If Dan Gilbert isn't planning to announce his retail strategy for Detroit Thursday ... well, he's bringing together one heck of a group to talk about other things.

Details are still slim on what the billionaire founder and chairman of Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Ventures LLC — and other representatives of Detroit business groups — will roll out Thursday, other than to discuss the “Woodward Corridor Place-making and Retail Strategy.”

Speakers will include Dave Blaszkiewicz, president and CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership; Matt Cullen, president and CEO of Rock Ventures; Gilbert; George Jackson, president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.; Fred Kent, president of the Project for Public Spaces; and city of Detroit officials.

Those groups, and four urban planning firms, have been working for the last seven months on the strategy, according to a news release.

Thursday’s event is billed as the unveiling of “plans for a creative and distinctly Detroit development of Woodward Avenue retail and the activation of public spaces, sidewalks and streets along the corridor.”

Additional information on what will be announced was not provided.

Place-making is a community development concept to improve surroundings in an effort to that involves bettering a community’s quality of life to attract and retain businesses and workers.

Crain’s has previously reported that the plan will likely involve properties Gilbert owns or controls near Grand Circus Park and Campus Martius, including frontage on the east side of Woodward Avenue and the former Hudson’s lot north of Compuware Corp. headquarters.

Gilbert has shown renderings of the retail concept publicly several times. The renderings include storefronts for national retailers like Apple. It’s expected that the plan will incorporate some of the alley space behind the buildings along Woodward Avenue.

He has described the retail strategy as part of a “big bang” development plan he has for the city. The plan calls for bringing retail and residents to the buildings he has purchased and others downtown at the same time.

Gilbert’s portfolio of downtown real estate officially grew last week when Rock Ventures announced the purchase of the 26-story, 275,000-square-foot 1001 Woodward office building. Terms of the deal were not released.

The week’s only just beginning, but it’s already a busy one in Detroit, y’all.

Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, [email protected] Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB