Reversing the Real-Estate Doom Loop Is Possible. Just Look at Detroit.


底特律在宣布破产不到十年之后，正在成为美国最不可思议的房地产新兴城市。


通用汽车未来在底特律市中心的总部就坐落在Hudson百货公司的旧址上。

底特律在宣布破产不到十年之后，正在成为美国最不可思议的房地产新兴城市。 6park.com
Barely a decade after Detroit declared bankruptcy, the city is emerging as America’s most unlikely real-estate boomtown. 6park.com
   
底特律中央商务区掀起了一波开发热潮。包括福特汽车(Ford)和房地产开发商Related Cos.在内的大公司正在斥巨资建造办公楼和其他房产。 6park.com
A development frenzy has gripped Detroit’s central business district. Big companies, including Ford and developer Related Cos., are spending billions of dollars on office buildings and other properties.  6park.com
   
亿万富翁吉尔伯特(Dan Gilbert)是土生土长的底特律人，也是房屋贷款公司Rocket Mortgage的联合创始人，他正在领导底特律的复兴。他的新摩天大楼仍在建设中，最近高度达681英尺，成为该市第二高大楼。这座大楼坐落于底特律市中心第一家Gucci门店的街对面。 6park.com
Dan Gilbert, a Detroit native and the billionaire co-founder of home lender Rocket Mortgage, is leading the city’s revitalization. His new skyscraper, still under construction, recently topped out at 681 feet, making it the city’s second-tallest tower. It sits across the street from downtown Detroit’s first Gucci store. 


在Hudson百货公司旧址上建造的摩天大楼项目占地150万平方英尺，由亿万富翁、房屋贷款公司Rocket Mortgage的联合创始人开发。

底特律的住宅市场也在腾飞。自2020年以来，该城市的住房价格上涨了40%，去年秋季的涨幅在美国主要大都会地区中是最大的。根据Downtown Detroit Partnership的数据，自2010年以来，底特律市中心的公寓数量增加了一倍多，达到5,903套。 6park.com
The city’s residential market is also taking off. Home prices in the area are up 40% since 2020, and last fall had the steepest rise among major U.S. metropolitan areas. The number of apartments downtown has more than doubled to 5,903 since 2010, according to the Downtown Detroit Partnership.  6park.com
   
底特律的商业区转型为其他一些城市提供了借鉴，那些城市正在努力重振空置的市中心，避免陷入逐渐衰弱的厄运循环。全美各地的城市正在竞相将商业建筑改造成公寓，并增加酒吧、餐馆和娱乐场所，以弥补人流量的不足。 6park.com
Detroit’s business-district transformation offers lessons to other cities that are struggling to revive their empty downtowns and avoid being sucked into a debilitating doom loop.  6park.com
Cities across the country are racing to convert commercial buildings into apartments. They are also adding bars, restaurants and entertainment venues to make up for the missing foot traffic. 

通用汽车正在收缩办公空间

在底特律，并非一切顺利。写字楼空置率仍然较高，人流量也没有完全回到新冠疫情前的水平。通用汽车(General Motors)上周宣布将继续留在底特律市中心，同时将把总部迁至吉尔伯特的新大楼。这一消息上了头条新闻。不过，通用汽车未来租赁的办公空间将大大减少，这表明随着越来越多的员工选择远程办公，如何填满办公室将成为一大挑战。 6park.com
In Detroit, not everything is going right. Office vacancy rates are still high and foot traffic hasn’t fully rebounded to prepandemic levels. General Motors made headlines last week when it said it is staying in downtown Detroit, moving its headquarters to the Gilbert development. But GM will be taking up significantly less space, a sign of the challenge of filling up offices as more employees work remotely.  6park.com
即便如此，底特律市中心的复苏已经提前。大量曾经空置的建筑提供了机会。Downtown Detroit Partnership首席执行官Eric Larson表示，许多建筑都有近百年的历史，楼层少，建筑精美。这些正是适合改建成公寓的建筑类型。 6park.com
Even so, Detroit’s downtown recovery is already ahead of schedule. Its abundance of once-empty buildings offered opportunity. Many are nearly a century old, with small floors and beautiful architecture, said Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership. These are exactly the types of buildings that work well as apartment conversions.  6park.com
   
