c/detroit-commercial-real-estate

The lofts on Gratiot are sitting because owners ignore parking ratios

Honestly, I toured three converted lofts last week and every single one had 25% fewer spaces than the 2019 zoning requires, and tenants are bailing for the suburbs because of it, so has anyone else seen deals fall apart over parking counts in Detroit?

0 comments

scott.drew•6d ago

Toured a 10k sq ft warehouse, walked into a deer family reunion

Was checking out a spot near Hamtramck last week for a client, big open floor plan, great loading dock. We push open the back door and there's 4 deer just chilling inside, one started eating a bag of rock salt. Turns out the landlord forgot to seal a busted bay door after the last tenant left. Realtor goes 'that's the security system,' and I honestly almost signed the lease. Anyone else find wildlife in a property during a showing?

0 comments

taylor_miller10•8d ago

Leased a 2,500 sq ft spot in Corktown, but the landlord wanted 5-year terms and I needed flexibility, who else has done shorter leases?

I went with the 3-year lease plus an option at $18/sq ft, but now the building sold and the new owner wants to renegotiate the option clause, has anyone else dealt with that headache in Detroit?

1 comments

the_alice•9d ago

Title search took six weeks for a Dearborn strip mall

I was trying to close on a small retail unit in Dearborn and figured the title search would take a week tops. Turned out there was an old easement from 1987 that nobody had recorded properly, plus a lien from a defunct dry cleaner. Six weeks later we finally got it sorted, but has anyone else hit a wall with title issues on older Detroit area properties?

1 comments

veraj53•9d ago

Did the Dearborn warehouse district actually flip in 18 months or is it just me?

I've been tracking the old industrial strip off Outer Drive since late 2022 for a client who wanted to buy a flex space, and the change is wild. Back then you could grab a 12,000 square footer for $38 a foot with two years of vacancy on it. Now the same block has that coffee roaster, a bike shop, and three different contractors fighting over loading docks, and asking rates are pushing $52. Some of that is just the general market bounce, but I swear the new LED streetlights and the QLine extension talk shifted what landlords think they can get. On the flip side, I've seen two mid-size manufacturers walk away because the parking and truck turning radius still stink. So is this a real transformation or just a painted-over version of the same old problem? Anyone else watching a specific street in Detroit change faster than the actual infrastructure supports?

1 comments

jade_johnson•10d ago

Retail lease terms in Corktown are getting strange

I was grabbing coffee on Michigan Ave last week and overheard two brokers talking about a smaller storefront that just listed at $28 per square foot gross. That number itself is not crazy, but the landlord is asking for a 7 year term with no option to renew and a 4% annual bump. For a startup retail tenant that wants flexibility, that is a tough pill. I have seen a few similar deals lately where owners are locking in shorter terms but with steeper escalators, probably because they expect rents to keep climbing as more residential units come online. It makes me wonder if tenants are actually biting or just walking away. Has anyone else looked at a lease in that corridor recently and noticed the same shift?

1 comments

williamm82•10d ago

That broker's vacancy map was spot on, not just a sales pitch

I spent 3 months avoiding the Brush Park area based on gut feel, then checked his 2024 vacancy data against my own drive-bys and every single empty storefront lined up with his color codes, so has anyone else used those broker maps over the last 6 months and found them accurate?

1 comments

robinson.hannah•10d ago

Pro tip: the Woodward Ave parking ratio debate got me rethinking my whole pitch

Had coffee last week with a guy who's been doing leasing in Detroit for 25 years, name's Frank. He was telling me how he's seeing more out-of-state investors asking about parking ratios on Woodward properties, like they think every building needs a surface lot. I told him I usually just talk square footage and cap rates, and he laughed. He said the smart money is now looking at walkability scores and proximity to the QLINE stops, not parking. That hit different because I've lost two deals this year to buyers who walked away over parking, but maybe I was framing it wrong. Now I'm wondering if I should lead with transit access instead of parking numbers, or if Frank's just got a rosy view because he's pushing properties near the line. Has anyone else in this group had clients flip their priority from parking to transit access lately?

