Dan Gilbert to move casino HQ to vacant school building

Dan Gilbert plans to fill another long-vacant downtown Detroit building with one of his companies.

Jack Entertainment announced it will move the casino company’s headquarters into the St. Mary’s schoolhouse at 1041 St. Antoine in Greektown. The company will vacate space in One Woodward Avenue in December.

The 29,000-square-foot former school connects to Greektown Casino-Hotel — soon to be renamed Jack Detroit Casino Hotel Greektown — through a pedestrian skywalk. Gilbert will spend $7 million to renovate the school, which has been vacant for about a decade.

“Our move will bring us closer to our 2,000 team members at our Greektown Casino-Hotel and affirms our long-standing commitment to the Greektown district,” Matt Cullen, CEO for Jack Entertainment, said in a news release.

Jack Entertainment will use four of the building’s five floors. The ground floor will be used for a retail tenant.

The company employs 7,000 people in four states with over $1.4 billion in revenues.

The 1868 Puis Daubner-designed school is the latest downtown Detroit building to be swept under the Gilbert wing of companies. Through his real estate arm, Bedrock, Gilbert has purchased over 95 properties in Detroit and Cleveland. Most of the buildings, amounting to over 14 million square feet of real estate, are in downtown Detroit.

He’s spent more than $2.2 billion on property downtown.

Gilbert took control of Greektown in 2013. He recently spent $70 million renovating the building.

The casino will be rebranded under the Jack name in early 2017.

ithibodeau@detroitnews.com

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Twitter: @Ian_Thibodeau