Fisher building to get new tenant: United Way for Southeastern Michigan


Editor’s note: This article was initially published at Freep.com.

Facing rising costs of downtown Detroit office space, United Way for Southeastern Michigan announced it is moving its corporate office from the First National Building in downtown Detroit to the historic Fisher building in New Center.

The move into a 36,500-square-foot suite on the Fisher’s fifth floor is expected to be complete by March 2019, President and CEO Dr. Darienne Driver said in a new release Wednesday.

Driver added that the Fisher also will be home to the organization’s signature 2-1-1 call center. The new space will allow the United Way to interact with “the community, donors and corporate and ad agency partners in new and exciting ways,” according to the release.

“When considering our mission, our role in the community and remaining fiscally responsible, the Fisher building was the best choice,”  Driver said.

The nonprofit has for more than 100 years served as a hub for agencies offering care to vulnerable communities throughout Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties.

“Our new space will enhance our ability to support more than 200 agency partners in filling social service gaps toward building a stronger southeast Michigan,” Driver said.

The United Way has called downtown Detroit home for decades. Its first home, which was donated, was at 1212 Griswold in Capital Park. It’s current home, at 660 Woodward in Campus Martius, was acquired in 2008, “during a time when both the streets and buildings in downtown were vastly less populated,” the news release said.

Steve Morris, managing partner of the Axis Advisors real estate firm and an adjunct professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, said it’s great to have more people downtown, but that higher costs come with them.

“As a result of the strong occupancy with 24,000 new employees and growing companies (downtown), rental rates have gone up from the high teens to the high 20s (per square foot), primarily in the many Bedrock-controlled office buildings,” Morris said. “Parking also has gone up, double what it was before.”

Bedrock Real Estate Services owns the First National Building.

United Way had been paying less than $20 a square foot a month in the First National Building. Driver did not say what it will pay in rent in the Fisher.

“We are excited to welcome United Way … to the Fisher Building,” said Dietrich Knoer, president and CEO of The Platform. “Its dedication to the community is a perfect fit to furthering the Fisher’s role as a ‘Beacon for Detroit,’ from which our tenants serve Detroit and its neighborhoods, and where we welcome all Detroiters.”