Deal appears near for Hudson's site garage Ilitches hired George Jackson as District consultant

John Gallagher | Detroit Free Press

Businessman Dan Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services appears to be close to an agreement with the City of Detroit to buy the city-owned underground garage at the site of the old Hudson's store, a deal that would allow him to build an architecturally significant building on the site.

The Downtown Development Authority voted Monday to extend for another 30 days a development timeline that was set to expire at the end of the year to give Bedrock and the city time to finish their negotiations.

Tom Lewand, chairman of the DDA, told the board that the two sides were close to an agreement for Bedrock to buy the site.

Earlier this year, Gilbert revealed an architectural image of a modernist building that he hopes to build on the Hudson's site. Bedrock would like to control the underground garage on the site to provide parking for its project. So far, no details have been released.

The old Hudson's store, an icon of Detroit's 20th-Century success, closed in 1983 and was imploded in 1998. The city built its underground garage on the site in the hopes that a new iconic building would rise there one day. But for years, the city and developers have been unable to put together a realistic deal to build on the site, stymied in part by the nationwide real estate collapse during the Great Recession and lower real estate values in Detroit.

Gilbert has controlled the site under his arrangement with the city, part of the move of the Quicken Loans headquarters downtown in 2010. In November 2013, Gilbert's Rock Ventures hired New York-based SHoP Architects and Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates to lead the design process of redevelopment on the site.

In other development news Monday, the Ilitch family's Olympia Development arm confirmed that it has hired George Jackson, the former CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. who helped negotiate the deal to create the new arena project, to serve as a residential consultant to the project.

After leaving his DEGC post in 2014, Jackson launched his own Ventra Group development consulting firm. The firm will provide real estate advisory services to Olympia as the Ilitch-owned firm weighs possible residential developments in the broader arena district.

In other action Monday, the DDA also approved several more subcontracting awards for the new arena project taking shape on the northern end of downtown. Under the city's agreement with the Ilitch family that is building the arena project, the DDA must approve major subcontracting awards.

Recipients of the subcontractor awards approved Monday included Ideal Contracting for concrete and steel work in a contract worth $11.1 million; MSL/Limbach for mechanical equipment in a contract worth $24 million, and Motor City Electric for electrical work in a contract worth $16.4 million.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173, gallagher@freepress.com or on Twitter @jgallagherfreep