Firm To Shift Ownership Plan on Towers

(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)

DETROIT-A group called Riverfront Associates, the owner of three apartment towers on the Detroit River, has announced that it is looking for buyers or new holding partners for Towers 100 and 200, comprising 588 rental units. The third tower, with 250 units, has been undergoing a condominium conversion, and more than 75% have been sold. The group would hold onto Tower 300 in the sale.

Managing partner Peter Cummings says that the group has spent $15 million on a renovation program for the buildings and grounds, and to pay for the conversion of Tower 300. The two towers are 90% leased, Cummings says, and buyers have been making many attractive offers recently. The group has held the towers for 25 years.

A spokesman for the group says Detroit has had a strong housing market recently, with the most new housing permits than any of the suburban communities. This is quite the reversal, for the city has a tremendous housing problem.

“The former Book Cadillac Hotel has been empty since the mid-1980s, and it’s now being renovated, with the top floors being made into condos,” the spokesman says. “There’s 67 condos, they’ve sold all but four, with a top price range of $1.4 million. Then there’s the garage next to the Book Cadillac, they’ve already sold the air rights above it for 80 condo units. There’s a number of conversions going on in the city of the retail and office buildings.” He says some experts have estimated there will be 10,000 new housing units in the city by 2011. There’s still no grocery store chain Downtown, however.

The spokesman says no number has been mentioned for a purchase price. The leasing rates at the two towers run from $748 per month for a one-bedroom, one-bath unit, to $2,653 per month for a three-bedroom, three-bath unit.