Commercial Real Estate in Detroit, Michigan

About Detroit

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and Alphonse de Tonty founded Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit on the river in 1701. The Great Fire of 1805 destroyed nearly all of the colonial town, and Augustus Woodward proposed a radial street plan for the rebuild. Woodward, Washington and Madison avenues still fan out from Grand Circus Park because of it.

Each business district reflects a different era. Downtown's Financial District dates to the 1850s and holds the Guardian and Penobscot buildings near Campus Martius. New Center grew up three miles north, where Woodward crosses Grand Boulevard, around Albert Kahn's General Motors Building, opened in 1922 and now the state's Cadillac Place, and his Fisher Building across the street. Henry Ford Hospital is nearby. Midtown, between them, holds Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center and the Detroit Institute of Arts. In Corktown, Ford bought the long-closed Michigan Central Station in 2018 and reopened it in 2024 as offices and retail.

The city's other defining feature is the border. The Ambassador Bridge opened in 1929, and the Gordie Howe International Bridge joined it on July 27, 2026, linking I-75 to Highway 401 in Ontario. With I-94, I-96 and the Lodge also here, property ranges from towers and institutional campuses to neighborhood storefronts and industrial buildings.