The former home of the Blue Light Special will soon be an Oakland County outpost for the Maize and Blue.
Leaders of University of Michigan Health broke ground Aug. 6 on the health system's approximately $250 million outpatient services and surgical center that is being built on the site of the old Kmart world headquarters on Big Beaver Road across from Somerset Collection mall.
The four-story, 224,000-square-foot complex is expected to open in 2027 as the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Troy Center for Specialty Care.
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Members of the Eisenberg family founded and still own Dearborn-based Kenwal Steel, and Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg have given more than $80 million to U-M through the years, most recently a $40 million gift, of which $25 million was designated to support construction of the Troy complex.
The U-M health complex is to anchor a future planned mixed-use development on the roughly 40-acre former Kmart HQ site that would take shape in phases over several years. That development could include up to 750 units of housing, a 250-room hotel, 300,000 square feet of retail space and 500,000 square feet of office space.
That development is a joint venture involving the Forbes and Frankel families, who own nearby Somerset Collection. Troy City Council in June approved the mixed-use development's plan.
Nathan Forbes, managing partner with the Forbes Co., told the Free Press at the Aug. 6 health complex groundbreaking that their timeline to construct the broader development is still in flux, although they hope to begin work on some portions of it within 12 months.
The initial phase could include residential development and food and beverage businesses, he said.
The medical complex will be the first of its kind for Michigan Medicine in Oakland County and offer numerous specialties, including orthopedics, sports medicine, advanced cancer care services and reproductive medicine.
There will also be operating rooms and imaging services for mammograms, MRI and CT scans, although no hospital beds for overnight stays, because everything would be done outpatient.
Michigan Medicine has lately been on an expansion push to areas of the state far beyond its Ann Arbor base, and health system officials have said that by opening a new medical complex in Oakland County, they anticipate gaining new patients as well as bringing greater convenience to existing patients who already see Michigan Medicine doctors.
Roughly 150 people attended the Aug. 6 groundbreaking celebration, which was held in a white event tent in one of the former Kmart HQ's massive parking lots.
Michigan Medicine CEO Dr. David Miller told the audience that the new complex would "build us toward our goal of creating an academic health system that serves the entire state, focused on providing the right care in the right place at the right time.”
Kenneth Eisenberg and other family members attended the groundbreaking event. Frances Eisenberg, his wife of nearly 60 years, died in November at age 82. He and his wife each received bachelor’s degrees from U-M in 1964.
"Today is deeply meaningful for me and my family," Kenneth Eisenberg said. "It’s a testament to a lifetime of love, service and belief in the power of medicine to transform lives.
“If Frances were here today," he added, "she would be overwhelmed with pride. Her commitment to healing — mind, body and spirit — guided so much of what we set out to accomplish.”
Troy Mayor Ethan Baker said the future U-M health complex, coupled with the planned mixed-use development, constitutes one of the biggest and most exciting development projects in the state.
“The question I’ve been asked more than anything is 'What the hell is going on with the Kmart property,' " the mayor said. "And we finally have this beautiful answer."
The abandoned Kmart headquarters complex at 3100 West Big Beaver was torn down in late 2023 and early 2024.
The architecturally distinct Kmart HQ building dated to 1972 and had been vacant since 2006, when Kmart finished relocating to suburban Chicago following its post-bankruptcy merger with Sears.
In the late 2000s, the Forbes and Frankel venture bought the vacant property from various investors, including Blackrock, for $17.5 million. (Those investors once envisioned doing a retail, condo, office and hotel development there to be called the Pavilions of Troy, but that plan died in the Great Recession.)
Nathan Forbes said at the Aug. 6 groundbreaking that he had been waiting 17 years for this day and is glad to have finally found the right partner and anchor tenant for the future development.
“I believe, in life, everything is a point in time," he said. "And we are at that point in time.”
Speaking after the event, Forbes said they did give some consideration early on to possibly reusing the massive and since-demolished Kmart HQ building.
"But it just had so many limitations to it," he said. "From the historic value, the constructability — it just wasn’t current for modern day use, and the cost would have been prohibitive. But we did spend some time looking at it.”
The university has bought a total of about 11.5 acres at the site from the Forbes and Frankel venture for just under $7 million.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: U-M Health breaks ground on $250M development at former Kmart headquarters site in Troy
