Fisher, Kahn buildings to hit auction block Monday

Update: The Fisher and Albert Kahn buildings will be listed in a three-day online auction starting Monday, June 22, according to a report by the Associated Press. The starting bid is $3.5 million.

The Fisher Building, one of Detroit's most celebrated skyscrapers, will be hitting the auction block this summer after suffering with vacancies and falling into foreclosure.

Often referred to as "Detroit's largest art object," the Fisher will be put up for bid on Auction.com in June, along with its next-door neighbor, the Albert Kahn Building, sources told the Free Press.

One of the likely bidders for the pair of art deco gems will be Spanish developer Fernando Palazuelo, who made headlines in Detroit when he bought the Packard Plant and announced plans to renovate parts of the crumbling factory. He tried to buy the Fisher and Kahn buildings, but negotiations fell apart, and Farbman turned the keys over to the bank in lieu of foreclosure.

The Fisher and Kahn have struggled with dwindling occupancy in recent years. Despite the near-miraculous turnaround in downtown real estate thanks to building purchases and redevelopment by Dan Gilbert, the Roxbury Group and others, that surge hasn't been felt 3 miles up the road in New Center.

The buildings would likely stay as office complexes as any new investor would look to grow occupancy and capitalize on the positive momentum and new investment in greater downtown Detroit. Current tenants also have leases, often for years-on-end, and that represents valuable revenue.

Jim Bieri, a principal at Stokas Bieri Real Estate, said there's new investment on the way in Woodward storefronts and the old St. Regis Hotel, as well as the continuing build-out of M-1 rail, which will run from New Center, about a block from the Fisher, to Jefferson Avenue near the Detroit River.

"You need folks who are going to invest there," he said. "New Center hasn't had a Dan Gilbert-type figure yet, but (those new Woodward and M-1 Rail investments) will really help."

One deal failed

Many office buildings in Detroit, and around the country, have fallen in and out of foreclosure over the decades as the commercial real estate market went through periodic crises because of overbuilding, loose credit standards and troubles in the broader financial markets.

Palazuelo had been negotiating to buy the Fisher and Kahn from their previous owner, the Farbman Group, but failed to seal the deal. When Farbman lost the buildings to foreclosure, Palazuelo's team was told the structures would be headed to auction.

Palazuelo has been met with support for his Packard proposals, but some critics have questioned his decision to add more Detroit properties to his portfolio when he still has so much work to go on the Packard. Others say he has a strong redevelopment track record around the world.

"Him buying more properties is not a bad thing," said Kari Smith, director of development for the Packard Plant Project. "He is known for historic preservation around the world. He's done 126 historic properties."

Kahn's masterpiece

The two properties heading to auction were designed by Albert Kahn. Many consider the 29-story Fisher to be his architectural masterpiece. The Fisher's golden tower is one of the most recognizable sights in Detroit's skyline.

The Fisher opened at West Grand Boulevard and Second Avenue on Sept. 1, 1928. It is decked to the nines in fancy marbles; mosaics; soaring, painted ceilings; and a whole lot of brass and bronze. The building is also home to the Fisher Theatre. Its most widely known tenant could be WJR (760-AM), which famously transmits from the golden tower of the Fisher Building.

The 10-story Kahn Building opened in 1931 as the New Center Building. It was renamed in honor of the architect in 1988.

Farbman bought the pair in 2001 from TrizecHahn Corp. for $31 million but lost the properties to the bank about a month ago.

"It has been an honor to look after the Fisher and Albert Kahn buildings for the past 14 years, and we wish the new owner all the best as they care for these iconic assets and their bright future," Farbman said in a statement released through spokesman Michael Layne.

Florida-based LNR Property LLC was appointed the special servicer for the two buildings. Friedman Integrated Real Estate Solutions of Farmington Hills — which manages the Arboretum in Farmington Hills, the Onyx in Southfield and other properties — now handles the managing and leasing of the Fisher and Kahn buildings.

LNR declined to comment. Michelle McGuckin, a spokeswoman for Friedman, said the company is "still managing for our client" and that "we don't want to comment" on the auction.

Staff writer John Gallagher contributed to this report.

Dan Austin, assistant editor for opinion digital/interactive, also runs the Detroit architectural resource HistoricDetroit.org. Follow him on Twitter @HistoricDET.

The Fisher brothers' legacy

Like so much of Detroit's history, both the Fisher and the Kahn are tied to the automobile industry. The Fisher brothers — Frederick J., Charles T., William A., Lawrence P., Edward F., Alfred J. and Howard A. — made a fortune making auto bodies for Detroit's booming car industry. Their "body by Fisher" tagline is still well known.

The Fisher brothers often used their wealth to better the city and its people. They gave millions to charities, civic causes, churches, educational institutions and to making Detroit one of the finest cities in the world. To that end, the Fishers commissioned Kahn in 1927 and told him to go wild.

Or, as the Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record put it in October 1928, the Fisher is a building "into the making of which money has been literally flung with a generous hand, not merely for the sake of spending it, but to gratify the desire of the owners to (build) ... (one) of the most important structures of the country."

The recipe for the Fisher called for more than 12,000 tons of steel; 350,000 cubic yards of concrete and marble; 1,800 bronze windows; 641 bronze elevator doors; 420 tons of bronze finishings; 41,000 barrels of cement; 100,000 yards of sand and gravel; and 1,275 miles of electrical and telephone wire and cable. With more than 325,000 square feet of exterior marble, the Fisher is the largest marble-clad commercial building in the world.

The Fisher was originally supposed to be part of a sprawling three-tower complex that would "serve as an expressive testimonial of the Fishers' activity in Detroit," the Free Press reported when the project was announced in January 1927. The Fisher we know today was to be the right bookend with an identical building on the far left and a taller central tower in the middle.

The Great Depression, which hit the year after the Fisher opened, shelved the grand plans to build the other two towers, but it didn't stop the Fishers' commitment to helping the city. Instead, the brothers had architect Albert Kahn design the New Center Building at Second Avenue and Lothrop. Work was originally going to start in 1931, but the brothers bumped work up a year to help ease the effects of the Depression by putting Detroiters to work. The decision was meant to express the Fisher brothers' unshakable confidence that "the industrial and financial importance of this city will constantly increase," the Free Press wrote.

Today, the Albert Kahn Building is home to Albert Kahn Associates, which remains busy in metro Detroit working on the Packard Plant project, the Penguin Conservation Center at the Detroit Zoo and the recent Cobo Center renovation.

An earlier version of this story misidentified the number of National Historic Landmarks in Detroit.



Fisher Building

Address: 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit

Opened: 1928

Architect: Albert Kahn

Height: 444 feet, not counting spire (29 stories)

Size: About 635,000 square feet

Albert Kahn Building

Address: 7430 Second Ave., Detroit

Opened: 1931

Architect: Albert Kahn

Height: 168 feet (10 stories)

Size: About 290,000 square feet

The 10 tallest buildings in Detroit

1. Renaissance Center — 727 feet

2. One Detroit Center — 619 feet

3. Greater Penobscot Building — 565 feet

4. Guardian Building — 496 feet

5. Book Tower — 475 feet

6. 150 W. Jefferson — 455 feet

7. Fisher Building — 444 feet

8. Cadillac Tower — 437 feet

8. David Stott Building — 437 feet

9. One Woodward Avenue — 430 feet