BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
D
avid Farbman says
Detroiters have a "craving"
for a new downtown —
where they can walk
around and enjoy the new cultural
establishments and events.
Bernard Glieberman forsees a "24-
hour downtown" within the next five
years ... a vital and vibrant neighbor-
hood where people can work and live
and brag to their friends that it's the
"in" pla4 to be.
Thanks to them and other Jewish
developers, the city's downtown, near
East Side and New Center areas are
experiencing a renaissance of commer-
cial and residential building activity,
including offices, stores, townhouses,
condos, lofts and apartments.
New signs have sprouted on
Woodward Avenue heralding the
Campus Martius project, a $500 mil-
lion plan covering five blocks of
offices, stores and a hotel in the cen-
tral business district — next to the
site of the future Compuware head-
quarters. Preliminary construction
work already has begun. Key Jewish
developers are the Schostak family,
which operates Schostak Brothers &
Co., Southfield, developer of many of
the Detroit area's major malls, and
Gary Torgow, founder of the Sterling
Group, a Detroit real estate company.
Right in step with them, leading
the resurgence in development of new
Detroit living spaces, are Glieberman,
chief executive officer of Crosswinds
Communities Inc., and Farbman,
president and chief operating officer
of the Farbman Group in Southfield.
Both companies have long-time repu-
tations as leaders in the Detroit area
building and real estate industry.
Crosswinds and Farbman are in the
center of Detroit's rapidly changing
housing market, which has accelerated
over the past five years and now is
giving middle-income people a chance
to live downtown. New attractions are
bringing excitement: Comerica Park
for the Detroit Tigers, the upcoming
Ford Field for the Lions, the Detroit
Opera House, the many showplaces
and restaurants in the Fox Theater
District and Harmonie Park.
Eventually, three permanent gambling
casinos, expanding museums, General
Motors at Renaissance Center, and
other projects will add to the mix.
And the two companies are plan-
ning a residential joint venture in the
Wayne State University area in con-
junction with an ambitious, multi-
million-dollar project called the WSU
Research and Technology Park, still in
the early stages of development.
Glieberman graduated from
Detroit Mumford High School and
the old Detroit Institute of
Technology, and has been in the
building industry for 44 years. He
was plunged into his father's building
business at the age of 17 when Louis
Glieberman died. The company built
homes in northwest Detroit, then
expanded to Ann Arbor, Farmington,
West Bloomfield, Novi, Royal Oak,
Waterford and Clinton Township.
The colorful Glieberman, who lives
in West Bloomfield, also is an avid
sportsman. He formerly owned teams
in the Canadian Football League and
tried unsuccessfully to form a new pro-
fessional league in the United States.
But building is his forte and he brought
affordable housing deep into Detroit by
opening a Homerama complex of
model homes on East Jefferson and
Above left: Bernard Glieberman Woodward Place is north of Comerica Park.
Above right: David Farbman inspects a loft renovation downtown.
Dickinson almost 10 years ago.
Crosswinds also built Elmwood
Park, at Chene and Bradbury streets,
misted that didn't require a subsidy —
extra money from another source —
so that housing could be sold below
several years ago — selling out all 182
townhouses at prices ranging from
$160,000 to $190,000.
"As a builder, you always have to
worry about whether potential cus-
tomers can afford to buy your
homes," he said in his Novi office. "I
was concerned about the high city
taxes, so we worked to help get enter-
prise zones passed in the city that
reduced taxes on specific neighbor-
hood projects. When the city started
planning the Brush Park project in
1995, we were ready."
The historic Brush Park neighbor-
hood, just north of Comerica Park,
once was the scene of grand Victorian
mansions populated by wealthy early
Detroiters and city officials. But for
the past half-century, the area has
been marked by neglect and crime.
Seven builders submitted plans to the
city to renovate Brush Park, and
Crosswinds was selected.
"Our project was the only one sub-
its real cost," Glieberman said. "We
were the only company that proposed
market-rate property ... unsubsidized,
middle-income condos that would
compete in the open market."
The first phase of the Crosswinds
Woodward Place in Brush Park was
unveiled this summer — a $150 mil-
lion project consisting of 800 condos
on the east side of Woodward, just
north of downtown and the Fox
Theater, spread over 43 acres. The
attached condos are priced from
$199,990 to $259,990 ... about $150
a square foot.
Actually, Crosswinds has been
building and releasing six of the
Woodward Place condos a month for
several months, "and the demand is
unbelievable," smiled Glieberman.
"One way or another, we've heard
from about 2,000 people, and most of
them are willing to pay more and get
the larger units." The unit called the
Woodward is 1,753 square feet; the
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David Farbman and Bernard Glieberman are filling
a big demand for new housing near downtown Detroit.
10/6
2000
104