One of the more high-profile commercial real estate auctions in recent memory starts Monday.

The planned online auction of the 600 Tower of the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit runs March 17-19, with a starting bid of $2.75 million. 

The reserve price — the minimum amount the seller would accept — is not known.

The 21-story office tower is largely vacant, sitting at about 11% occupancy, according to the online listing through Ten-X.com. Farmington Hills-based Friedman Real Estate is handling the auction.

The tower is one of the two shorter RenCen buildings and is not owned by General Motors Co., which is working on a separate redevelopment plan for the central five towers the automaker owns. 

Friedman Real Estate was a minority partner of the 600 Tower in an ownership group led by Irvine, Calif.-based private equity firm F&F Capital Group, which was majority partner in a late December 2023 purchase, said Steven Silverman, senior vice president of Friedman’s national investment and brokerage advisory and investment services, in January.

In the deal, F&F Capital and Friedman paid $15 million for the 500 and 600 Towers, plus another $10 million to $15 million to retain Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in the 500 Tower and relocate some of the health care system’s employees to that building from the 600 Tower and building out space.

That left the 600 Tower largely vacant, save for the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, the Canadian consulate, a dental clinic and a day care center, Silverman said in January. 

That same day, Dec. 21, 2023, F&F Capital Group and Friedman Real Estate flipped the 500 Tower to an entity connected to Hallandale Beach, Fla.-based Kawa Private Investments LLC for $30.4 million, according to city land sale records.

“We’ve seen an incredible level of interest in the 600 RenCen property and are eagerly anticipating next week’s auction,” Silverman said in an email late Friday morning. “The demand has been overwhelming, with strong interest from local, regional, and even international groups. It will be exciting to see who secures the winning bid, as there are a variety of potential uses being explored, including office, mixed-use development, apartments, condos, and hotel concepts.”

The auction comes as GM and Bedrock continue to promote their $1.6 billion redevelopment plan for the adjacent five-building RenCen complex GM owns. The companies are seeking public subsidies as a component of financing the project, which would ultimately tear down two of the four office towers that surround the central hotel tower as a part of a development vision that involves activating the riverfront with more public space. That project now includes an observation deck on top of the central hotel tower, Crain’s reported.

The Detroit Executive Plaza (sometimes the Detroit Office Plaza) at 1200 Sixth St. had also been scheduled for auction this week but that was moved to May 5. The reserve price — the minimum purchase price the ownership is willing to take for it — is not known.