Original Buddy’s Pizza Building on Conant Sells for $1.36M

The home of Detroit’s original square slice Buddy’s Pizza has sold to a new property owner as it barrels towards a national expansion. The building that houses Buddy’s Pizza on Conant Street in Detroit sold for $1.36 million on June 7 to a New Jersey-based firm called Essential Properties Realty Trust, Crain’s reports. The restaurant will continue to operate out of the building under a sale-leaseback agreement.

Buddy’s originally listed the property for sale last June seeking $1.5 million under a sale-leaseback agreement with the goal of raising capital to help fuel the Detroit-style pizza slinger’s expansion outside our Southeast Michigan. Under the original listed terms of the agreement, Buddy’s would have held a 20-year lease on the building with a base rent of $86,250 a year and 10 percent rent increases every 5 years. Buddy’s would also have been responsible for the upkeep on the building.

Detroit-style pizza has been trending on restaurant menus across the country for the past 10 years or so, though the restaurant credited with developing the style — Buddy’s — has stayed relatively close to home. That all changed though in January 2018, when the company announced its partnership with private investment firm CapitalSpring.

The firm is now a majority owner in the 73-year-old chain of metro Detroit pizzerias and plans to open Buddy’s locations in downtown Detroit, Plymouth, and Woodhaven very soon. The group is also exploring locations in West Michigan as well as cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Toledo, and Fort Wayne.

• Original Buddy’s Pizza Building Sold for $1.36 Million in Leaseback Deal [Crain’s]
• Buddy Pizza Owners List Original Restaurant Building for $1.5M [ED]
• Detroit-Style Pizza Is Having a Moment. But Are Its Originators Getting Left Behind? [ED]
• All Buddy’s Pizza Coverage [ED]