3100 W. Big Beaver Road in

Troy, Michigan Troy is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. Its population was 87,294 at the 2020 U.S. census, making Troy the most populous city in the county and the 13th most-populous municipality in the state. Troy is a northern suburb of Me ...

, USA, is the former international headquarters of Kmart Corporation. The building, on the northwest side of the intersection of W. Big Beaver Road and Coolidge Highway, used to employ thousands of people, but has been vacant since 2004. The building was erected in 1969, designed by Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls, Inc. In 1972, the Kresge company, the precursor of Kmart, moved its headquarters there from Detroit (where its former headquarters is now the

Metropolitan Center for High Technology The Metropolitan Center for High Technology, formerly S. S. Kresge World Headquarters, is an office building located at 2727 Second Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Mi ...

). In 1975 a Michigan

historic marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

was erected to mark the significance of the company. It was constructed for more than 5,500 headquarters staff. When Kmart purchased

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2006, the building, then housing 2,000, was vacated; art from the corporate art collection including a tapestry by

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and a signed

Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

poster and exhibits from the science and technology collection including a work by

Alan Bean Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018) was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, NASA astronaut and painter; he was the fourth person to walk on the Moon. He was selected to become an astron ...

signed by US astronauts were sold off.Associated Press
"At Kmart, the art is high-end: former headquarters sells off fine art"
''

The Spokesman-Review ''The Spokesman-Review'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, the city's sole remaining daily publication. It has the third-highest readership among daily newspapers in the state, with most of its readership base in ...

'' June 21, 2006, pp. A8, A11. The 40-acre building is enclosed by nine towers, six smaller, two larger, and one overlooking the rest at the corner nearest the intersection of W. Big Beaver and Coolidge. The tallest tower offers a panoramic view of the surrounding area, including the adjacent Somerset Mall. The building was sold in December 2005 to Madison Marquette, a development company that planned to use the site for a hotel, condominiums, shopping, offices, and entertainment. It was sold in 2006 for US$40 million. In 2009, The Forbes Company & Frankel Associates, owners of the mall, purchased it from Diamond Troy JV, L.L.C. for an undisclosed price. While the site has remained vacant since 2006, plans to redevelop the site have been proposed. In 2008, a redevelopment project called the Pavilions of Troy proposed to tear down the old building and create an outside shopping mall, but the project was cancelled during the Great Recession.

References

External links

Former Kmart Corporation Headquarters (Troy, Michigan)
at

WikiMapia Wikimapia is a geographic online encyclopedia project. The project implements an interactive "clickable" web map that utilizes Google Maps with a geographically-referenced wiki system, with the aim to mark and describe all geographical objects ...

{{Coord, 42.56256, -83.18880, display=title Office buildings completed in 1972 Buildings and structures in Troy, Michigan Unused buildings in Michigan

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