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Oakland Co. begins Phoenix Center demolition, paving way for moving employees to Pontiac

Posted By: The Detroit News on April 8, 2025.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

Demolition of the Phoenix Center parking garage and amphitheater began Tuesday morning, paving the way for the first phase of an ambitious plan to help redevelop downtown Pontiac and move 600 county employees there by 2027.

Crews began dismantling the crumbling, multi-story parking deck and venue, which was built in the 1970s but hasn’t hosted a concert since 2011. The garage splits Saginaw Street into two non-continuous sections, directing vehicle traffic around Pontiac’s downtown and along the Woodward Avenue loop.

Demolition is expected to be completed by December 2025, eventually allowing the northern and southern portions of Saginaw Street to be reconnected. Several local and state officials celebrated the kickoff of construction at the intersection of South Saginaw and Water Streets on Tuesday morning.

“Today is the day we start the physical transformation of this project, and I couldn’t be more excited to do it,” Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said.

Eventually, county officials want to consolidate multiple departments and move 600 employees to two buildings in downtown Pontiac, saying its more cost effective than renovating their current facilities on the Pontiac-Waterford border.

Oakland County purchased two office buildings at 5111 Woodward and 31 E. Judson, along with several nearby vacant plots of land and the Phoenix Center, in August 2023. They plan to rehabilitate the Judson property and eventually connect the two buildings after demolishing the Phoenix Center.

“Imagine two office buildings full of people that can walk to downtown, shop in the stores, eat in the restaurants and become a more integrated part of our county seat,” Coulter said.

The county also plans to build another parking deck off of Saginaw Street and will give the city at least two acres of land for a ground-level public space, Coulter said. Most contracts for the project are in place, but the county is still negotiating with the developers, he added.

Planning, engineering, and building the new parking structure will begin in June and is expected to finish by December 2026, according to Oakland County. There is no targeted start or end date for the development of the public space around the Phoenix Center or public-private partnerships for the rest of the land that the county purchased.

“When we finalize the details with our development team, the private development team, it will include additional things,” Coulter said. “It could be housing, it could be a hotel… those are details, but it won’t simply be the two office towers that remain.”

Coulter hopes the county’s investment is seen as a good sign for other developers considering Pontiac for the site of their next project.

“I believe that those buildings, and more importantly, the people in those buildings, can really help be a catalyst for the further redevelopment of downtown,” Coulter said. “My message to anybody that has a lot of money and likes to develop things and is wondering where their next project should be, look at Pontiac.”

Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel said the city has several projects in the works, including one to renovate the Pontiac State Bank building into 114 loft apartments, and a 287 unit residential development that is part of a Transformational Brownfield Plan approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund earlier this year.

“Pontiac is on the move, but as I said, this is arguably the most exciting of all of these projects,” Greimel said.

The Phoenix Center has been an icon for the city of Pontiac for a long time, said County Commissioner Angela Powell, D-Pontiac, fondly recalling seeing Frankie Beverly and Maze perform there. But its demolition marks the start of a new chapter for the city.

“The building was originally designated as part of downtown’s Pontiac revitalization in the 1980s when I was born, and it is only fitting to end the story marks the beginning of a new chapter of our city’s transformation,” Powell said.

The state allocated $50 million to the Pontiac project in the 2023-24 budget, the largest district project of that year, State Senator Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, said.

“Pontiac is the biggest winner in that state budget because Pontiac deserves it, and Oakland County deserves this type of investment,” Moss said.

The county also contributed $10 million of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to the project, an expense that was approved by the Democratic Board of Commissioners along partisan lines.

But not everyone agrees with moving employees to downtown Pontiac.

“I don’t agree with moving employees downtown when we have a nice campus in Pontiac already, so I don’t understand it,” said Commissioner Bob Hoffman, a Highland Township Republican. “I mean, I wouldn’t spend my money that way, and if I’m not going to spend my money that way, I sure wouldn’t spend the taxpayer’s money that way.”

Commissioner Michael Spisz, the board’s minority chair, said demolishing the “dangerous” Phoenix Center is the only part of Oakland County’s plan that he supports. He believes the county overpaid for the two office buildings, and said the commission has yet to see a final business plan and layout of the building to which county employees will move.

The project’s total cost was estimated to be between $120 and $130 million last summer, and the county is working with private developers to help finance it.

“The entire funding from this project has been identified… and is not going to be taken from the backs of other county taxpayers or anyone else,” Coulter said.

Right now, the project is on time and budget, but Coulter said he is concerned about how recent tariffs enacted by the Trump administration cost impact material and labor costs. The tariffs are expected to increase the cost of the project by $12 to $18 million, said Deputy Oakland County Executive Sean Carlson, who oversees economic development.

During demolition, Orchard Lake Road and Auburn Avenue will be closed, and traffic will be rerouted to Woodward Avenue, according to the county. Reconstruction and realignment of Orchard Lake Road and Auburn Avenue are expected to finish by December 2026 and of Saginaw Street by August 2027.