Dearborn - Steel skeleton complete for Dearborn Town Center

metromode, 9/24/2009

The erector set portion of the Dearborn Town Center project is done, now that the last steel beam was put into place Tuesday.

The next phase is to button up the building by creating its exterior shell before the worst of winter sets in. Construction crews expect to hit that mark within the next four months, at about the same time they will begin putting together the pre-cast parking garage behind the building at Schaefer Road and Michigan Avenue. The whole project is set to be done by December, 2010.

"We're slightly ahead of schedule by 2-3 weeks," says John Barker, executive vice president of Hobbs & Black, which designed the building.

The Dearborn Town Center will feature a 162,000-square-foot mix of office and retail space. The vast majority of that space will be occupied by 500 workers from Oakwood Healthcare System and Midwest Health Services, including 200 new jobs.

A 530-car public parking garage is also being built (construction began this summer) to the rear of the building. Redico, the developer, is also looking at adding 22,000 square feet of retail space in front of the Schaefer side of the garage if it can be leased before construction is done. Plans for senior housing behind the parking garage are still being considered for a future phase of the project.

The Dearborn Town Center replaces the recently demolished Montgomery Ward department store. Montgomery Ward opened the store in 1937, expanding it to 93,000 square feet. It went belly-up in 2001 and has been vacant ever since.

Source: John Barker, executive vice president of Hobbs & Black; Jeff Gielniak, director of architecture and construction for Oakwood Healthcare; and Tom Dillenbeck, project architect of Hobbs & Black
Writer: Jon Zemke

Downtown Living , Wayne County

Dearborn