The brokers doing business in Detroit say that the city is on the rebound, with a growing number of investors sinking their dollars into real estate projects here.
One of the leaders of this movement has been Dan Gilbert, chairman of Rock Ventures LLC and founder and chairman of Quicken Loans Inc. Now, Quicken Loans is making yet another investment in this key Midwest city.
Quicken Loans Inc. and Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC, in late May began construction on the Quicken Loans Technology Center, a 66,000-square-foot data center and office complex located at 1401 Rosa Parks Blvd. in Detroit’s Corktown district.
The new facility will feature two 10,000-square-foot server rooms in addition to training, office and support space. Half of the data center will be occupied by Quicken Loans’ technology team. An equal-sized 33,000-square-foot portion of the building, including the second 10,000-square-foot server room, will be available for lease when the center opens.
Scheduled for completion in January of 2015, the cement-and-glass structure will boast 1.4 megawatts of redundant available power, an energy efficient design and a next-generation air-conditioning system to cool its server rooms. The building, Bedrock’s second ground-up development in the city of Detroit, will also feature a comprehensive security system.
It’s a key project for Detroit. Like many Midwest cities, Detroit is hoping to attract technology companies. Having massive data centers helps.
“Detroit is experiencing an exciting technology revolution, so it only made sense to look in our own backyard when we decided to pursue a new home for our application and data systems,” said Linglong He, Quicken Loans chief information officer, in a written statement. “We invest heavily in technology – both in our infrastructure and in the training we provide our talented, 1,100-member IT team.”
Construction and management of the Quicken Loans Technology Center will be conducted by Bedrock Real Estate Services, a Quicken Loans-affiliated full-service real estate firm specializing in purchasing, leasing, financing, developing and managing commercial space in Detroit. Bedrock will also lease the available 33,000-square-foot technology center space.
