Rock Ventures, the Detroit firm led by urban mega-booster Dan Gilbert, is close to signing a deal for its 16th downtown skyscraper, Louis Aguilar reports in The Detroit News.
The pending acquisition is a 25-floor office building at 1001 Woodward Avenue, overlooking Campus Martius on the northwest corner of Woodward and Michigan.
"Hopefully, by the end of this month" the sale of the structure will be complete, owner Dmitrios ("Jim") Papas tells Aguilar.
The 1001 Woodward building is across the street from the Compuware building where Gilbert's Quicken Loans Inc. is headquartered. . . . This would be the 16th purchase of a downtown property by Gilbert and company since January 2011.
Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, relocated the headquarters of the nation's largest online home mortgage lender from Livonia to Detroit in August 2010. Gilbert's portfolio of companies has since moved more than 7,000 people to work in downtown.
The 1001 Woodward tower, just south of the David Stott Building, went up in 1965 and is designed by Smith, Hinchman, & Grylls. Tenants include GalaxE Solutions, a growing technology services provider.
Pappas paid $5.4 million for it five years ago, according to The News business writer.
