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Posted on Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 12:05 p.m.

Gold Star Mortgage moving into former Borders headquarters and hiring 250 new employees

By Ben Freed

The former Borders properties in Ann Arbor continue to fill with new tenants.

The latest is Gold Star Mortgage, which signed a lease to move into the former Borders headquarters at 100 Phoenix Drive.

The mortgage company, founded by Dan Milstein in 2000, employs approximately 250 people at two offices in the area.

Milstein said he plans to move all of his local employees to the new location and to double his Ann Arbor employees within the next 12 months.

Milstein_Milshteyn.JPG

Dan Milstein (left) is moving Gold Star Mortgage to the former Borders headquarters on Phoenix Drive. His brother Alex Milshteyn (right) is listing the company's current offices.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com file photo

“We’re announcing about 250 new jobs in 2013,” he said. “The new office space gives us room to grow and we plan on using that.”

The new jobs will be a combination of loan officers, underwriters, and other employees.

The move will occur in the late summer, with employees from the company’s current headquarters on Packard Road moving into the new space, followed by employees from an office at Avis Farms.

“We signed the lease about two weeks ago, and we are going to be a major tenant there,” he said.

“Demolition is underway and the landlord expects to have the place ready for us by June 10. We estimate about 60 days after the keys are turned over we’ll start moving in, and we’ll do it in stages.”

Gold Star has grown into a national company, employing more than 500 people at over 40 offices around the country. The company will occupy about 68,000 square feet at the building on Phoenix Drive, with an option on an additional 32,000 square feet.

“It’s a three story building, and we’re taking one and a half stories out of the gate, but we have an option for the remaining half of the third floor,” Milstein said. “So we can get up to 100,000 square feet altogether at the location.”

Milstein said he negotiated the lease directly with local developer Gerald Spears who he said was part of a management group that is now in charge of the building.

There is an additional 240,000 square feet still available at the property that is listed by Colliers International. Colliers agent Jim Chaconas said he has two parties who are looking into leasing the space.

Gold Star owns its office building at 3879 Packard Rd. Milstein said he is listing the building for lease or for sale with his brother, local Realtor Alex Milshteyn. The asking price on the 12,130 square feet of office space is $1.35 million.


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Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

Comments

JRW

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 11:34 p.m.

Good to see the additional jobs coming to AA.

Ben Freed

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 6:55 p.m.

I just spoke with someone who told me that Gerald Spears arranged the lease between Milstein and the building's new owner but does not own the property himself.

dancinginmysoul

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 6:45 p.m.

Maybe I'm late to the party, but why do the brothers spell their names different?

dancinginmysoul

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 8:16 p.m.

Wow really? I sincerely apologize for making such an egregious error.

BobbyJohn

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 7:32 p.m.

Perhaps the same reason that you use different as an adverb, but I use differently as an adverb.

dancinginmysoul

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 7:19 p.m.

Thank you Ben!

Ben Freed

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 6:56 p.m.

http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/ann-arbor-brothers-with-different-names-share-the-same-drive/

Ben Freed

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 6:42 p.m.

Zanzerbar is right, this location is just south of 94 off of Ellsworth Road. For more information on the downtown store check out these stories: http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arbor-dda-health-of-business-climate-downtown/ http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/former-borders-flagship-second-floor-leased-to-prime-research-north-america-downtown-ann-arbor/

zanzerbar

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 6:30 p.m.

," which signed a lease to move into the former Borders headquarters at 100 Phoenix Drive." Not downtown.

Fred

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 6:13 p.m.

Well, that should certainly liven up downtown.

Ann English

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 8:18 p.m.

Varsity Road takes you to Phoenix Drive.

Ann English

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 8:17 p.m.

The old Gold Star was practically right under US-23, Packard at Gross Road. The new location isn't far from the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks; the tracks cross Ellsworth Road not far from where Varsity Drive crosses it. You can see some of the business buildings on Phoenix Drive from Ellsworth Road.

Hmm

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 7:46 p.m.

Well played Fred

dancinginmysoul

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 : 6:45 p.m.

Except it's not downtown. It's out by the airport.