Photo via Detroit Yes

DBusiness reports that automotive supplier Lear Co has purchased the Hemmeter Building on at Centre and Grand Ave to use as a downtown satellite office. The company's principal location in Southfield has manufactured automotive assemblies and stamped metal since 1917. The Hemmeter Building, a 7-story medium rise office building once home to a cigar company, has 50,000 square feet of space.

Lear told DBusiness their plan is to renovate, but that they have no timeline for moving personnel into the space, but that the move made sense because of the company's ties to the city.

"We have roots in Detroit. We are supportive of the turnaround of Detroit," Mel Stephens, Lear's senior VP of communications and facilities told DBusiness. "We've operated in the Detroit area for about 100 years, and our business is growing." The building's previous owner, Dennis Kefallinos, also counts the Michigan Building among his holdings. Given Kefallinos' poor track record with taking care of old buildings, Lear may be greeted as a liberator by Detroiters interested in seeing the Hemmeter appropriately maintained.

·Exclusive: Lear Corp. Acquires Hemmeter Building [Dbusiness]

·Bad Landlord Kefallinos Now Controls The Michigan Building. [Curbed Detroit]