Long-vacant Executive Plaza in Detroit has possible buyer
A vacant office complex on the outskirts of downtown Detroit has a possible buyer and is no longer headed for public auction.
The Executive Plaza, 1200 Sixth St. near the Lodge, consists of two towers built in the 1960s and 1970s and was the long-time home of various state of Michigan offices before the state moved its operations in the 2000s to Cadillac Place in New Center.
The complex, along with several nearby surface parking lots, has been owned since 2005 by a limited liability company connected to metro Detroit businessman Sam Danou. Land records show that Danou’s company paid $6.3 million that year for the office complex.
But the Executive Plaza and the parking lots have been in receivership since March 2023, following an alleged default on the properties’ mortgage.
The receiver — NAI Farbman — struck a tentative $16.5 million deal back in October 2023 to sell all the properties to a Colorado developer, according to documents in Wayne County Circuit Court.
However, the deal never closed, even after multiple time extensions, and last July the deal was canceled and the developer had to forfeit a $378,000 deposit.
The receiver then tried re-marketing the properties, sending over 2,600 email solicitations to brokers and potential prospects and listing the properties on various websites.
Those efforts culminated in a plan late last year to attempt a public auction of Executive Plaza on the Ten-X real estate auction website.
A date was set for the three-day online auction, which was to start March 17. But then some worrying signs began emerging when the receiver did some pre-auction marketing.
More: Construction begins for new public attraction at M1 Concourse in Pontiac
More: Global Citizen NOW summit to come to Detroit in July
Only a limited number of prospective buyers showed any interest in touring the office complex, according to court documents, and when discussions progressed with that small pool of buyers and they came to understand the extent of needed building renovations, most of them lost interest, court documents say.
So the March auction date was canceled, as was a second auction date that had been set for next week.
Yet one of the prospective buyers still had an interest.
On April 6, the receiver and that prospective buyer — Southfield-based Blackacre Management — entered into a $5 million tentative deal for Executive Plaza and the three parking lots, which are located across the street.
Todd Szymczak, an executive vice president at Farbman, noted in a letter attached to recent court documents that Blackacre is doing “a similar rehabilitation project” in downtown Pontiac. That project, now nearing completion, was to convert the old 15-story Oakland Towne Center office tower into 99 market-rate apartments, plus four floors of retail and commercial space.
