Crain's Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI (2025)

10/31/2025

The Hudson’s building in downtown Detroit isn’t the only one getting outfitted with a new hotel.

The former J.L. Hudson’s department store in Southfield, which was an anchor for the Northland Center shopping mall, is now expected to house a 145- to 150-room hotel in the building's upper levels.

Plans to save the massive Northland property by turning it into a city center-type development were unveiled in 2020, including apartment buildings, lofts and townhouses, as well as turning the 337,000-square-foot Hudson's building into a mix of food, home furnishings and entertainment space. A market-type concept is still envisioned on the ground floor.

According to documents provided by the property's owner and developer, Chicago-based Oxford Capital Group LLC would spearhead the new hotel, currently dubbed The Victor, an homage to the mall's original architect, Victor Gruen. Oxford Capital is one of the companies that owns and manages the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit, as well as the Godfrey Hotel in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood.

A domed indoor soccer venue is also taking shape.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/northland-center-redevelopment-adds-hotel?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/30/2025

Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and partners including Oracle Inc. are planning a massive data center that could create 450 direct jobs near Ann Arbor, after initial local efforts to block the project were shut down.

The 1 gigawatt-plus "hyperscale" data center, plotted for 250 acres of farmland about 10 miles south of Ann Arbor, would be the “largest investment in Michigan history,” according to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who met virtually with San Francisco-based OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in March to discuss the investment.

The announcement comes in the wake of some high-profile flameouts on major manufacturing projects, including a proposed microchip factory near Flint that was previously the largest economic project in Michigan history until backers pulled the plug earlier this year.

OpenAI's push comes amid a mad dash of spending on data centers that has accompanied the gold rush in artificial intelligence.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/economic-development/chatgpt-creator-openai-plans-massive-data-center-michigan-thousands-new-jobs?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/30/2025

An award-winning New York-based restaurant group plans to open its first Detroit concept in the new Bedrock-owned Hudson's building.

Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group announced Thursday that it will open its first restaurant in the Midwest next year in downtown Detroit.

It's the first known restaurant announced for the $1.4 billion site.

Union Square was founded in 1985 by Meyer, a restaurant owner and St. Louis native. It has 14 restaurants in New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo. The company’s Gramercy Tavern restaurant in New York City has won nine James Beard Foundation awards.

Bedrock's Senior Vice President of Hospitality Andrew Leber called the addition of a Union Square Hospitality restaurant to the downtown Detroit dining scene a big deal.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/restaurants/hudsons-get-restaurant-danny-meyers-union-square-hospitality?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/29/2025

Grand Rapids-based restaurant group Project BarFly LLC, the operator of the HopCat beer bar chain, has sold to a Chicago-based private investment firm in a deal that comes five years after a previous owner filed for bankruptcy.

In a transaction announced today, Uncommon Equity LLC purchased Project BarFly, which owns 11 HopCat restaurants in Michigan as well as Stella’s Lounge in downtown Grand Rapids and a restaurant in Lincoln, Neb.

“We are excited to be acquiring HopCat at this pivotal point in time,” Dan Kipp, co-founder and CEO of Uncommon Equity, said in a statement on the deal. He added that Uncommon Equity plans to “carefully grow the HopCat brand while continuing their maniacal focus on great, value-priced food served in a friendly, neighborhood atmosphere.”

Uncommon Equity’s portfolio includes franchise restaurant operators Redberry Restaurants and Rackson, which operate Burger King, Taco Bell, Jersey Mike’s and Dave’s Hot Chicken stores. The firm also invested in Matt’s Cookies, Feel Good Foods, sauce maker Rib Rack and coffee equipment maker Diedrich Roasters.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/restaurants/hopcat-beer-bar-chain-sells-chicago-private-investment-firm?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/29/2025

Who’s Who is your guide to the most influential figures shaping Southeast Michigan.

With nearly 300 leaders across business, government, philanthropy, education, the arts and more, Who's Who highlights the people driving decisions, setting agendas and leading change across the region.

