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Studio One Apartments, at 4501 Woodward Ave. in Detroit, could just as easily have been named Studio First Apartments because the development has captured at least three firsts.
The $36 million project was the first time three Grand Rapids developers - Marcel Burgler of Prime Development, Michael Houseman of Houseman Construction and Thomas O'Hare, a retired executive vice president from the North American division of Host Marriott - headed east, a direction that not very many West Michigan developers have taken.
The mixed-use development was also the first Motor City project to be honored at a Grand Rapids event. Studio One Apartments earned a Development of the Year award at the University of Michigan Urban Land Institute Real Estate Foram held here last month for the very first time.
It was also the first time that Wayne State University participated in a public-private real estate partnership. Not with an east side firm, though, but with the trio from Grand Rapids.
Studio One Apartments is a five-story, 155,000-square-foot structure on the Wayne State campus that features retail space on the ground floor, 124 apartments on the other levels, and a 950-space parking deck on the five-acre site. More than a third of the upscale loft-apartments were leased and five businesses were getting ready to take over the 30.000 square feet of retail space when CQ spoke with the cicvelupura
"We have letters-of-intent, we have interest we have some signed leases with other tenants, but we don't expect to really hit full occupancy on this building probably until sometime next year. It's a big project," said Burgler, a principal with Prime Development.
"We're on track with our...