Certainly Dan Gilbert can take some credit for the lower vacancy rate of office buildings downtown.
Still, industry experts find the drop impressive.
Kirk Pinho of Crain's Detroit Business reports that the vacancy rate in downtown Detroit’s most prized office buildings fell from 19.2 percent in 2012 to 11.5 percent last year. The figures were included in a report by Jones Lang Lasalle, a professional services and investment management company specializing in real estate.
“The absorption numbers are dramatic,” Dave MacDonald, executive vice president of Jones Lang Lasalle told Crain's. “They tell a great story for a submarket that, from a leasing perspective, had been lagging or static for the last couple decades.
“Even if you could pinpoint all the activity to one person (Dan Gilbert), it's hard to ignore the impact of 10,000 to 15,000 new workers downtown. Any market in the country would crave to have that kind of growth just in people.” -- Allan Lengel
