Dearborn Town Center makes noise with pile driving

If you hear a big banging noise on the east side of Dearborn, don't worry. That's the sound of progress.

Specifically, it's the sound of pile driving for the Dearborn Town Center's parking garage. Workers are taking soil samples with the idea of starting work on the parking deck by August. Work has begun on the actual office building at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road.

"They are literally starting to break ground right now," says Mary Laundroche, director of Dearborn's Department of Public Information.

The 162,000-square-foot mixed-use building will serve as the home for offices and ground floor retail. Oakwood Healthcare System and Midwest Health Services will employ about 500 people in 154,000 square feet in the center of east Dearborn's downtown. There will also be 8,000 square feet of ground floor retail space.

A 530-car public parking garage will rise behind the building. Redico, the developer, is also looking at building 22,000 square feet of retail space in front of the Schafer side of the garage if it can get it leased before construction is done. Plans for senior housing behind the garage are still being considered for a future phase of the project.

Work began earlier this spring and is expected to finish by the end of 2010.

The Dearborn Town Center replaces the circa-1937 Montgomery Ward department store that was recently demolished. The 93,000-square-foot space became vacant when Montgomery Ward went belly-up in 2001. Southfield-based Redico, the developer, originally planned to reuse much of the building in the redevelopment but decided against it after complications were discovered, such as a lack of space between floors and small windows.

Source: Mary Laundroche, director of Dearborn's Department of Public Information,
Writer: Jon Zemke

Dearborn Town Center makes noise with pile driving

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