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Cooper-Standard’s new Northville headquarters sells for $42 million

Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc.’s new Northville headquarters building has sold for $42 million to a New York City-based buyer.

Northville Township public records list REIS-Northville LLC, registered to David Schostak of Livonia-based developer and landlord Schostak Bros. & Co., as the seller of the building at 40300 Traditions last month and Hamilton Northville LLC, which has a mailing address matching the Hamilton Equity Partners address on the 46th floor of 1633 Broadway in New York.

With 110,000 square feet, the price comes in at $381.82 per square foot.

CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, lists no other 50,000-square-foot or larger office buildings that have sold for more than $380 per square foot during the COVID-19 pandemic since Jan. 1, 2020.

Joseph Borenstein, portfolio manager for Hamilton Equity, a family office, said Wednesday afternoon that this is their first purchase in southeast Michigan and that, since the building is new, there are no capital improvements planned.

“It’s a gorgeous building and we like the suburban Detroit market,” he said, adding that Hamilton Equity has about 2 million square feet of office space under ownership, primarily in North Carolina, South Carolina and Syracuse, N.Y.

Los Angeles-based brokerage house CBRE Inc. worked on the sale, Borenstein said.

Chris Andrews, director of global communications for Cooper-Standard, said 570 employees are assigned to the headquarters, although most are working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This model has proven to be very successful and as a result, the company decided to transition to a hybrid model of remote working and shared office space,” Andrews said in an email. “While much of our workforce continues to work from home, some teams are visiting the office as needed for collaboration.”

Andrews said employees moved into the new headquarters on March 16, 2020 — less than a week after the first confirmed COVID-19 cases were announced in Michigan.

The materials science and manufacturing company also has its 137,000-square-foot global technology center in Livonia. Its products include rubber and plastic sealing, fuel and brake lines, fluid transfer hoses and anti-vibration systems.

It’s the second known new automotive headquarters building sale in the last several months, following the $58 million ($322.22 per square foot) sale of Magna International Inc.’s new 180,000-square-foot seating division headquarters in Novi to Norfolk, Va.-based Harbor Group International LLC by Irvine, Calif.-based IRA Capital LLC.

Cooper-Standard announced its plan to build its new headquarters near Seven Mile and Haggerty roads in December 2018. It vacated its old headquarters, located at 39550 Orchard Hill Place in Novi near Eight Mile and Haggerty roads. That building is owned by an affiliate of Farmington Hills-based Friedman Real Estate.

A text message seeking comment was sent to a Schostak Bros. representative Wednesday afternoon.

Crain’s reported at the time the headquarters was announced that the Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $1.3 million grant to offset the expansion costs on the project, which was anticipated to cost up to $15.3 million.

The building was to house 400 employees.

Posted By: Crain’s Detroit Business on August 25, 2021.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

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