It’s been rumored for awhile, and now it’s finally happened. Dan Gilbert has purchased the Compuware building, a structure that helped kick off the recent wave of revival in downtown Detroit.
Built on land purchased from the city for $1, The 15 story Compuware building opened in 2003. It is said to have sold for $150 million, although there has been no official confirmation of the price.
“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,” the Founder and Chairman of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures Dan Gilbert said. “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.”
Compuware has been undergoing a series of changes, including sell-offs of various units of business and agreeing to being acquired by a private equity firm, Thoma Bravo, for $2.5 billion. It was widely expected that the headquarters property would be a part of that restructuring.
“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 Bob Paul, CEO of Compuware. “I want to stress that this transaction in no way diminishes our current or future commitment to the City of Detroit and its revival.”
Meridian Health is a partner on the deal, taking up five floors and plans to have 2,000 employees across 330,000 square feet moved in by the time it is all said and done in 2019. 400 employees will move in by spring 2015.
A project earlier this year was announced that was to be new construction and their headquarters next to Campus Martius, but it fizzled. Meridian has offices in two places downtown and this will allow them to consolidate their operations.
As well as the 330,000 square feet Meridian will use, Compuware will utilize about 130,000 square feet and Quicken occupies 300,000 square feet and plans to add 60,000 square feet.
The building is widely expected to change names. A couple of instances of renaming under Bedrock management have included the Dime Building becoming the “Chrysler House” and the modern Chase building became “The Qube.”
