Billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert's real estate development company is preparing to break ground in December on a 52-story skyscraper at the site of the former J.L. Hudson's department store in downtown Detroit, Bedrock LLC executives said Wednesday.

Bedrock CEO Jim Ketai and President Dan Mullen said the company is making plans to begin demolishing the existing four-story underground 1,100-space parking garage that was built after the old Hudson's building was imploded in 1998.

Demolition work will begin in December to clear the site along Woodward Avenue and begin drilling steel caissons 110-feet underground to build the footings to support a 734-foot tower, Mullen said.

Bedrock is moving forward with its development plans after the Michigan Legislature approved legislation earlier this month that would allow the company to capture up to half of the income tax generated by individuals working or living in the redeveloped site for up to 20 years.

In an interview at the Mackinac Policy Conference, the Bedrock executives said the tax incentives are needed to finance construction of what would become the largest building in Detroit holding a mixture of residential, office and retail space.

"There is a gap still with new construction and where the market is," Mullen said. "Developers needed state help to fill that gap."

Bedrock has said the 1.2 million-square-foot building will cost at least $775 million to construct. The brownfield redevelopment legislation that cleared the Legislature earlier this month requires a minimum investment of $500 million by Gilbert's company.

"It's hard to make a brand new ground-up development work without some assistance," Ketai said. "It still has to make sense."

Gilbert bought the underground parking garage at the Hudson's site for $15 million in May 2016, Crain's reported.

The brownfield redevelopment legislation Gilbert's company intends to use to help finance the project cleared the Legislature on May 9 and May 16, but have not yet been sent to Snyder. The governor has indicated he will sign the bills.