A familiar office building in the Southfield City Centre will soon be known by a new name.
The Maccabees Center at 25800 Northwestern Hwy. and Civic Center Drive will rebrand and be revealed as The Century, a name selected through a unique form of focused crowdsourcing, says Thomas Litzler, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Livonia-based Schostak Brothers & Company, which owns the building.
“We came up with the name through employee focus groups and research,” says Litzler. The new name will accompany a new look, with an extensive remodeling project to several key areas of the building planned. “John Hawkinson [project manager] put together a menu of enhancements for us, and concurrent with that, a cross-section of employees came up with a variety of possible names.”
Suggestions included geographic locations, family names, and other more generic options.
“This name became an amalgamation of all of those,” Litzler says.
The Century is an especially fitting name, as Schostak will celebrate 100 years in business in 2020.
Planned renovations will leverage the 360,000-square foot building’s already desirable attributes, making the office center even more attractive to a wide variety of employees. A tenant lounge will offer space for people to gather for informal meetings or to watch television and enjoy snacks. A leasing center will feature a showroom and place for potential tenants to meet with leasing professionals. A fitness center and updated cafe will provide places for tenants to work out, refuel, and relax.
“The building currently has an outdoor courtyard green space with tables, and we will be improving that to create an all-weather deck with outdoor year-round furniture to get more use from the space,” says Litzler.
Parking lot improvements, upgraded HVAC for improved tenant comfort, and a new drop-off dry cleaning service will round out the building’s renovations.
The Century will also feature a bikeshare station, as part of the popular Zagster bikeshare program that connects amenities throughout the Southfield City Centre and provides easy access to heart-healthy activity along the shared-use pathways of the City Centre Trail.
“The bikeshare is a convenient way to get around and to close places without having to drive. People can easily get to the Town Center or to food trucks that are here often,” Litzler says. “It’s a convenient, novel way to get around and get some exercise, too.”
Work has already started on the building, and is scheduled to be completed during the first quarter of 2020. With a new name, and new amenities, The Century will provide tenants and potential tenants with even more reasons to enjoy working in the City Centre, Litzler says.
“With prominent visibility, very easy access to all Detroit markets–from downtown to the western suburbs and Troy–and plenty of free parking and a protected underground deck, The Century really is a full-service building.”
