One of the the last unrehabilitated buildings in a hot spot in downtown Detroit is up for sale. 

The nearly 80,000-square-foot Cunningham Building in Capitol Park is on the market but does not have a listing price through Farmington Hills-based Friedman Real Estate, which is marketing the Cunningham Building on behalf of its longtime owner. The property is wrapped around the David Stott Building high-rise — now apartments after a Dan Gilbert redevelopment.

Andrew Bower, senior associate for brokerage services for Friedman Real Estate, called the Cunningham building “the last good site in Capitol Park.”

“Everything else has been renovated or redeveloped and I think there is a lot of good momentum going on right now with downtown, retailers, the draft,” Bower said. “It’s our feeling that the best use for this site is hospitality, multifamily, mixed-use — something revolving around those.” 

The property is owned by 1134 Griswold LLC, an entity registered to Bill Hahn in Pontiac. Wayne County land records show that entity paid $1.05 million for the property in November 2003.

The Cunningham Building was designed by Smith Hinchman & Grylls, according to a city report on what is now the Capitol Park Local Historic District. That firm designed the Buhl Building, Penobscot Building and Guardian Building, per the report.

The Cunningham Building was built by and named after Andrew Cunningham and Edward Cunningham, father and son druggists, the report says. It’s technically two buildings — one at 27-31 State St. that has retained its original façade and one at 1134 Griswold, which has had its facade dramatically altered from the original design — and a permit at the time they were built estimated the cost at $492,632 (roughly $9 million today).  

It’s been more than 10 years since a slew of rehab projects began in Capitol Park — a tiny downtown enclave that was once home to Michigan’s first state capitol. Developers Richard Karp and Richard Hosey lead the charge, followed by what is now Broder Sachse Real Estate and Dan Gilbert.

There are few other buildings in the tiny neighborhood with fates that are as-of-yet unknown. 

In particular, there’s the former bank building at Michigan and Griswold owned by Roger Basmajian. That property has been on and off the market for several years, with various concepts floated, including adding several floors to what is now a two-story building. When it was originally built, it was eight stories but was brought down to two stories in the 1970s. 

“The goal has always been to go up,” Basmajian said on Tuesday, noting that there had been a deal close to finalizing right before the COVID-19 pandemic but that fell through. 

“We do have it on the market for sale but we are not rushing into anything,” Basmajian said. “It’s one of those hard properties to find still left in Capitol Park that have not been redeveloped. Ours is kind of the crossroads between the Financial District and Capitol Park.”

The listing price for 44 Michigan is $5.5 million and it went up for sale a few weeks before Christmas, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service. Basmajian paid $2.45 million for it in December 2015, per CoStar. 

In addition, there is the small Gilbert-owned building at 1250 Griswold next to The Albert apartments, which were redeveloped by Broder Sachse. That building, the former National Loan & Investment Building, is less than 9,000 square feet and most recently had been home to a restaurant and recording studio. 

I’ve emailed a spokesperson for Bedrock LLC, Gilbert’s real estate company, seeking a status update on that property.