Demo permit sought for old Kmart HQ
It could take nine months to a year to bring the entire structure down
The owner of the abandoned Kmart corporate headquarters in Troy wants to demolish the massive structure.
The city of Troy announced Thursday that it has received an application for a demolition permit for the 906,000-square-foot building, situated at 3100 W. Big Beaver Road, across from Somerset Collection mall.
The announcement said the city is working with a contractor, Adamo Demolition, on what is needed to approve the permit. Adamo hopes to begin the demolition in September, the city says, starting with the parking structure and then moving to the main building.
It could take nine months to a year to bring the entire structure down.
“Demolition of this tired asset is the first step towards redevelopment of this prominent location,” Brent Savidant, Troy’s community development director, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the property’s owner, Southfield-based Forbes Co., told the Free Press the company is preparing the site for future development, although the spokesperson did not provide further details.
The city said Forbes has yet to submit any redevelopment proposals. Forbes Co. also owns Somerset Collection.
The labyrinthine and architecturally distinct headquarters dates to 1972 and was dubbed “Fort Kresge” for its imposing look and Kmart’s original corporate name. It was built after Kmart, then known as S.S. Kresge, left Detroit.
The headquarters building has been vacant since 2006, after Kmart merged with Sears and relocated offices to Hoffman Estates, Ill., in suburban Chicago.
The building was once slated for demolition as part of a $320 million Pavilions of Troy development, but that 2008 proposed mix of restaurants, condos, retailers, offices and a hotel unraveled in the Great Recession.
A Forbes Co. ownership group bought the empty property for $17.5 million in December 2009, much less than the $41.5 million that it sold for in 2005 to investors.
The building was designed by what was then the Detroit-based architectural firm Smith, Hinchman & Grylls Associates.
Former Free Press architectural critic John Gallagher described the headquarters as an interlocking series of modernist towers in a chocolate-brown
hue. The decór at one time included a tapestry by Picasso and a signed Andy Warhol poster. There are only a handful of Kmart stores left and the last Michigan Kmart closed in late 2021.