The final lift is in place at Greektown's newest construction, Exchange

A 16-story mixed-use building under construction in Greektown would make plenty of headlines; but this is anything but a normal construction process. The top 14 floors of the Exchange Building have been lifted in place, and now the bottom two floors will be built out.

LIFTBuild, a subsidiary of Barton Malow, has reached an important milestone in its proof of concept. The third floor was raised this past weekend, completing the final lift of the unique building. 

The lifting process started last spring with the roof and penthouse floor. Each floor is built on the ground and lifted into place on its two structural spines. The process has quickened as the team learns more, and as they get closer to the ground.

“We’re very pleased with the outcome of our first proof of concept for the LIFTbuild technology. The implementation of our proprietary methods have now been proven to produce the advantages we were anticipating, and we are confident that the results achieved at the Exchange Building will set the stage for a broader commercialization of LIFTbuild.” said LIFTbuild Chief Operating Officer Joe Benvenuto. “With this milestone, we will now transition our focus to our next opportunity to deploy the LIFTbuild methodology, as we strive to deliver increased safety, labor efficiencies, and reduced schedules for our project stakeholders.“

Exchange will have 12 for-sale condos on the top two floors, along with 153 apartments on floors 3-14. The first two floors will have office and retail space, along with amenities for its residents. The team is expecting that residents can move in this summer.