Tagged: dan gilbert

Dan Gilbert.

The founder of Quicken Loans.

A man with deep pockets.

Taking advantage of what he calls Detroit's "Skyscraper Sale."

He owns three million square feet of downtown commercial space.

His stated goal is to breathe new life into downtown Detroit.

The Sunday New York Times business section calls him the "Motor City Missionary."

So what does Dan Gilbert's "Opportunity Detroit" plan mean for the city and its people?

We asked George Galster - professor of urban studies and planning at Wayne State University - author of "Driving Detroit" - and Toni Griffin - founder of Urban Planning and Design for the American City - director of the Technical Planning Team for the Detroit Future City Plan - and professor of architecture at the City College of New York.

They've got credibility. We asked them questions.

You can listen to the full interview above.

A story by Detroit Free Press Business writer, John Gallagher outlines a host of improvements and attractions coming to Detroit. Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert described the high points of his vision:

A gaming company run by Detroit billionaire Dan Gilbert has announced plans to move into the city’s casino business.

Quicken Loans founder Gilbert owns Rock Gaming, which already owns
several gambling sites in Ohio.

Now, one of the group’s subsidiaries has announced it will buy a
majority stake of the company that runs Detroit’s Greektown
Casino-Hotel.

Gilbert says in a statement they envision a “significant investment”
in the Greektown casino, “as well as the enhancement and growth of the
existing entertainment district.”

The Michigan Gaming Board will need to sign off on the deal.

They hope to grow that area as well, building on what Gilbert calls
“the positive momentum” now going in downtown Detroit.

Gilbert himself is partly responsible for that momentum.

He’s been buying up much of the major commercial real estate in
downtown Detroit in pursuit of a vision he’s dubbed “Detroit 2.0.”

The vision is a vibrant downtown district to “live, work, and play,”
centered around tech start-ups along Woodward Avenue, which Gilbert
calls “Webward” Avenue.

Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert and his Rock Ventures LLC, have added another Detroit landmark to their real estate portfolio.

The investment group announced Monday it had purchased the One Woodward Avenue office tower.

The Detroit Free Press has more:

The 333,000-square-foot, 26-story building is about 60% occupied. Major tenants include the Detroit Regional Chamber and the law firms Fraser Trebilcock Davis & Dunlap, and Kitch Drutchas Wagner Valitutti & Sherbrook.

As with Gilbert’s other downtown buildings, Rock Ventures plans to renovate the building to accommodate what Gilbert envisions as the city’s emerging roster of technology employers.

Built in 1962, One Woodward was designed by famed architect Minoru Yamasaki and was originally built for the Michigan Consolidated Gas Co., now part of DTE Energy. The design is often called an early predecessor of the Yamasaki design for New York’s World Trade Center.

The building is the tenth downtown property acquired by Gilbert and Rock Ventures since January 2011.

“We continue to bet big on Detroit, and this purchase reinforces our commitment to the exciting entrepreneurial action on Woodward Avenue,” Gilbert said in a statement.

Gilbert now owns nearly 2.5 million square feet of office space in Detroit, making him the second-largest private owner of downtown property behind General Motors, Crain’s reports.

- Jordan Wyant, Michigan Radio Newsroom

Everybody running a business or a government knows they can make painful spending cuts that may balance the budget.

But you can’t cut your way to prosperity. You have to attract new growth and new investment, and the trillion-dollar question is: How?

500 new employees moved into downtown Detroit’s First National Building Wednesday. City officials and business leaders say it’s yet another sign of Detroit’s resurgent business district. 

They held a pep rally of sorts to welcome the new employees downtown. They’re from the title insurance and property valuation company Title Source, which has plans to move another 1000 employees downtown  from the suburbs soon.