New Little Caesars HQ to highlight pizza with facade

By David Runk
Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) - A new nine-story building with a unique exterior made up of 14-foot-tall, pizza slice-shaped glass sections will highlight an expanded Little Caesars headquarters in Detroit, the company announced Wednesday.

The pizza chain and Olympia Development of Michigan released updated plans and renderings for the planned Little Caesars Global Resource Center. The expanded headquarters campus will allow 700 jobs to be brought to Detroit, Little Caesars said.

"We're proud to build an exceptional workplace right in the heart of the city that helped make Little Caesars one of the world's largest pizza chains," David Scrivano, president and CEO of Little Caesars, said in a statement.

Plans for the Global Resource Center include a 425-seat training room, a test kitchen and a glass-covered, open air terrace. The companies said the building represents Detroit's first newly constructed corporate headquarters building in more than a decade.

A groundbreaking is planned this summer on the building, which will be located across Woodward Avenue from Comerica Park, the home of the Detroit Tigers, and near Little Caesars Arena, the new home of the Detroit Red Wings that's under construction.

Mike and Marian Ilitch co-founded Little Caesars in 1959 and bought the Red Wings in 1982. Mike Ilitch bought the Tigers in 1992. Renderings show a skywalk connecting the Global Resource Center with the building housing the Fox Theatre, which the Ilitches restored.

Little Caesars Arena should open in 2017 after the team plays a final season at Joe Louis Arena.

The Global Resource Center is part of a broader development project called The District Detroit that includes the new arena and other entertainment venues and housing developments. Little Caesars said that its new building will help spur continued redevelopment in Detroit.

The Global Resource Center "is an important anchor for The District Detroit and will appeal to national and local retailers who want proximity to a global brand with Detroit roots," said Steve Marquardt, vice president of Olympia Development of Michigan.

Published: Thu, Jun 23, 2016