City planners have taken a step toward allowing Renaissance Center Tower 600 to be used for more than just office space.
With the Detroit Planning Commission’s approval on Thursday night, an entity connected to Farmington Hills-based Friedman Real Estate, which owns the 336,000-square-foot Tower 600 of the seven-building complex, could add uses like hotel, multifamily housing, restaurants, retail or others.
The Detroit City Council needs to sign off on the zoning change, as well.
There is no set plan for the tower and future users as of yet, Planning Commission staff said. Commission documents say it’s only about 10% occupied after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan vacated 165,000 square feet — roughly half — of the building in February to consolidate into Tower 500 next door.
An email was sent to a spokesperson for Friedman Real Estate as well as an executive there seeking comment Friday morning.
It’s the latest change for the Renaissance Center in the last six months.
First, Friedman, through a network of affiliates, purchased the 500 and 600 towers from a New Jersey-based publicly traded utility company in December, spending an estimated $15 million on the buildings and land, plus what an executive said was $10 million to $15 million to retain BCBSM and consolidate employees into the 500 Tower. The health insurer signed a long-term lease there.
Friedman then quietly flipped the leased 500 Tower to an entity called KPI 500 Tower LLC, connected to Florida-based Kawa Private Investments in a deal estimated at $30.4 million. The LLC is registered at Kawa's Florida address and lists its deputy CEO on its business incorporation documents.
Last month, General Motors Co. said it was leaving its longtime headquarters in the Renaissance Center the automaker owns for Dan Gilbert’s Hudson’s Detroit development a block north of Campus Martius Park at Woodward and Grand River avenues.
GM is expected to move next year, and the future of the GM-owned portion of the complex — the four 39-story office towers flanking a 73-story hotel skyscraper, Michigan’s tallest building — is murky. GM, Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real estate company, and city, county and state officials are mulling what to do with it.