1 comments

the_mary•12d ago

Zoning changes in SW Detroit caught me off guard at inspection

Went to finalize a lease on a small warehouse off Vernor and the city said the parcel got rezoned for mixed use back in March, so the truck bay I planned on is a no-go. My broker never flagged it, and the listing still says light industrial. Anyone else run into stale zoning info on LoopNet or city portals, and how do you check before you sign?

1 comments

sam_thomas•15d ago

That 5-year lease in Corktown I almost signed still keeps me up at night

Back in May I was dead set on a retail spot on Michigan Ave, 1,200 square feet, $2,800 a month. Landlord swore foot traffic was about to blow up. I walked away at the last minute because the parking situation felt off. Three months later the coffee shop next door closed and the block's been quiet ever since. Dodged a bullet, but now I second-guess every deal I look at. Has anyone else walked away from a lease and felt totally lost on what to trust next?

1 comments

juliashah•17d ago

Overheard a landlord at Lafayette Coney Island complaining about assessments

Last Tuesday I'm eating a coney at the Lafayette counter and this guy two stools down is on the phone bitching about his Woodward Ave storefront tax assessment going up 18% this cycle. He kept saying it's cheaper to hold vacant than lease to a vape shop at $12/sq ft. Made me wonder if anyone else has done the math on vacancy vs bad tenant risk in the Cass corridor. Has that tipping point hit yet or are owners still eating the costs?

1 comments

lopez.jana•20d ago

The warehouse I almost walked away from in Hamtramck surprised me

I was set to sign a lease on a 12,000 square foot spot near Hamtramck last month, but the inspection showed a cracked foundation and old wiring. I nearly backed out, figuring it was a money pit. Then the owner offered to split the repair costs and threw in six months free rent. I took the risk, and now two tenants already signed up for subleases. Has anyone else found that older Detroit buildings work out better than the shiny new ones?

3 comments

laura_allen•20d ago

Warning: skip the fancy online valuations for Detroit storefronts

I spent 6 months chasing those automated price tools on a Cass Corridor building and they were all over the place, off by like 40%. What actually worked was walking the block and asking the two landlords who own the neighboring spots what they rent per square foot. Has anyone else had better luck with a simple comp list over the algorithm stuff?

3 comments

oscarc53•21d ago

The title search on a blighted parcel ate 6 weeks of my life

Bought a small lot off Gratiot for a flip and thought the title was clean. Turns out there were three heirs scattered across two states and a tax lien from 2009 nobody filed on. Took 6 weeks and $2,300 in legal fees just to get clear ownership, anyone else hit this on Detroit parcels?

2 comments

bennett.vera•22d ago

Found out the hard way that a signed LOI isn't a done deal in Detroit

I was at a coffee shop on Woodward last month, about to send the deposit for a lease on a spot near Eastern Market, and the landlord called to say he took a higher offer, 15 minutes before I wired the money. I hadn't checked if the LOI had a binding clause and lost two weeks of negotiating time. Has anyone else had a seller back out after signing, and did you ever get your due diligence costs back?

3 comments

norab21•24d ago

PSA: I hit 10,000 square feet of office leasing this quarter and it messed with my head

I was just going through my numbers last week and realized I leased out exactly 10,035 square feet of downtown office space since January. That's almost a whole floor of one of those old buildings on Woodward. I never set a goal or tracked it that way, but seeing that round number made me stop and think about how much work actually went into each deal. Has anyone else had a milestone number sneak up on them like that?

2 comments

the_susan•24d ago

Blew off a call with a downtown landlord and it made me rethink everything about Detroit leases

I was about to sign a 5-year lease on a Woodward space until a guy at Eastern Market who runs a coffee shop told me to check the property tax reassessment clause. He swore his rent jumped $1,200 a month after the city revalued the block last year. Has anyone else seen nasty surprises in their lease fine print around the new developments?

