A former bank headquarters in Downriver that is the tallest building between Detroit and Toledo has been successfully converted into upscale apartments.
Previously known as Southgate Tower and the home of the Security Bank & Trust Co. in the 1970s and 1980s, the 14-story building has been redeveloped as the Bank Tower Apartments, 16333 Trenton Road in Southgate.
There are 216 rental apartments in the building, including some two-story penthouses on the uppermost floors. The $48 million project was developed by Alex Begin of Madison Heights-based Gordon-Begin Properties.
The building is expected to open for residents in the next two to three weeks, once crews finish the last of the mechanical work.
Asking rents start at just under $1,200 per month
for the studio units, which average 376 square feet in size; just under $1,800 for one-bedrooms that average 823 square feet; and just under $2,500 for the two-bedrooms that average 1,258 square feet. So far, 15 units have pre-leased.
Begin joined Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Southgate Mayor Joseph Kuspa for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the building on Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 18. The redevelopment work had been underway since June 2023.
“This is going to be transformational for Southgate," Mayor Kuspa said. "To bring this level of housing to our community is extremely important. It represents the future of our community, but also a really new feel for what apartment living can be.”
Inside the building, the ceiling of the original bank vault has been sawed open, allowing lobby visitors to peer down and see a wall of newly restored safe deposit boxes. Building amenities include a fitness center, an outdoor swimming pool, a dog wash station and a kitchen for use with catered events.
The area where the bank's armored vehicles loaded and unloaded cash has been converted into indoor parking space. And a small building on the site that once housed drive-up teller windows is in the process of being converted into EV charging stations.
“What we’ve created here at the Bank Tower is a residential environment that is unique to Downriver, unique to metro Detroit, and in many ways, arguably unique in the nation," Begin said.
The tower opened in 1973 as Security Bank & Trust's headquarters. The bank was absorbed in a series of acquisitions, the first occurring in the early 1990s, and ultimately became part of PNC Bank. PNC is said to have left the tower in 2016.
The tower later sold for just over $1 million in a 2018 online auction, going to an investment group from Argentina. The Begin family bought the empty tower in 2022.
Mayor Kuspa recalled Tuesday how back in the early 2010s a developer approached the city with a plan for turning the tower into a storage facility. But city officials weren't excited by that idea, he said, which required zoning change approval.
“As much as we wanted to see it redeveloped, that was just not the use and we weren’t going to go that route," Kuspa said. “So when Alex (Begin) came and approached us and said 'What do you think?' We said phenomenal — it’s something we could definitely support.”
Just outside the building is a new public park, featuring tennis and pickleball courts and a putting green, that was made possible by a $5 million grant from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. The apartment project itself received some financial support through a Brownfield future tax-capture development incentive.
Architect Jason Grossi of Windsor-based Studio g+G was the project's architect and Troy-based The Alan Group was the construction manager.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Empty Southgate office tower will soon reopen as upscale apartments