See who made the cut here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/data-center/whos-who-detroit-business-numbers?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/29/2025

A Detroit hospitality veteran will open her latest large-scale, multi-faceted project next month in one of the city’s most historic neighborhoods.

Marrow in the Market will open Nov. 13 at 2442 Riopelle St. The concept, from owner and restaurateur Ping Ho, will operate out of a two-story, 14,000-square-foot space that has been undergoing renovation for about a year and a half.

The Eastern Market business will include a ground-floor Marrow Detroit Provisions meat processing facility and butcher shop. It will also have two bars, a 100-seat restaurant and private event space. The second floor includes large windows with expansive views of downtown Detroit.

Guests will be able to get a look at how Marrow makes its meat products, including five types of sausage, beef bacon and burgers. The new space will allow Marrow to produce thousands of pounds of meat products each week, Ho previously told Crain’s. The butcher shop will also sell lunch, with a rotating menu of signature sandwiches, rotisserie chicken and grilled meats for dine-in or carryout.

The menu for the Marrow in the Market brasserie will showcase local produce, meat and potentially lake fish. Highlights include prime rib and paella.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/restaurants/eastern-market-marrow-restaurant-butcher-shop-sets-open-date?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/28/2025

A planned expansion for Corewell Health in Troy will modernize the existing 48-year-old hospital.

A request for proposals, obtained by Crain’s, calls for a total of 180 beds to be built on top of the hospital’s emergency department at 44291 Dequindre Road.

The 132,000-square-foot expansion will add 94 new beds to the 530-bed hospital. The new tower will house 180 total beds, allowing the existing hospital to convert many semi-private rooms into fully private rooms, the system said in a press release. The amount of private rooms will increase to 72% of all beds following the completion of the project — up from just 40% today.

The expansion also calls for a new 128,000-square-foot freestanding parking deck on the northwest side of the site and a connecting bridge to the tower. The existing hospital has a pedestrian bridge connecting it to a Corewell medical office across Dequindre Road, putting the campus in both Troy and Sterling Heights — and in Oakland and Macomb Counties.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/health-care/corewell-health-modernize-troy-hospital-expansion?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/27/2025

An investment group that includes Dug Song has purchased the historic Inn on Ferry Street in Midtown.

It’s the latest Detroit real estate investment for the Ann Arbor tech titan, whose Song United is joining up with Indianapolis-based Witness Investment and Washington, D.C.-based Deep Dive Hospitality to add new features to the 33-unit property, including a fine-dining restaurant and micro retail outlets, as well as art and gathering spaces.

Those improvements are expected to be complete by the end of next year.

The complex, located on East Ferry Street east of Woodward Avenue, will be managed by New York City-based Ash Hotels. It's the same company behind the redevelopment of the former Wurlitzer Building on Broadway Street downtown into the 106-room boutique Siren Hotel.

Wonwoo Lee, managing director of real estate for Song United, said on Monday that the Inn on Ferry Street will remain open during the phased improvements that are expected to start happening over the course of next year.

“This is an effort to strengthen ties with the DIA, CCS, Wayne State,” Lee said.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/inn-ferry-street-sells-dug-song-other-investors?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/24/2025

A new destination park will open Detroit’s west riverfront to the public for the first time in more than a century this weekend.

Where industrial buildings, rail yards and train tunnels once blocked access to the waterfront, the 22-acre Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park now beckons.

There are places for visitors young and old, from animal-themed slides to cherry trees and a grassy hill for taking in events during the summer and sledding during the winter.

The park is a feat in its own right, but its biggest impact may be the connections it creates throughout Detroit.

With the opening of a nearby boardwalk 17 feet off the river’s edge, visitors will soon be able to travel almost 5 miles along the Detroit River, from the entrance to Belle Isle west to the former Joe Louis Arena site and over the new boardwalk into Wilson Park. From there, the path leads up the Southwest Greenway trail to the developing 27-mile Joe Louis Greenway.

