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The clock has run out for the old Kmart headquarters in Troy.
Demolition of the massive and architecturally distinct structure at 3100 W. Big Beaver Road, near Somerset Collection mall, began this week and the tear down work could take months.
The property’s owner, a venture involving the Forbes and Frankel families, hasn’t said what it plans to do with the site once the 906,000-square-foot structure is gone.
The Forbes Co. issued a statement Wednesday — “We are preparing the site for future development” — but didn’t offer any details. The Forbes Co. also owns the mall.
More: Architecturally unique Kmart HQ in Troy will likely go down as last of its kind
The Kmart headquarters opened in 1972, and its design by Detroit-based architectural firm Smith, Hinchman & Grylls Associates won numerous architectural awards.
The building housed more than 3,000 Kmart employees during the retailer’s peak. It has sat empty since 2006, when Kmart finished moving to suburban Chicago following its post-bankruptcy merger with Sears.
Former employees have said that the building’s novel layout involving modular units, or “pods,” would have likely made it difficult to adapt for other office uses once Kmart left.
The vacant property sold for $41.5 million in 2005 to investors, including BlackRock. A 2008 proposal to demolish the structure to make way for development of condos, retail stores, offices and a hotel — to be called the Pavilions of Troy — died in the Great Recession.
The Forbes and Frankel venture bought the site for $17.5 million in December 2009. Later, at least one scene in the 2012 movie “Red Dawn” was shot inside.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl.
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