GM building luxury condos in Detroit

GM, delivering on promises to make Detroit all it can be, is getting into the development game. The General has given Hines Real Estate, out of Houston, a 6-acre riverfront plot next to the Renaissance Center where Hines plans to build 600 luxury condominiums. The condos, to be built in three phases, will go for anywhere from $300K to a $1M, and GM will get a cut of the profits. Hines oversaw the RenCen makeover, and built Detroit's Comerica tower.

According to the head of GM's Economic Development and Enterprise Services, "there's still a lot of pent-up demand for people to live in the city of Detroit." This, even though Detroit's riverfront -- and perhaps the entire city itself -- has long been overdue for some grooming. Fifty thousand residents have left Detroit since 2000, yet the downtown area has seen a slight rise, and the claim for the riverfront is that "there is no better real estate in the region." Groundbreaking on the potentially decade-long project is scheduled for the spring of '08. People might be able to move in by the spring of '09.

[Source: Detroit News]