Dan Gilbert and his company, Bedrock, announced they are investing $2.1 billion in four different projects with the plans to create 24,000 jobs in Detroit.
Gilbert made the announcement Wednesday afternoon at the Book Tower.
The investments will be in the Book Tower, and previously announced projects at the former Hudson's site, the Monroe Block near Greektown and Campus Martius, and the One Campus Martius building, formerly known as the Compuware Building.
"This is a day we've been waiting for for a long time," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said. "The city of Detroit is going vertical. $2 billion that will reshape this city's skyline and Dan Gilbert and the Bedrock team are driving us in the right direction."
Of the 24,000 jobs that are being created, 15,000 will be construction jobs and the other 9,000 permanent jobs. $1.9 billion of it will be privately financed with $250 million in incentives.
The $250 million in incentives are expected to come with the My Thrive Bill, which designates, according to Duggan, money from the state income tax to help give the incentives.
"You have a situation where the state of Michigan is supporting the development of the city," without hurting the city's schools and government.
With the city ordinance, 51 percent of the workers have to be from the city of Detroit. Duggan said it has the potential to be over 1 million hours of work on all of these projects, more than double the work Detroiters did on Little Caesars Arena.
According to Gilbert, they are investing $313 million in rehabilitation for the Book Tower, which was vacant when Bedrock bought it over two years ago.
There will be nearly 320,000 square feet of space, including 80,000 square feet of office space, plus retail space, 95 residential units and possibly hotels. Gilbert said they are talking to high-end hotels who want to come to Detroit and view it as a real opportunity to bring a 4-star and 5-star hotel to the city.
The plans for the One Campus Martius building include filling in the massive gap on the back of the building, facing away from Campus Martius Park.
It is a $95 million expansion that will add 273,000 square feet to the building, plus upgrading the lobby to make it more open and more exciting.
The other two projects have previously been announced.
Gilbert said the skyscraper and building at the site of the old Hudson's in downtown Detroit will cost $900 million and will be the tallest skyscraper in the city.
The building will have 240,000 square feet for office space, 100,000 square feet for retail space, 75,000 square feet of public space and 330 residential units.
"We want to make this a landmark attraction, landmark architecture that Detroit will be proud of for decades and decades," Gilbert said.
The plan for the skyscraper is to attract the kind of businesses and tech businesses for the city. It will have open floor plates, lots of light and what he said is a lot of attraction from an architectural standpoint.
It's expected to break ground in 2017.
The final project is the Monroe Block and will cost more than $830 million. it will have 810,000 square feet of office space, 170,000 square feet of retail space, 482 residential apartments and at least 900 parking spaces.
That's expected to break ground next year.
During the announcement, Gilbert said the city is in dire need of more room for offices and residences.
"We have nowhere to go for more office space," he said. "Either Quicken Loans has to move or go vertical. Momentum breeds momentum."
According to Gilbert, all four projects are in a combined 5-year timeline, meaning the last of the four should be completed within five years.
