Gary Torgow wasn’t a great lawyer, disenchanted with the legal fighting and motion calls. 

He said so himself last week during an event held at Huntington Place, the downtown Detroit convention center that now bears the name of the $210 billion bank of which he is chairman of the board. 

So, naturally, when Torgow was approached by someone in a neighboring office suite many years ago about the potential for investing in a Detroit real estate deal, he was intrigued.

The problem?

“I didn’t really have any money,” Torgow said during Derek Dickow’s Power Connections commercial real estate event held June 24-25. 

Torgow also told the potential business partner many years ago that he didn’t have any experience in the Detroit real estate market.

“’Well, none of us do,’” Torgow recalled the unidentified business partner saying back to him. 

In the end, Torgow and several investors cobbled together the 10% down payment needed to purchase a 109-unit vacant apartment building in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood, many years before the wave of new development and redevelopment hit the now-chic enclave north of downtown. 

Scraping together the cash may have been a challenge, but apparently, there wasn’t much competition for the building. When Torgow was told he and his investment team were successful with their offer, he asked how many others they beat out.

“’None,’” he recalled being told. 

Thus began Torgow’s commercial real estate career, which was solidified when he started Detroit-based The Sterling Group in 1988. 

The company, now run by his adult children, has emerged as a force in the Detroit real estate scene since then, particularly during the last seven or eight years.