For those of us who've been seeing the boarded-up David Whitney Building for memorable history, it was great to see life in the building again last week — if only for a Friday night.

The "Next Big Thing" event hosted by Model D took the building over for their one-time event.

And having been to many corporate networking events, it was an amazing change of pace. In fact, a lot of the people I talked to were more interested in seeing what Model D did with the place than they were about anything else — not to say they weren't interested in the presentation by our friends at Hatch Detroit.

There's something special about attending a corporate event where they not only have to bring their own booze, but they have to bring their own power, lights and everything else.

In the end, it was an event with the kind of gothic feel that used to attract people to Detroit rave parties in the 1990s. You almost feel like you're getting away with something by being in the place.

As interesting as it was for those of us who attend, it was just as interesting to James Van Dyke, who's probably in the building once a day.

Van Dyke is vice president of development for the Roxbury Group, one of the two companies involved in a joint-venture to redevelop the 19-story building as a half-and-half residential and boutique hotel project. The Roxbury Group is handling the residential portion and Farmington Hills-based hotel investment firm Trans Inns Management Inc. is handling the hotel portion.

"I'm in there all the time, and it was really unique to see it full of people," he said.

Seeing the David Whitney Building come to life on a permanent basis isn't too far off though, Van Dyke said.

The development team is still negotiating a deal for a national hotel operator to sign-on to the project and, most importantly, the tax credits and bridge loans are still being finalized.

Everything is following the original timeline, he said, and if things continue to progress according to plan, workers will be swinging hammers in the building by the first quarter of next year.

Whether there are any more parties between now and then is something that hasn't been decided yet, he said.

So, could be a little while before there's another one, but maybe in the not-too-distant future a party with permanent power will be kicked-off over there.

Only in Detroit to we have an event venue in which we look forward to the day when it has permanent lights and electricity.