Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans adds Dime Building to downtown Detroit collection

The Dime Building lobby

If this were a game of Monopoly, Dan Gilbert just added another color to his set of property cards when he reportedly snatched up the Dime Building earlier this week.

Just to be clear, this is no 'Baltic Avenue' purchase. The Dime has got to be considered one of those orange properties. Maybe even a red.

The Dime Building now joins the Chase Tower, the Madison Theater Building and it appears eventually the First National Building (not to mention a couple of neighboring parking garages) in Gilbert's set of downtown properties.

We at The Times have never claimed to be real estate-savvy. Our color-coded evaluation above should prove that. But Gilbert seems like a sharp guy, and we tend to view his buying spree as a sign that more vibrant days for downtown Detroit are ahead.

What Gilbert's got in mind is anybody's guess, but he's already hinted at an incentive plan to entice Quicken employees to live in the downtown area. And more of those little green houses dotting the Detroit board wouldn't be a bad thing.