要是在曼哈顿中城等更繁荣的市场，这些建筑早就会被拆除，换成没什么特点的高层玻璃写字楼，楼层面积巨大，感觉像洞穴一样。但在底特律，它们仍是废弃状态，等待着有钱又有地方自豪感的人来改建。 6park.com
In more robust markets, such as Midtown Manhattan, these buildings would have been torn down and replaced by characterless glass office towers with cavernous floors. But in Detroit, they remained as ruins, waiting for someone with money and local pride to come and convert them. 6park.com
   
这个人就是吉尔伯特，他在2010年将自己的房贷公司总部从郊区搬到了市中心。 6park.com
That person turned out to be Gilbert, who moved his mortgage company’s headquarters downtown from the suburbs in 2010.  6park.com
   
“我们当时实际上有三个选择，”他说。“延长租约，去某个农田建一个园区（这对我们来说其实并没有什么吸引力），或者到市中心来，把这些我们非常喜欢的漂亮的老建筑填满一部分。” 6park.com
“We really had three options,” he said. “Extend the leases, go to some farmland and build a campus—which wasn’t really attractive to us—or come downtown and fill up some of these beautiful old buildings that we really loved.”  6park.com
   
安全是最初的一个担忧。吉尔伯特说，公司组建了自己的安保机制，配备了警卫和摄像头，让员工感到安全，但很快他们就发现，去市中心几乎不太需要劝说。他开始收购附近的建筑，部分原因是为了确保这些建筑不会落入投机者手中，也不会衰败。 6park.com
Safety was an initial concern. The company built its own security apparatus with guards and cameras to make employees feel safe, but soon found that they needed little convincing to go downtown, Gilbert said. He began buying up nearby buildings in part to make sure they wouldn’t fall to speculators and decay.


Rocket Mortgage位于底特律市中心的总部。

他将自己的房地产开发战略称为“大爆炸方法”。市中心需要公寓、零售和现代办公空间。“那么，你们先做什么？”他问道。“我们想，你其实必须同时做这些事情，才能运转起来。” 6park.com
He calls his real-estate development strategy the “big bang approach.” Downtown needed apartments, retail and modern office space. “Well, what do you do first?” he asked. “We thought, you really have to do it all at the same time to make it work.” 6park.com
   
吉尔伯特的公司在市中心购买了130多处房产，花费数以十亿计美元。他的房地产公司Bedrock Detroit将拥有百年历史的38层意大利文艺复兴风格摩天大楼Book Tower进行改造，改造成拥有公寓、一家酒店、办公室、零售店、举办活动的场所、酒吧和餐馆。该项目耗资4亿美元，于去年开业。 6park.com
Gilbert’s companies bought more than 130 properties downtown, spending billions. His real-estate venture, Bedrock Detroit, converted the Book Tower, a century-old, 38-story Italian Renaissance Style skyscraper, into apartments, a hotel, offices, retail, event space, bars and restaurants. The $400 million project opened last year. 


摩天大楼BOOK TOWER里一个办公空间的改造前后。

Bedrock将在Hudson百货公司旧址上建造681英尺高的摩天大楼。这座摩天大楼将包含豪华公寓和一家酒店。通用汽车即将迁入的邻近办公楼也是该项目的一部分。 6park.com
Bedrock is building its 681-foot skyscraper on the site of the former Hudson’s department store. It will include luxury condominiums and a hotel. And the neighboring office building that GM is moving into is part of the project. 6park.com
   
在上个世纪的大部分时间和本世纪初，底特律市中心更多的是与城市衰落联系在一起，谈不上重建。从1950年到2020年，底特律的人口减少了三分之二，从180多万减少到约64万。郊区化和汽车制造业的衰落使办公区留下了大量空置和废弃的建筑。 6park.com
For much of the previous century and the start of this one, downtown Detroit was more closely associated with urban decay than renewal. Between 1950 and 2020, Detroit’s population shrank by two-thirds, from more than 1.8 million to around 640,000. Suburbanization and the decline of car manufacturing left the office district with lots of empty and abandoned buildings.  6park.com
    6park.com
底特律以前的火车站密歇根中央车站(Michigan Central)庞大的旧址成为城市衰败的一个象征。税收的减少导致该市于2013年破产。 6park.com
The hulking ruin of Michigan Central, Detroit’s former train station, became a symbol of urban decay. Dwindling tax revenue helped bankrupt the city in 2013. 

