Birmingham Place sold to Bacall as buying spree continues

Bacall Companies LLC has purchased another downtown Birmingham property.

The Farmington Hills-based real estate firm paid $37 million for the retail and office and some of the parking portions of Birmingham Place, located at 401 S. Old Woodward Ave. sandwiched between Hazel Street and Brown Street.

The purchase, which closed Wednesday afternoon, is the third the company has made in recent months in the swank Oakland County downtown, following the $14 million purchase of the property at 380 N. Old Woodward Ave. in March and the $12.25 million December purchase of the Huntington Center office building at 220 Park St.

"It's one of the largest three or four buildings in Birmingham, and it's just a nice building," Dante Bacall said. He and three brothers — Daivin, Dorayd and Doval — run Bacall Companies as principals/partners. He said more than $3 million in improvements are planned.

The purchased portion of Birmingham Place is about 107,700 square feet and 96 percent leased, according to marketing materials provided by Bacall Companies.

Key office tenants are Conway MacKenzie (18,100 square feet); Sotheby's International Realty (11,100 square feet); and Brooks Wilkins Sharkey & Turco PLLC (14,100 square feet).

Bacall's purchase does not include the 142 condominiums which are on the 10-story building's top floors.

In the acquired property, there is about 91,000 square feet of office space with 88,500 leased, and about 16,600 square feet of retail space, which is 100 percent leased. The deal also includes a three-level parking garage with 382 spaces. Of those, 207 are deeded to the property Bacall purchased, 61 are shared with residential units and 114 are deeded to the residential units.

The property is expected to pull in about $3.39 million in revenue this year with $1.33 million in expenses for about $2.06 million in net operating income, according to an Integra Realty Resources appraisal from April provided to Crain's by Bacall Companies, which said that Farmington Hills-based Marcus Management Inc. is also a partner in the deal.

NOI was $2.05 million in 2021 and $2.03 million in 2020, the appraisal says.

Bacall Companies started as an investment firm focusing on value-add properties and ultimately added development to its repertoire, building more than 30 projects in Michigan, New York, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the company’s website. It has done build-to-suit projects for Walgreen’s, Family Dollar and other companies and focuses on retail and shopping center projects up to 150,000 square feet.

The seller was an entity called MTM Investment Holdings LLC, which is registered to Karen Long in Birmingham at the South Old Woodward address of the Mitchell Family Office.
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