Well, these are startling facts:
Hudson's site (Photo: Deadline Detroit)
It took a little over a year to build the Empire State Building.
Detroit's Renaissance Center was built in just under four years, and its 73-story central tower is still the highest in Michigan.
Now approaching four years since its December 2017 groundbreaking, Dan Gilbert's Hudson site project, originally designed to be taller than the Ren Cen, is still a long way off from being done — even after the downsizing of its planned tower to 49 stories.
Dan Gilbert's Bedrock real-estate organization, whose project this is, hasn't explained the slowpace of construction. But, JC Reindel reports, it might be as simple as the obvious answer: The project has been the victim of bad timing, and almost a paradigm shift in how white-collar workers do their jobs.
Occupancy of downtown hotels is under 40 percent, work-from-home has become permanent for many employees who once commuted downtown, and the business climate that gave birth to the project has changed dramatically.
Slow-walking the project offers the hope that, when recovery arrives, the Hudson's tower will be the shiny object all the cool companies want to locate in.