福特在市中心进行再投资

但在吉尔伯特投入的刺激下，其他公司也开始向市中心的房地产项目大量投入资金。汽车制造商福特将斥资9亿多美元重新开发密歇根中央车站及周边地产。密歇根中央车站首席执行官Josh Sirefman表示，该项目的一部分是以前的一个邮件处理设施，已于去年开业，目前已有90多家初创企业入驻。 6park.com
But spurred by Gilbert’s commitment, others began pouring money into downtown real-estate projects. Carmaker Ford is spending more than $900 million to redevelop Michigan Central and surrounding properties. Part of the project, a former mail-processing facility, opened last year and is now home to more than 90 startups, said Michigan Central CEO Josh Sirefman.  6park.com
   
上述火车站重建计划将于6月开工。相关开发公司董事长、底特律人斯蒂芬·罗斯(Stephen Ross)正与小凯撒披萨(Little Caesars Pizza)的所有者、底特律当地伊利奇(Ilitch)家族合作，耗资15亿美元在市中心北部边缘开发一个包括公寓、酒店、办公楼和零售店在内的项目。罗斯还向正在市中心建设中的密歇根大学(University of Michigan)研究和教育中心捐赠了1亿美元。 6park.com
The train-station building is scheduled to open in June. Related chairman and Detroit native Stephen Ross is partnering with the local Ilitch family, owners of Little Caesars Pizza, on a $1.5 billion development at the northern edge of downtown that will include apartments, a hotel, offices and retail. Ross also donated $100 million to a University of Michigan research and education center downtown that is under construction. 


福特汽车首席执行官Jim Hackett于2018年宣布了该公司重建历史悠久的密歇根中央火车站的计划。

多伦多大学(University of Toronto)城市研究教授Richard Florida说：“人们忘记了一件事，那就是底特律绝不乏新贵和财富世家。” 6park.com
“One thing people forget is Detroit has a lot of old and new money,” said Richard Florida, an urban-studies professor at the University of Toronto. 6park.com
   
办公楼的租金早已跌至谷底，这迫使开发商们想出了其他的建设方案。他们增加了赌场和体育场馆，修复了老旧的剧院。这些举措使得市中心对办公空间的依赖程度降低，而这正是远程办公时代的一项优势所在。 6park.com
Rock-bottom office rents long ago forced developers to come up with other things to build. They added casinos and sports venues and restored aging theaters. That made downtown less office-dependent, an advantage in the age of remote work.  6park.com
   
“一个所谓聪明的城市规划专家可能会说，不要这样做——在体育场馆和赌场上投入数十亿美元”，Florida说。“这么说听起来有点奇怪，但在某种程度上，他们的市中心看起来更像迈阿密或拉斯维加斯。” 6park.com
“An allegedly smart urbanist would have probably said don’t do that—billions of dollars on stadiums and casinos,” Florida said. “It sounds odd to say this, but in a way their downtown looks more like a Miami or Las Vegas.” 6park.com
   
底特律已破产以及见诸报端的都是该市的衰落消息这一处境，也让该市和密西根州更加迫切地向开发商提供减税优惠。这些措施通常会引起争议，但非常重要，因为底特律的租金太低，项目无法以其他方式获得回报。例如，上述密歇根中央车站项目将获得超过2亿美元的税收优惠。 6park.com
The bankruptcy and headlines of Detroit’s decay also created more urgency in the city and state to shower developers with tax breaks. These are often controversial but are important because rents in Detroit are too low for projects to pay off otherwise. The Michigan Central project, for example, is set to receive more than $200 million in tax incentives. 


去年棒球赛季开始时的底特律克迈利卡公园(Comerica Park)

密歇根中央车站首席执行官Sirefman说：“你获得了破产后的那种活力。” 6park.com
“You’ve got a postbankruptcy kind of energy,” said Sirefman, the Michigan Central CEO.  6park.com
   
21世纪头10年中期时，Sirefman曾担任纽约副市长Dan Doctoroff的高级顾问，当时纽约市斥巨资重建曼哈顿下城，将其打造成一个拥有公寓、商店和餐馆的繁荣社区。 6park.com
Sirefman worked as chief of staff to New York’s deputy mayor, Dan Doctoroff, in the mid-2000s, when the city spent big to rebuild lower Manhattan and turn it into a thriving neighborhood with apartments, shops and restaurants.  6park.com
   
