Dan Gilbert had a pretty big press conference this morning inside the Book Building on Washington Boulevard.
During the press conference Gilbert went over Bedrock’s four large development projects. Basically, it was a roundup that totaled an eye-popping $2.1 billion in investment and the prospect of as many as 24,000 jobs.
After the press conference we were invited to take a tour of the first three floors of the Book Building. So of course, I obliged.
Louis Kamper designed the Book Building and later the Book Tower in the Italian Renaissance style.
The ornateness of the outside of the building is matched on the inside of the building.
Bedrock purchased the Book Building and Book Tower in the summer of 2015, and have been steadily working on the building since then. The exterior has been noticeably cleaned up.
The building is going to cost $313 million to rehabilitate.
The Book Building and Book Tower will have 95 residential units, 180,000 square feet of retail and office space, and a hotel.
Work on the interior has not started yet, with the exception of basic clean up. The interior is estimated to take three years to complete.
I’ve always been interested in that cool arch on the exterior of the Book Building.
And today I got to get up close and personal with the architectural sculpture. I am looking forward to the day when the netting is off of this lantern.
There is marble throughout both buildings, but this inlay work is amazing.
During our tour Bedrock Project Manager Brett Yuhasz gave us the low down on some of the things they plan to do with the building.
This particular area was really a three story atrium that opened up to this beautiful leaded skylight.
The plan is to bring the atrium back to its original glory. Maybe the third floor will be turned into the hotel lobby one day.
While this skylight has not been verified by Tiffany, it is in the same style.
I certainly look forward to seeing this project completed — even if I do have to wait until at least 2019 or 2020.