Offices will be adjacent to Ford Field; hotel also slated in time for 2006 Super Bowl

DETROIT — The Detroit Lions and a private developer are expected to announce an agreement today to build a $40 million office building and parking deck adjacent to Ford Field. "We’d like to get both projects completed in time for the 2006 Super Bowl” at Ford Field, Lewand told The Detroit News. The five-story, 115,000-square-foot office building, which will house 400 workers from the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers and other tenants, will be developed by Etkin Equities Inc. in Southfield. It will be located in what is now a surface parking lot at Interstate 375 and Madison and will be adjacent to a new 1,000-space parking deck.  The Lions opened the $500-million, 60,000-seat Ford Field in 2002 while refurbishing the adjacent Hudson’s warehouse. The Lions have 175 employees at Ford Field while another tenant, NTH Consultants Ltd., an engineering and environmental services firm, has 100 workers. PricewaterhouseCoopers will move workers into the new office complex from its local headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit as well as in Bloomfield Hills, Lewand said. Construction of the office building will start in the fall and be completed in late 2005, Lewand said.