Nick Manes

Detroit

Reporter at Crain's Detroit Business

Reporter at @crainsdetroit covering residential RE, mortgage companies and Detroit mayor race. Husband, biker, golfer, Lions fan. [email protected]

Articles

Long-vacant Detroit high-rise starts a new chapter as senior housing

3 days ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

The long-planned redevelopment of a vacant Detroit high-rise into senior housing is underway. Work formally commenced Tuesday at Lee Plaza on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, a key milestone in a years-long effort to build a complex capital stack to redevelop the historic 15-story, 95-year-old tower into 117 units of affordable housing for the city’s senior population.
Domino's Pizza founder selling Frank Lloyd Wright-style estate in Ann Arbor

4 days ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

The founder of Domino’s Pizza Inc. has listed for sale his sprawling Ann Arbor estate inspired by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The long-retired billionaire philanthropist Tom Monaghan, also the former owner of the Detroit Tigers, has listed his 30-acre estate northwest of downtown Ann Arbor for $8.75 million — one of the highest asking prices currently in Southeast Michigan.
'Abundance' agenda gains attention of metro Detroit housing advocates

1 week ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

A wonk-ish economics book written by two prominent, liberal journalists is clearly on the minds of metro Detroit housing advocates. Published this spring, “Abundance” made it to the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list. Authored by Times columnist Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson of The Atlantic, the book seeks to highlight why Americans — and American liberals, in particular — have failed to build at scale. That includes housing, mass transit and green energy.
Rocket sees uptick in mortgage lending but reports net loss in Q1

1 week ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

Amid a flurry of M&A activity in the last few months, Rocket Companies Inc. saw an uptick in loan volume but still recorded a large net loss in the first part of the year. The Detroit-based mortgage company’s first quarter earnings report shows that total lending volume grew 6.8% from a year earlier to $21.6 billion.
Detroit is on the radar for Tiger Woods' indoor golf league. Who's behind it?

1 week ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

Detroit appears to be on the radar for the upstart pro golf league founded by two of the game’s biggest stars. The Florida-based parent company of TGL (TMRW Golf League) — the indoor screen golf competition launched last year by golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy — this week filed a trademark application for “Motor City Golf Club,” indicating that Detroit might be part of the nascent league’s expansion plans.
Luxury Birmingham apartments open with near top-of-the market rents

1 week ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

In a Detroit suburb where the average home price is nearing $700,000, a local development consortium is betting big on a new top-of-the-market rental apartment project. Birmingham Pointe — located in the suburb’s Triangle District just west of Woodward Avenue and south of Maple Road — formally welcomed its first residents last month.
UWM sees spike in mortgage refinancing activity in early 2025, but posts Q1 loss

1 week ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

The uncertainty of early 2025 appeared to have little effect on mortgage originations for United Wholesale Mortgage. The publicly-traded holding corporation for the Pontiac-based mortgage lender (NYSE: UWMC) saw its loan origination volume for the first part of the year grow 17% year-over-year to more than $32.3 billion, which the company said Tuesday was its highest first quarter for total originations since 2022.
Affordable senior housing moves forward in key Detroit neighborhood

2 weeks ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

New senior housing is headed to a Detroit neighborhood undergoing revitalization. Developers and various officials broke ground Friday morning on a $28 million senior housing development in Detroit’s Russell Woods/Nardin Park neighborhood near the Dexter Avenue corridor. The west-side street is undergoing a significant streetscape investment and now part of the city’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund.
Affordable modular apartments being built in Macomb County

2 weeks ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

New modular-built housing is headed to southern Macomb County. The county’s Department of Planning and Economic Development and nonprofit housing organization Community Housing Network this week announced construction of eight new modular units in Eastpointe, set to be priced at well below market rates, part of an effort to address a lack of affordable housing in the region.
A Detroit condo building needed heat. The solution turned into a neighborhood fight.

2 weeks ago | crainsdetroit.com | Nick Manes

A recent skirmish in a sought-after Detroit neighborhood highlights the challenges facing aging condominium buildings. Beginning last week, residents of the Mies van der Rohe Historic District in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood just east of downtown began protesting work being done by a private utility company with the intent of providing steam-powered heat to a 60-year-old high-rise housing cooperative just across Lafayette Street to the south.