With General Motors hinting in contract talks that it wants to close the joint UAW-GM Center for Human Resources on Detroit's East Riverfront, the future of the impressive waterfront property could be up for grabs.

Should GM and the UAW actually agree to close the center, real estate professionals say the property could fetch millions just for the land alone, and more for the building itself.

Its waterfront location and easy access to Detroit's downtown make it a "home-run location," said Steve Morris, managing partner of the Farmington Hills real estate firm Axis Advisors and an adjunct professor of real estate in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

"If this property is marketed for sale, there will be a plethora of developer interest," Morris said Monday.

Opened in 2000, the training center includes a 420,000-square-foot midrise building on several acres surrounded by a gated security fence. Not a traditional office building, the center is more akin to a college building or perhaps the headquarters of a technology company. It includes classrooms, an auditorium, high-bay training areas and more.

GM built the center at time when the company was still several years away from its 2009 bankruptcy. It is one of three such centers — and the largest and most elegant —for joint training efforts between GM, Ford and Chrysler and the UAW. Among other uses, trainers work with employees on safety and operational initiatives at the sites. The UAW-GM center is occasionally used by outside groups.

Morris suggested that a major corporation may want the site for a satellite setting.

"Clearly, with the views and the river and adjacent to the RiverWalk, a high-rise residential building would be well received," he said, although that might require demolishing the center and building anew on the site.

Or maybe a hotel

Steven Siegel, an associate and analyst with Lutz Real Estate Investments in Birmingham, suggested a sale price for the property might be held down somewhat by the current layout of the building. With its auditorium and classrooms, the building doesn't fit the model of an easily adaptable office building.

And since the building would lose its tenant if GM sold it, the next owner likely would face a large bill for refitting the building for a new tenant. That, too, could hold down the sale price. But having said that, Siegel said the most obvious next use for the structure is still as a single-tenant office building.

"Barring that, what could be more interesting is a change of use," Siegel said. "And because of where it's situated, because it's newer and built conceivably pretty well and on the RiverWalk, a hotel would make the most sense in terms of a change of use. The demand is pretty high for rooms in Detroit right now and we see a lot of properties opening."

Not just GM's decision

Closing the center is not just for GM to decide. One person close to the contract negotiations told the Free Press that while GM has paid the bulk of the bills on the property over the years, the UAW still has some ownership in the site.

More:Move to close training center emerges in midst of GM-UAW contract talks

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The center has gotten caught up in the current investigation of UAW corruption. A similar joint training center between the UAW and FCA has been at the core of the investigation, which has led to 11 charges. Prosecutors have shown that money intended for training was siphoned off for dinners, personal expenses, and more.

Two officers of the GM-UAW center have been charged. Michael Grimes, a board member of the center, was charged in August in the scandal and has pleaded guilty. Last month, Jeffery Pietrzyk, a co-director of the center who retired in 2014, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Contact John Gallagher:313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.Follow him on Twitter@jgallagherfreep. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.