“We dreamed big, but I don’t think we ever dreamed of having the opportunity to create a park like we have with the Wilson park,” said Matt Cullen, founding chairman of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, the driving force behind the park.

“It’s the capstone of everything we have been working towards.”

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/nonprofits-philanthropy/ralph-c-wilson-jr-centennial-park-transforms-west-riverfront?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/23/2025

Tony McGhee has been driving 40 miles round-trip for the past nine months to manage a city where he can’t find a house.

McGhee in January became the city manager of Buchanan, a largely agricultural Berrien County community of about 4,300 residents and 20 miles inland of Lake Michigan. His housing predicament reflects a broader shift across rural Southwest Michigan, where buyers from Chicago and South Bend are driving up costs after being priced out of traditional lakeshore destinations.

“New Buffalo and the Harbor Country area, six, seven years ago, really got (cost) prohibitive for people, so those people moved inland,” McGhee said, referring specifically to the Three Oaks area, about 10 miles east of New Buffalo. “Now, Three Oaks has been bought out, and so that pressure is starting to move our way.”

However, Buchanan is preparing for that growth. The city is in the middle of a $20 million redevelopment of its downtown infrastructure to add all-new water, sewer and roads. With state and federal grant support, the work will mostly wrap by November.

Buchanan is also joined by other Southwest Michigan communities that are buying up obsolete industrial properties for mixed-use conversions, ushering in zoning reforms to help lure developers and turning to the state for funding support. It’s all a game of catch up after decades of stagnant housing construction.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/michigan-towns-confront-housing-crisis-chicago-buyers-move?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/23/2025

A planned $2.4 billion, 2,350-job electric vehicle battery parts factory in Michigan is dead after the state declared the controversial project to have been abandoned by Gotion Inc. and no longer eligible for incentives.

The Michigan Strategic Fund said the subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-Tech Co. Ltd. is in default of its obligations under a 2022 grant agreement.

The state's economic development arm is seeking to recover nearly $23.7 million that Gotion got to buy land near Big Rapids. It suspended a performance-based subsidy that has not been disbursed — a $125 million Critical Industry Program grant to Gotion that will be terminated. It will also cancel the remaining $26.3 million of $50 million that was given to a regional economic development organization to help assemble and prepare the megasite.

"I don’t foresee a world in which this project goes forward,” Christin Armstrong, chief operating and performance officer at the Michigan Economic Development Corp., told Crain’s. “Even if it was to go forward, just given the passage of time and the circumstances on the ground, it’s not the same as what it was (when) approved in 2022. The world has shifted so significantly since then. I think it’s safe to say that the project is not going to happen as we had originally foresaw or planned or hoped."

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/politics-policy/michigan-pulls-plug-gotion-ev-battery-parts-plant?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

10/22/2025

Plans for the revitalization of Sugar Loaf Ski Resort in Northern Michigan are moving forward after the nonprofit that’s overseeing the 285-acre property’s revival hit its $8 million fundraising goal months ahead of a deadline.

The Leelanau Conservancy hit the fundraising target on Sept. 26, two months after announcing its plans to redevelop the Leelanau Peninsula mountain as a year-round community park after the property owner agreed to donate it to the conservancy.

Once a premier winter destination in Michigan, Sugar Loaf operated a skiing school and resort with an airstrip, hotel, lodge and condos in its heyday in the mid-1970s, attracting thousands of skiers daily.

It’s now poised for a fresh start as a year-round community park with trails for cross-country skiing, hiking and spaces to gather outdoors, as the Leland-based nonprofit plans to revitalize it for the next generation.

More than 1,100 people donated $1.6 million to the conservancy’s project, according to Brighid Driscoll, communications director for the Leelanau Conservancy.

The full revitalization is expected to take around five years.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/sports-recreation/sugar-loaf-ski-resort-revival-moves-forward-after-raising-8m?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

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