When Bedrock, the development firm owned by Dan Gilbert—billionaire Rocket Mortgage founder and a primary force behind Detroit’s contemporary resurgence—reopened the Book Tower last June, the painstaking renovation included a stained glass dome that capped the art deco tower.
It’s a sign of the firm’s commitment to not just investing in the Midwestern metropolis but doing so with style, statement, and vision.
Bedrock’s work toward Detroit’s rebirth continued in stride over the last year, with the opening and expansion of numerous high-tech incubation spaces, as well as large, sweeping neighborhood revamps. These included the Urban Technology Xchange, a first-of-its-kind collaborative lab for proptech, or property tech, startups, the Detroit Smart Parking Lab, and the massive Cadillac Square mixed-use project, centered on the reopening of the National Theater.
Bedrock announced plans to make a similar impact on another city, revealing details of a $3.5 billion, 15- to 20-year plan to turn downtown Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Riverfront into a 15-minute city, where all amenities are accessible in a quarter-hour without a car.
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