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When Dan Gilbert first started snapping up downtown Detroit office buildings, some scratched their heads, wondering just what was the guy thinking. Downtown Detroit was dotted with empty and worn-looking, tall buildings.
Well, Louis Aguilar of The Detroit News writes that the First National Building at 660 Woodward Ave., one of the first downtown sites Dan Gilbert bought, is worth more than 13 times the $8.1 million price paid in 2011, according to an analyst report.
“I would say he really hit a home run with this investment,” reearch analyst Sean Barrie of Trepp, a New York-based firm, tells The News:
A Gilbert-affiliated entity purchased the First National Building, an historic skyscraper next to Campus Martius, in bankruptcy court. Since 2011, Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services has spent more than $110 million to renovate the 25-story historic gem at 660 Woodward, according to the loan prospectus. Last September, the building appraised for $106 million, according a report issued by Trepp.
Last year, the building was used as collateral for a $70 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan issued to the Gilbert entity, 660 Woodward Associates LLC. The firm is registered to Jim Ketai, the managing partner and CEO of Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC. Gilbert is co-founder of Bedrock Real Estate. The last piece of that $70 million loan officially closed in late December, according to Trepp.
