Those pizza-slice windows may be delaying Little Caesars HQ opening

Allie Gross | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption New Little Caesars headquarters hoists highest beam Construction crews "top out" the new Little Caesars headquarters expansion in a traditional ceremony by hoisting the final roof beam into place.

Last December, Chris Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, took reporters on a tour of the construction site of the new Little Caesars headquarters building in Detroit.

The showstopper? The 102 giant windows in the shape of pizza slices that would be installed on all nine floors facing Woodward Avenue.

“This facade will be the first of its kind in the world," Ilitch told reporters at the time, with the Free Press reporting that the construction would be finished and headquarters opened this summer.

But it's now almost November and for anyone driving past the building, one thing is clear: It is not ready to open.

The top two floors have no glass installed and have been covered with sheeting for the past six months. On Tuesday morning, a truck holding stacks of glass shaped like pizza slices was parked in front of the building. A Sept. 25 press release said it will open "early next year."

Asked about the delay and specifically whether unexpected problems with window installation contributed to the extended timeline, Olympia Development Michigan said only that “progress” was happening in the “district.”

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SmithGroupJJR, the building's architect, and Christman Brinker, the construction management firm, both directed questions about the delay back to Olympia Development.

While the Ilitches maintain all is on track, others have been asking questions.

An online forum called "Detroit Yes!" had a similar discussion about the delayed construction. Forum users also brought up the glass.

"Has anyone else noticed that window placement on the new Little Caesars HQ building has come to a grinding halt?" a user named "48307" wrote in May. "They've been stuck like this for what seems like at least a month, perhaps several."

"It's the weather. The glass guys are being super cautious because there is no other glass like that in the world," another user, "casscorridor65" who claimed to be working on the project, responded.

"They told us they weren't setting pizza glass with winds over 10 mph. I'm going to take a close up of it," the user wrote, also adding that there was an issue on the executive floor with the way the air handling units were designed and placed right about Chris Ilitch's future office.

"They are so powerful they hum and vibrate and shake the whole 9th floor," the user wrote.

A construction worker who declined to give his name for fear of job retaliation confirmed to the Free Press that the holdup had to do with issues with the unique windows.

"I don't know what exactly caused it but the glass in front was breaking because of vibrations. It was cracking so [they] had to try and figure out what was causing it and then how to stabilize it so the glass wouldn't vibrate," the construction worker said, adding that the glass began to crack almost "immediately" when installation began last winter.

The pizza-glass windows, according to an earlier Free Press article, were manufactured in Guadalajara, Mexico.

When the Free Press reached out to Olympia Development last month, asking for details on the manufacturer, specific questions were not answered.

"Progress continues on all facets of the Little Caesars world headquarters campus expansion project," Ed Saenz, director of communications for Olympia Development, wrote in an email last month. "Our contractors continue to coordinate the construction of the office building and the Columbia Street promenade. We are very excited about the positive impact and vitality these unique, architecturally significant projects will bring to Detroit."

When the Free Press was able to get Saenz on the phone he "cut to the chase."

"I may not be able to answer all the questions you have on our property," he said, later adding, "I get your texts and emails; that doesn't mean I’m free in my role to give you the answers you seek."

The Free Press reached out to Saenz again Monday night and asked about the delay and glass being an issue with the project. Saenz referred to his earlier statements.

While Saenz maintains all is on track in the world of Little Caesars, critics contend that what "on track" means is constantly morphing.

In the Sept. 25 press release, for example, there is a section that's called "Little Caesars Arena brings new retail, office, and community spaces." The release talks about restaurants and stores within the physical arena such as Mike’s Pizza Bar, The District Market, the Team Store, Chevrolet Plaza and Budweiser Biergarten.

"In the area around Little Caesars Arena, more than $18 million have been invested in the city’s infrastructure, including blocks of landscaped medians which both beautify the area and provide traffic control and security benefits," the release states.

For critics, this focus on amenities inside the arena and landscaped medians in 2018 is not what was promised.

They note that this summer, the "District Detroit" website removed a section dedicated to the five distinct "Neighborhoods" Olympia Development pitched in 2014 during its quest for public funding for the arena.

While the "Neighborhoods" tab is gone, a new tab has been added: "Parking."

"The Ilitches have quietly removed all reference to their five neighborhood districts surrounding the heavily subsidized pizzarena. A key component in receiving $350M in public subsidies to build their arena was the high density, mixed-use neighborhoods that would develop around the arena," wrote the Facebook group "Terrible Ilitches" — which tracks the family's development promises and progress.

Saenz said the Neighborhoods section of the website is "being refreshed" and said to "check back for updates."

"It continues to be our vision that sustained investment will lead to unique and diverse neighborhoods which will evolve and grow organically over time," Saenz wrote.

The Terrible Ilitches page points out that some promises have already been broken.

A map posted Monday by the group shows that large swaths of what was promised to be the "Cass Park Village" neighborhood — "home to independent shops, local markets and galleries, and residents will sense a relaxed atmosphere with a free-spirited attitude that is not pretentious or flashy," Olympia Development wrote in 2014 — is filled with parking lots today.

“A cornerstone of selling the vision for District Detroit was meaningful redevelopment of the Lower Cass Corridor," Francis Grunow, chair of the Neighborhood Advisory Committee in the arena district said. "Olympia outlined its plans for its vision with lofty descriptions for five neighborhoods that have taken no discernible steps to realization in the last five years. To find out that Olympia is no longer promoting this vision is unfortunate, but unfortunately, it is not surprising."

Allie Gross is a business reporter with a focus on development, housing affordability and income inequality. Contact her at AEGross@freepress.com. Connect with her on Twitter @Allie_Elisabeth.