By Jake Feldman
News and Opinions Editor
Detroit is a beautiful city and home to many interesting buildings and places, including the Renaissance Center, which is the tallest building in the city and home to General Motors.
The Renaissance Center will start sharing the limelight with a new Motor City skyscraper that is being constructed on the old site of the Hudson’s department store, which is on the corner of Grand River and Woodward Avenues.
Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm Bedrock Detroit is building the skyscraper, which will be the second largest building in the Motor City behind the Renaissance Center. Originally, Bedrock planned to build the tallest skyscraper Detroit, but due to pandemic financial changes, it will no longer meet the 912 foot tall goal.
The priority for the building now is its impact. Matt Cullen, CEO of Bedrock Detroit, told the Detroit Free Press: "What we concluded is we wanted an iconic building ... and the need to be the tallest wasn’t on our highest list of priorities anymore."
Gilbert, who owns Rocket Mortgage and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and his people want a new Detroit Icon, a building that brings pride to the city for years to come, just as the J.L. Hudson Department Store did before its closure in 1983. The Bedrock project will total $909 million expenditure, one of the most ambitious projects in Detroit's rich history.
The building will be a long- lasting Motor City staple, piercing the skyline and having an impact on downtown Detroit into the future. The skyscraper will contain a hotel, office complex, living space and restaurants. It is expected to open in 2023, capping off a five-year build that broke ground in December 2017.
So when you next drive to Detroit, you won’t see a tall building yet, but a massive hole in the ground filled and surrounded by much construction activity.