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Palace of Auburn Hills site the latest property to get new use
Late last month we o cially learned that another big, prominent metro Detroit site is getting new use.
e redevelopment of the former Palace of Auburn Hills land means we can scratch another major property in the region that had a question mark on its next chapter o the list.
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It was revealed on April 28 that Livonia-based Schostak Bros. & Co. plans to redevelop the majority of the 110-acre property with a $200 million electric vehicle parts assembly and distribution facility for General Motors Co. suppliers clocking in at 1.1 million square feet. at con rms our previous reporting from early March.
e Palace site — owned by a joint venture between Schostak Bros. and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores — was always seen as one that wouldn’t sit fallow for long, with potential for R&D or other space with a prime location o I-75.
e last several years have seen major properties in the region converted into new uses.
Among them, in no particular order:
e former Pinnacle Race Course horse racing track in Huron Township has been turned into industrial and warehouse space, with Amazon.com Inc. and Home Depot taking buildings on the site that spans some 650 acres or so.
e Pontiac Silverdome site, the former home of the Detroit Lions, is also a massive new Amazon facility. e property is 127 acres and was rundown and blighted for years before the stadium came down to be replaced by the 3.7 million-square-foot shipping center.
e former Joe Louis Arena site on the Detroit River is being turned into a mixed-use development spearheaded by Detroit-based Sterling Group (also one of the Pinnacle Race Course developers, along with Texas-based
Hillwood Enterprises LP). e rst building under construction is a 496unit, 25-story apartment building called e Residences at Water Square.
e former Eastland Center shopping mall in Harper Woods has been razed to make way for new industrial and warehouse development by suburban Kansas City, Mo.-based NorthPoint Development LLC. Tenants have not been publicly identi ed for the buildings.
e former Michigan state fairgrounds property is also being turned into a massive new Amazon warehouse spanning some 3.8 million square feet in Detroit near Eight Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. Another new building is also being built, and the former dairy cattle barn is being turned into a new transit center.
e former Northland Center mall in South eld is being turned into a new mixed-use development with a heavy multifamily housing focus. A Costco Business Center is also planned, as is a new market.
A former DTE Energy Co. site clocking in at about 14 acres in Ann Arbor is being turned into more than 90 condominiums plus a public park, hotel and commercial space. Developers working on the project in the Lower Town neighborhood are Detroit-based e Roxbury Group, Farmington Hills-based Hunter Pasteur Homes and South eld-based e Forbes Co.
Lakeside Mall, while still open, is the target of a $1 billion proposal to tear the Sterling Heights shopping hub down and create a $1 billion mixeduse project. As envisioned, it would include about 2,800 multifamily housing units, with 750 of those for seniors; 150,000 new square feet of retail and dining space (in addition to the
400,000 square feet that would remain between the Macy’s and JCPenney department stores); 60,000 square feet of o ce space, and a 120-room hotel with a parking deck.
e 48-acre Northville Downs horse racing track is the subject of a proposal that would convert it into 38 single-family homes, 98 townhomes, 28 carriage houses, 62 row houses (half north of Beal Street and half to the south), 172 apartments and 43 condominiums. About one-third of the site’s acreage would be devoted to parks and green space, and there would also be commercial space.
Another former horse racing track, the Hazel Park Raceway, was razed and also turned into new industrial and warehouse space by the Canton Township o ce of New York Citybased Ashley Capital.
e failed former Bloom eld Park development was turned into the Vil- lage at Bloom eld mixed-use development by South eld-based Redico LLC. e 87-acre site along Telegraph Road has been converted into retail, medical, grocery and residential space. ose include the former Summit Place Mall site on the border of Waterford Township and Pontiac at Telegraph and Elizabeth Lake roads. It is currently owned by South eld-based Ari-El Enterprises, which bought the dilapidated shopping center in 2017 and razed it with a proposal to build about 1 million square feet of new space. As of yet, nothing has been built. Have I missed any big ones from the last ve to 10 years? Feel free to email me and let me know.
Others remain unspoken for, though.
Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
