buildings. But in recent years, it has been showing its age. It’s 92 years old and looks it. Now major renovation work is set to begin.
Open ArticleNext phase of Fisher Building preservation effort to begin soon
February 11th, 2020
The next phase of preservation and restoration at the iconic Fisher Building is now underway. This week, work will begin to help a team survey the façade of the building. During a four-month period, workers will comb over the 325,000-square-feet of exterior marble so they can survey the building and collect data. That will help establish a plan to make necessary repairs. Over the next four weeks, crews will install scaffolding around the exterior.
Open Article231-unit The Boulevard opens in New Center
December 5th, 2019
A 231-unit mixed-use building, The Boulevard, has officially opened in New Center on the site of a former surface parking lot. Built by the Platform at a cost of $60 million, it’s being hailed as the first major residential development in the neighborhood in a generation. Its 356,000 square feet is spread across six stories, plus 330 underground parking spaces.
Massive housing development opens in Detroit’s New Center: What it looks like
December 5th, 2019
The largest new housing development in Detroit’s New Center in over 30 years is now open, offering a mix of market and below-market apartments. The six-story and 231-unit building, called The Boulevard, is at 2911 W. Grand Blvd. between the Fisher Building and Henry Ford Hospital. The site was previously a parking lot for Henry Ford employees, and before that, was the old 12-story Howard Johnson’s New Center Motor Lodge, which the hospital system dynamited in 1997 after having used it as office space and a dormitory.
Open Article$60 million mixed-use development The Boulevard opens in Detroit’s New Center
December 5th, 2019
The site of a former surface parking lot in New Center has found new use as a $60 million mixed-use development that officials believe will meet the growing need for apartments and retail in the area. Developer The Platform, Mayor Mike Duggan and supporters celebrated with a ribbon-cutting Thursday for the development known as The Boulevard at Third Avenue and West Grand Boulevard.
Open Article$60 million The Boulevard development opens in New Center
December 5th, 2019
Detroit-based developer The Platform on Thursday celebrated opening a $60 million development it calls the first new residential construction of its size in the New Center neighborhood in three decades. Peter Cummings, executive chairman and CEO of The Platform, and Mayor Mike Duggan were among speakers at an event Thursday morning unveiling the 356,000-square-foot development with a mix of 231 apartments. It also has 17,500 square feet of retail, including a Comerica Bank branch that opened Nov. 12 on the development’s ground floor, replacing its location in the nearby Fisher Building.
Open ArticleStrategic Staffing Solutions moves offices from Penobscot to Fisher Building
October 17th, 2019
The Fisher Building has a new largest tenant. Strategic Staffing Solutions (S3), an IT and business services company based in Detroit, will move its headquarters into three floors occupying 57,400 square feet at the iconic New Center building. The move is expected to be finished by the end of 2019. After renovations are complete, corporate and branch offices will move into two additional floors by mid-summer 2020. The company employs as many as 1,400 people, according to Crain’s Detroit Business.
Open ArticleStrategic Staffing Solutions moving to Fisher Building
October 17th, 2019
Strategic Staffing Solutions is moving its corporate headquarters to the Fisher Building, making it the landmark skyscraper’s largest tenant, company officials announced Thursday. The company’s move from the Penobscot Building in downtown Detroit will begin with relocating its development center operations by the end of the year. The corporate and branch offices will begin the move in early 2020. The development center and call center operations will be on the sixth floor and the corporate offices and branch offices will move to the building’s 20th and 21st floors following renovations.
Open Article$36 million being spent to rehab, expand and improve the Fisher building
July 19th, 2019
The owners of the Fisher Building – HFZ Capital Partners, Rheal Capital Management and The Platform – are refinancing the skyscraper for $36 million to cover the costs of expansion, building improvements and more. Anticipated building improvements include restoring the brass entrance doors, modernizing three elevators and more. Improvements have been made recently, including a $1.4 million masonry work on the marble in the building and the restoration of the Arcade’s ceiling. The building also has a new HVAC system, which brought heating and cooling to the arcade for the first time in the building’s history.
Open Article