commitment to downtown Detroit in move
DETROIT — The Archdiocese of Detroit will consolidate most of its central administrative offices in a renovated building in Detroit’s Capitol Park Historic District sometime next year, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron announced to nearly 200 archdiocesan employees April 30.
The archbishop also announced the sale of the archdiocese’s two main administrative buildings in the city’s downtown — the Chancery Building at 1234 Washington Blvd. and the Gabriel Richard Building at 305 Michigan Ave. — plus a third, unoccupied building adjacent to the Chancery, to a pair of developers. The archdiocesan print shop in the city’s Corktown district was also sold to a private telecommunications firm. The sales will bring the archdiocese approximately $3.25 million.
Nearly 185 archdiocesan Central Services employees will move next year to a 13-story building at 1212 Griswold in the city’s Capitol Park district, where the archbishop said the archdiocese would become the lead tenant in a growing section of the city. The print shop and archdiocesan archives will move into the former seminary high school building at Linwood and Chicago near the city’s historic Boston-Edison District. St. Aloysius Parish, adjacent to the existing Chancery, is not affected by the sales.
While the sale of the Gabriel Richard Building and print shop were part of recommendations made to the archbishop in 2009 to stabilize the archdiocese’s finances, Archbishop Vigneron said keeping the archdiocese’s main offices in the city of Detroit was a priority and part of a long-term commitment to the city. The site of the future Chancery is just a block or so from the existing one.
“It is important for the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Detroit to remain in the city of Detroit,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “Our staying in the city represents a way for us to be good citizens.”
The archdiocese will lease the new building in Capitol Park from Capitol Park Partnership, LLC, which also purchased the existing Chancery building from the archdiocese. The Gabriel Richard Building was bought by the development firm GRB New Detroit, LLC.
Capitol Park Partnership, LLC, owns several other buildings in the area, as does businessman-developer Dan Gilbert, said Bob Kraemer, principal of Kraemer Design Group, the architect in charge of renovating the building at 1212 Griswold. Many of the buildings in the Capitol Park district have been purchased in the past year, and plans are in the works for several shops, restaurants and residential developments there, he said.
“Capitol Park is becoming a high-profile new development,” said Pam Beech, human resources director for the archdiocese. “We are one of the first to be out there, but it is going to be one of the more vibrant areas of downtown, and we look forward to being a part of it.”
Archbishop Vigneron also said the move made sense financially because of the ongoing repairs and maintenance needed to keep up the aging buildings. “It does not make sense to take the money of the people of the archdiocese and put it into these buildings,” the archbishop said.
The Gabriel Richard Building, originally built as a furniture store in 1910, has needed numerous repairs and renovations over the years. The existing Chancery building was built in the 1930s.
The archdiocese will save money by leasing space in the Capitol Park building, which will become the new Chancery, once renovations there are complete sometime in mid- to late 2014. Consolidating the administrative offices from four buildings (including some employees currently working at Sacred Heart Major Seminary) to one will reduce the space the archdiocese needs from about 150,000 to 50,000 square feet. Much of the space in the three buildings the archdiocese currently owns is unused.
“This is a move I have decided to make that will bring us all not only figuratively, but literally closer together as Central Services staff,” Archbishop Vigneron said during a special presentation. “So that we can better support parishes, schools and other institutions that we serve and communities that we serve.”
The proceeds from the building sales will be used to help renovate the new space at 1212 Griswold, and the remainder will be deposited into the archdiocese’s Loan Deposit Program, a cooperative savings, investment, and lending program into which archdiocesan Catholic parishes, schools and other institutions make deposits and apply for loans.
Built in 1895, the 13-story Italian Renaissance structure in Capitol Park is Detroit’s oldest surviving early skyscraper. Originally the Board of Commerce Building, it later served for many years as the headquarters of what is now Comerica Bank. Its most recent tenant was the United Way of Southeast Michigan.
The archdiocese plans to lease five or six floors of the building, which are a “blank slate” as far as renovations are concerned, said Kraemer. The remaining upper floors will be residential, he said. Until renovations are complete in late 2014, the archdiocese will maintain its current office space.
Like many parishes undergoing mergers and consolidation under the Together in Faith pastoral planning process, the archdiocese’s central administrative offices are doing the same.
“I always try to put these projects in the hands of Our Lady. Perhaps the most appropriate patroness for this is Our Lady of Loretto,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “The home at Loretto is Our Lady’s home in Nazareth and it got moved there by the angels. Maybe that’s the right title to invoke as we embark on our move.”
