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In 1984, the recession over, Alan Kiriluk decided it was time to accelerate his development company's modest growth.
Over the next two years, Kiriluk's company, Kirco Realty & Development Ltd., doubled its new construction and lured the architectural firm of Minoru Yamasaki & Associates into its first Detroit-area projects since 1963. In the process, Kiriluk gained a reputation as a major area developer of luxury office space.
Kiriluk also made a conscious effort to make his company and its projects more visible, although he is uncomfortable with personal publicity. He consistently turns attention away from himself to his employees and his projects.
"I really have an excellent company. This is a company of 50 people and all their efforts, not of Al Kiriluk," he said.
"It's my job to set the direction. I get a feeling for a piece of property and its presentation and the market that we have to appeal to. . . . I set the direction, and it evolves until we're all happy with it."
The Kirco headquarters building at 200 E. Long Lake Road in Bloomfield Hills reflects Kiriluk's elegant but unpretentious style. The marble floors and walls in the lobby and the brass elevator doors are typical of the attention to detail shown in Kirco projects.
The building is one of 22 commercial developments the firm has completed in the Detroit area since Kiriluk, 45, founded the company in 1974.
The company has in progress 18 projects that total nearly 3.5 million square feet, with an estimated value between $250 million and $350 million. Kiriluk said he also plans to acquire in the neighborhood of $75 million in existing properties across the country over the next year.
Current projects include the largest Kirco has done to date, among them the 430,000-square-foot Oak Hollow corporate campus in Southfield and the 530,000-square-foot Columbia Center office complex at Big Beaver Road and I-75 in Troy.
"Columbia Center is going to be, in our opinion, the corporate high-rise building in the suburban market," Kiriluk said. Columbia Center will consist of two 14-story buildings and a separate one-story medical building.
He is also on the move in downtown Detroit with the development of Brewery Park, on the site of the former Stroh's brewery,...