John Gallagher

Detroit Free Press

Businessman Dan Gilbert is snapping up another downtown Detroit landmark and this one is among the biggest of all: The 15-story Compuware Building near Campus Martius Park.

Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services announced the purchase this evening. Gilbert and his partners reportedly will pay $150 milliion for the building, a real estate source said, although Bedrock would not confirm the price.

Gilbert is partnering with Meridian Health in the purchase, and Meridian will move its new corporate headquarters into the Compuware Building, taking five floors and approximately 330,000 square feet in the building, moving in about 400 employees from nearby locations downtown by spring 2015 and expanding to 2,000 employees by 2019, Bedrock said in announcing the deal.

Meridian Health is owned by the Cotton family of Grosse Pointe, and currently has employees located in other downtown office buildings. It had announced a deal last year to take new headquarters space in a planned new office tower nearby but that project fell through, opening the door for Gilbert and Bedrock.

Gilbert, founder and Chairman of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures, hailed the deal.

"The Compuware Building has served as the nucleus for 21st century Detroit for more than a decade thanks to the vision of Peter Karmanos and the Compuware team's commitment to transform downtown Detroit into a dynamic high-tech corridor," Gilbert said in a statement Monday night. "We look forward to partnering with Meridian and the Cotton family, who are significant stakeholders in Detroit's ongoing resurgence, to ensure that two of Michigan's fastest growing and new economy companies will remain and grow their employee bases in downtown Detroit for the long-term future."

Real estate insiders had considered a Gilbert purchase of the Compuware Building to be highly likely since Compuware agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo earlier this year.

"Selling our headquarters property has always been a key component of our corporate transformation plan as a mechanism to best leverage our assets in achieving sustainable, long-term success for our company," said Compuware CEO Bob Paul. "I want to stress that this transaction in no way diminishes our current or future commitment to the City of Detroit and its revival."

Gilbert's Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures family of companies have also made the Compuware Building their home since 2010.

Sean Cotton, chief administrative officer at Meridian, said in the statement, "The Cotton family and our affiliated companies are proud to partner with Dan Gilbert and his family of companies to invest in and revitalize Detroit."

Compuware itself will continue to occupy 130,000 square feet of space in the building, which totals 1 million square feet of office space.

The buliding opened in 2003 on the site of the former Kern's Department Store. Compuware received the land from the City of Detroit for $1.

Contact John Gallagher at 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep. JC Reindl contributed.