(WXYZ) — Detroit's Riverfront is prime property, and a stunning 420,000 square foot building located along the Detroit River has a prime location.
The building first opened in 2001, but the property has been largely unseen by the public.
“They didn’t know it existed when it was in operation because it was just for the GM-UAW folks," Mario Moceri said."They kept it as a private training center and now that we have it, we’re bringing it out to the public.”
Starting in the atrium, Moceri led me on a personal tour of the building, which his family purchased in partnership with the Gatzaros family.
So this goes back to about May of 2020 when it first was on the market and entering these halls was unbelievable. The terrazzo floors, the skylights, but just the mass of this building and the size of the property is breathtaking," Christos Moisides, the son-in-law of the late developer Ted Gatzaros, said.
The building has been renamed "The Icon" to honor Gatzaros and Moceri's father, Dominic, a luxury home builder who died in 2018.
The building is filled with features and amenities, but as incredible as it is inside, the view from the seventh-floor skydeck is beyond compare.
“You shake your head, just speechless because you’re like, ‘how could this escape anyone?’" Moceri said. "If you had this as your own building, as a company, you would not want to leave it."
The views are of Belle Isle, across the river to Windsor, and of Downtown Detroit.
“We always said when we come to Detroit, we want to make it something big, we want to do something big here. And in the right spot and the river’s the right spot to be in Detroit," Moceri said.
Inside the seventh floor, there are four C-level executive suites and a 28-seat board room.
The 375-seat auditorium has state-of-the-art digital presentation capabilities. There's a large cafeteria and a kitchen capable of serving several thousand people.
It also has a fitness center, locker rooms, an educational and training space, and 30,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Union made and built with American products, the construction price tag was reported to be $180 million when it opened 20 years ago. Now, it's up to the families to direct the next chapter.
“It’s got a lot of potential for different uses, from R & D, to learning and education, to governmental uses even," Moceri said.
"This could be a multi-tenant building as well. Obviously, our goal would be to have one single tenant that has these unique needs all in one space," Moisides said.
The secure, 18-acre campus has outdoor terraces that extend out to the riverfront. There's also private access to the Riverwalk below. Underneath the terraces is one more unique feature, a heated underground parking lot for 900 cars with direct access to the building.
“We’re going to figure this out and find the right home for someone here, whether it’s one, two, four major tenants in here, we’ll make it happen," Moceri said.
