Howell's largest downtown office building revamped into 'Health Hub'
HOWELL — Renovations at downtown Howell's largest office building are wrapping up, and a property broker says its nearly ready for medical tenants.
Renamed the Howell Health Hub, many locals remember the 108,000-square-foot office building at 645 W. Grand River Ave. as the old Citizens Insurance building.
Novi-based firm Acquira Realty Holdings purchased the property in 2021 and has invested more than $3.7 million to modernize it. Joseph Schimizzi, a principal at the firm, said it's too soon to say who some of the tenants will be, they're not far off.
"My brokerage team is working with prospective tenants right now," Schimizzi said. "I can talk about different specialties. An urgent care, orthopedics, pharmacy, ophthalmology, and internal medicine or family medicine (have shown interest)."
He anticipates they'll be ready to turn spaces over to tenants by the end of February.
The building could also house general office space, Schimizzi said. International co-working space firm Regus has shown interest in space on the second floor.
Tenants can lease anywhere from about 2,200 to 33,000 usable square feet. The building, developers said, has been turned into a "white box" with hallways. It can be divided up and built to suit.
"We're hoping by the end of this year to have about 25,000-30,000 square feet of committed space," Schimizzi said.
He said, for the most part, they're looking for medical tenants.
"That's really what this is geared toward. All of the mechanical improvements, all of the aesthetic improvements, all of the design enhancements ... were for medical office use," he said. "All of that was done with the intention of being able to accommodate medical use, all the way up to ambulatory surgery centers."
A new two-story atrium entrance in the back of the building off the parking lot has a drive-up canopy for patient drop-offs.
"Livingston County in general has growing medical needs," Schimizzi said, referencing Trinity Health's revamp of the Brighton Health Center into a full-fledged hospital. "You have a lot of specialties that have secondary satellites and part-time offices in Livingston County ... and there's an increase in demand for a home in Livingston County."
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Various businesses have occupied the building over the decades. Citizens Insurance, part of the Hanover Group, sold the building in 2014 to Sterling Group, a Detroit-based real estate investment firm, after consolidating its office on Highlander Way in Howell.
Another previous tenant was Keller Williams Realty Livingston, which relocated to Brighton. Claims management firm Sedgwick was the sole occupant in a portion of the first floor when renovations began.
— Contact reporter Jennifer Eberbach at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Howell's largest downtown office building revamped into 'Health Hub'
