DETROIT — Bedrock has broken ground on the 1.4 million-square-foot Monroe Blocks project on two city blocks at the corner of Monroe Street and Campus Martius in downtown Detroit. Slated for completion in 2022, the development is one of four transformational projects underway as part of a $2.1 billion investment in Detroit that Bedrock first announced in 2017. In total, Monroe Blocks will include 847,000 square feet of office space, 482 residential units and 117,000 square feet of retail space.
Block A will include a 35-story office tower and Block B will be largely residential. A stretch of Farmer Street will be converted to pedestrian-only space and connect the two blocks. Bedrock worked with Danish architecture firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen to design the project alongside Detroit-based firm Neumann/Smith Architecture. Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor.
The two blocks along Monroe Street that make up the development were known historically as Detroit’s first theater district. The site was razed in 1990 with the exception of the National Theatre, which has sat vacant. Bedrock plans to retain the façade of the National Theatre and incorporate it into a terracotta archway within the development.
The other three projects within Bedrock’s $2.1 billion investment include the Hudson’s Site project, the restoration of the historic Book Building and and adjacent Book Tower and a 310,000-square-foot addition to One Campus Martius.