The First Independence Bank building in downtown Detroit is shadowed by a pair of looming skyscrapers owned by Dan Gilbert: The 38-story David Stott Building to the north in Capitol Park at 1150 Griswold St. and the 23-story 1001 Woodward skyscraper at Campus Martius to the east.

But under new ownership, the squat 21,000-square-foot building at Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street could get several new stories for apartments, bringing its height slightly more in line with what surrounds it.

Roger Basmajian, a downtown real estate investor who also owns the 751 Griswold building kitty-corner from the two-story First Independence Bank building, said it's not known how many stories would be built on top of it. "Right now we are doing a structural analysis of what we have there to see what it can support," he said.

There's recent precedent for that just across the street, as Detroit-based Roxbury Group continues adding 80 new apartments in five floors atop a 10-story parking garage in a $24 million project.

Here's what's even more interesting, though. The First Independence Bank building was originally eight stories, and then six were torn down in the 1970s because of high operating expenses, making it a two-story building (along with basement space).

First Independence Bank, which was founded in 1970, was founded to provide mortgage and commercial loans to the area's underserved black community at a time when redlining made it difficult for them to buy homes.

The bank recently opened a new location in the New Center area at 7310 Woodward Ave. at the northeast corner of Grand Boulevard. The bank safes, emptied, are still in the building on Michigan Avenue in the basement and first floor.

During a tour of the building Tuesday, A.J. Weiner, the managing director in the Royal Oak office of JLL (formerly Jones Lang LaSalle), which is marketing the space, said a decision on how to proceed will be made after the space is leased out, preferably to a single user.

Basmajian said he purchased the property in December.

According to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, the purchase price was $2.45 million.

Basmajian owns several buildings downtown, including those at 751 Griswold, 607 Shelby, 220 W. Congress and 1322 Broadway streets.

He is also one of the investors in a $52.4 million series of development projects in Paradise Valley, where he and Patricia Cole plan to create a 25- to 30-room boutique hotel called the Harmonie Club Hotel at 311 E. Grand River Ave. That project is expected to cost $13.6 million, and there are several others planned as part of the effort to redevelop properties in the small downtown enclave announced in June.

Basmajian jumped into the Detroit real estate scene a few years ago after working on development deals in Ferndale and Royal Oak.