“纽约的9/11事件是一件非常可怕的事情”，他说。“但它也为我们创造了大胆思考和做大事的机会。我的确认为危机会带来生机。” 6park.com
“9/11 in New York was a terrible thing,” he said. “It also created licenses to think big and do big things. And I do think there’s something about coming out of a crisis that creates focus.” 6park.com
   
大型开发项目吸引了市中心的小型企业。2015年，Dessert Oasis Coffee Roasters的创始人Nathan Hamood在一栋改建的公寓楼底商开设了一家咖啡馆。当时，该店铺周围大部分地区都是空置的。Hamood没钱做市场调查，但他认为附近的房地产开发商已经做足了功课。 6park.com
Big developments have drawn small businesses downtown. Nathan Hamood, founder of Dessert Oasis Coffee Roasters, opened a cafe on the ground floor of a converted apartment building in 2015. At the time, the area around the shop was mostly vacant. Hamood didn’t have the money to do market research, but figured the real-estate developers building nearby had done their homework.  6park.com
   
他说：“当时有很多开发项目，我们觉得这是一个相对安全的赌注。”有那么几年生意并不景气。但随着越来越多的公寓楼开张，顾客也纷至沓来。 6park.com
“There was a lot of development happening, and we felt like it was a relatively safe bet,” he said. For a few years, business was lean. But as more apartment buildings opened, customers came. 

更多工作要做

底特律市中心仍面临挑战。客流量比2019年有所下降，主要是受到远程工作的影响。这意味着当地企业的客户减少了。由于利率上升、银行畏手畏脚，支付开发费用变得更加困难。Related和Ilitch家族的Olympia Development的合资企业原计划去年开始建造他们15亿美元项目的第一批办公楼，但后来推迟了。 6park.com
Downtown still has challenges. Foot traffic is down from 2019, largely because of remote work. That means fewer customers for local businesses. Rising interest rates and skittish banks have made it harder to pay for development. The joint venture between Related and the Ilitch family’s Olympia Development was scheduled to start building the first offices at their $1.5 billion project last year, but pushed that back.  6park.com
   
“我们都对更广阔的市场有感觉，” Related底特律业务负责人Andrew Cantor说。 6park.com
“We all feel the broader market,” said Andrew Cantor, who heads Related’s Detroit business. 6park.com
   
通用汽车搬家将使其位于市南端的老家文艺复兴中心(Renaissance Center)前景渺茫。据当地新闻机构报道，通用汽车公司拥有这座大楼，公司首席执行官博拉(Mary Barra)告诉记者，公司正在研究如何把这座大楼派上其他用场。 6park.com
GM’s move will leave its old home at the southern edge of downtown, the Renaissance Center, with an uncertain future. The automaker owns the property, and Chief Executive Mary Barra told reporters the company is working on finding alternative uses for the building, according to local news reports.  6park.com
 
“我们不需要又一个庞大的废墟再次提醒我们：在底特律，我们永远无法爬得足够高，”《底特律自由报》(Detroit Free Press)社论版编辑Nancy Kaffer在最近的一篇评论文章中写道。 6park.com
“We don’t need another hulking ruin, reminding us all over again that in Detroit, we can never climb up quite far enough,” Nancy Kaffer, the Detroit Free Press’s editorial page editor, wrote in a recent opinion piece. 6park.com
   
与其他城市一样，有精神健康或成瘾问题的无住房者也会给企业主带来挑战。 6park.com
As in other downtowns, people without housing who have mental-health or addiction problems can present a challenge for business owners.


通用汽车已经表示，正在为其位于底特律市南端的老家——文艺复兴中心寻找其他用途。

Dessert Oasis聘请了一家安保公司，因为之前总有好斗的人来这家咖啡馆。“我的团队没有接受过社会工作这方面的培训，”创始人Hamood说，并说最近情况有所改善。 6park.com
Dessert Oasis hired a security firm after aggressive individuals kept coming into the cafe. “My team isn’t trained in social work,” said founder Hamood, adding that the situation has improved recently. 6park.com
   
不过，底特律市中心的情况无疑正在好转，而其他许多办公区形势则相反。 6park.com
Still, there is little doubt that downtown Detroit is turning around when many other office districts are heading in the opposite direction.  6park.com
   
吉尔伯特说：“如果10年前有人说底特律会有一家古驰(Gucci)专卖店，我肯定会嘲笑他。” 6park.com
“If somebody would have told you there was going to be a Gucci store in Detroit 10 years ago, I mean, I would have laughed at them,” Gilbert said.