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A new era begins for a 1925 downtown landmark designed by legendary architect Albert Kahn.
Tenants this month began moving into the Detroit Free Press' longtime base at 321 W. Lafyette Blvd., reborn as The Press/321 with a $113-million makeover by Bedrock Detroit. It has 105 apartments, street-level store spaces and offices on the second and fourth floors.
A seventh-floor rooftop deck has a pool and gas grills, and the basement garage will feature an AutoParkIt automated system. It's a far cry from the site's newspapering era, clearly.
Bedrock, the real estate arm of Dan Gilbert's network, began media tours Tuesday that included a fitness room and conference roomn/ lounge. On the ground level, visitors saw original wood paneling, carved ceilings and murals preserved for the 14-story building's second century.
The Freep left in 1998 and moved down the street into The Detroit News building. In 2014, both publications moved into a Gilbert-owned office building on Fort Street.
Photos by Michael Lucido