2 comments

-1

vera_palmer•25d ago

Found an empty lot on Gratiot that changed how I see downtown development

I was driving home from my night shift last Wednesday and stopped for coffee near Gratiot and Orleans. While waiting I pulled up the city's property portal just out of curiosity. There's a 1.2 acre lot there that's been vacant since 2015 and the county lists it as blighted. But get this - the assessed value dropped from $180,000 in 2018 to just $45,000 now. That surprised me because I always assumed empty lots in that area would hold value or go up with all the new construction nearby. Turns out the city has a backlog of over 300 similar properties they can't move fast enough. Has anyone here successfully bought one of these county-owned lots and actually done something with it?

2 comments

bennett.mason•1mo ago

That 6 month gap between the Hudson's site rendering and the actual foundation pour

I walked past the Hudson's site every day for work back in early '23. The big renderings on the fence showed this glass tower, looked like something out of a movie. Then nothing happened for 6 months. Just a hole in the ground and some rebar poking up. Got to talking to a site foreman I know, and he said the soil conditions under the old foundation were way worse than the reports showed. They had to sink piles an extra 40 feet deeper than planned. Has anyone else seen this kind of delay between the hype render and the real work starting?

2 comments

the_mila•1mo ago

Overheard a landlord talking about his Bishop Ave building vacancy rate and it clicked

I was grabbing coffee at that place on Gratiot last week and this guy was on his phone saying his building on Bishop Ave has been empty for 14 months because he won't lower the rent below $18 per square foot. He kept saying the market will come back to him. But I took a drive down that street after and counted 3 other empty storefronts within a block. Got me thinking about how stubborn pricing is killing Detroit commercial real estate right now. Has anyone else seen landlords sitting on empty spaces forever while small biz owners say they can't afford the asking rates?

2 comments

miles279•1mo ago

Talked to a guy leasing storefront on Michigan Ave last week

He told me he's paying $18 a square foot for a spot that was $35 back in 2019. Said the landlord threw in 3 months free just to get someone in there. Has anyone else seen rents drop that much in your part of town?

2 comments

alex307•1mo ago

Can we talk about the overpriced lofts in Corktown?

I keep hearing everyone say these new lofts near Michigan Ave are the future of Detroit living. But I did the math last month and a 700 square foot unit runs $1,800 a month. For that price a few years ago you could buy a whole house on the west side. What tipped me off was talking to a buddy who manages one of those buildings. He told me a third of the units are empty because businesses cant afford to put their workers there. Meanwhile down the street, the old warehouse spaces are renting for half that with more square footage. Am I missing something or is this bubble just waiting to pop? Has anyone else looked at the vacancy numbers for these places?

2 comments

hayes.joel•1mo ago

Shoutout to the old Lafayette building food court basement deal I saw go down in 2018

I was down in the basement food court at the old Lafayette building grabbing a sandwich when two guys in suits started arguing loud enough for everyone to hear. One guy pulled out a crumpled lease amendment and slapped it on the table, saying the other had missed the option period by a day. Anyone else ever seen a deal go bad right in front of you like that?

2 comments

the_anthony•1mo ago

Appreciation post: That time a Detroit landlord told me I was over-renovating

I was fixing up a small commercial space on Michigan Ave near Corktown last year, putting in high-end finishes and custom everything. My buddy's dad who owns like 8 buildings in the city came by and just laughed. He said 'you're putting $40k into a space that'll rent for $12 a square foot. Nobody cares about your fancy tile, they care about the roof not leaking and the heat working.' At first I was mad, but he was right. I stripped back the budget, focused on solid plumbing and HVAC, and got the place leased in 3 weeks. Now I tell all my clients to stop trying to impress and just make the building functional. Has anyone else had a seasoned landlord talk them out of a bad move?

2 comments

brooke767•1mo ago

Just realized I've been calculating cap rates wrong for 3 years on my multifamily deals

I was comparing notes with a broker over coffee last month and he pointed out I was using net income instead of net operating income (forgot to subtract the reserves line). Has anyone else had a basic metric suddenly click way later than it should have?

2 comments