It's official: Detroit-style standard Buddy's Pizza will open a downtown Detroit location.

It'll be a tenant of Dan Gilbert's Bedrock LLC in the Madison building space near Grand Circus Park that Angelina Italian Bistro vacated more than a year ago. Demolition work in the space started Monday and Buddy's expects an end-of-summer or fall opening, said Wesley Pikula, chief brand officer.

Bedrock CEO Bill Emerson confirmed Buddy's signed a lease for the space. Bedrock declined to disclose Buddy's rent.

The pizza company's growth comes after the chain took on a new majority investor, restaurant investment firm CapitalSpring. It's targeting an opening for its Grand Rapids location, its 14th, in the end of March and has plans to open in Woodhaven and Plymouth in the summer. The 13th opened in October at the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak. The Farmington Hills-based pizza maker is also looking outside Michigan.

The Detroit Free Press reported Buddy's was eyeing the Angelina space back in April.

Buddy's was founded in 1946 in Detroit and is widely recognized as the originator of Detroit-style pizza pies — rectangular with thick crust and crunchy edges, baked in deep steel pans. It's still in its original Detroit location at 17125 Conant St., north of Hamtramck.

The company is looking to spend up to $2 million on its incoming Madison restaurant that's years in the making. Buddy's has been searching downtown for three or four years for the right spot, Pikula said.

"It was just something, I think, with the partnership with CapitalSpring, it allowed Buddy's to grow faster and that location, being that one it's in a historic theater district and also it was Dan Gilbert's first building," he said. "We just love the fact that it faces Grand Circus Park, it's in proximity to the theaters, it's in proximity to the stadiums and it's a historical site."

The location will employ 125 and seat around 225, including on an outdoor patio. The approximately 7,000-square-foot space is similar in size to its other restaurants, Pikula said.

It'll have a full bar, but it'll also emphasize grab-and-go orders for downtown workers, he said.