Chrysler could put some office workers in Detroit.

**Orthophonic** · December-12-11, 09:20 AM

Gistok -

Thanks for the figures. If all those figures are from 2008 then that would be prior to Chrysler's closure of PROC, Detroit Axle, etc. GM is probably down from their 2008 figures, too.

But yes, Detroit is definitely more on the health care side in terms of employment.

Ford, at least in the post-Piquette, post-Highland Park era, has always been a Dearborn company. HF II wanted to give them a strong city presence by putting the Lincoln Mercury divisional headquarters in the Renaissance Center, but clearly that didn't work well after GM bought the building! By that time he was out of the picture and the Ford management probably weren't concerned as much about city investment.

I wonder where Little Caesar/Ilitch Holdings and the Lions/Tigers/Red Wings rank. The sports teams, despite their visibility, may have relatively few employees. The Lions probably avoid a lot of city income tax payments by having the HQ/practice facility in Allen Park. Speaking of which, do visiting teams pay their fair share of nonresident income tax based on the time they spend working in the city?

Maybe if all of Wayne County incorporated as a single municipal entity... [[oops, that's another thread, sorry!)

**Zacha341** · December-12-11, 09:34 AM

Yeah, it really pays to drive out along Featherstone and the other surrounding streets of Chrysler HQ to see how massive it is! It sits far, far back off the street view you get from I-75! It is huge and very expansive. And were not just talking about the tower portion. I don't know who could fill that real estate to full capacity!

Originally Posted by Dexlin

....Their actual footprint had become so small at their Auburn Hills HQ a few years back that they seriously considered unloading it. Even with their resurgence, they won't be the same size or scope they were when the AH HQs were built any time soon.

In my own dream, they'd move their corporate offices and maybe some R&D offices back to HP, keep all of the testing facilities and such out at the HQ, and lease out the rest of the space in the HQ to other folks.

**313rd** · December-12-11, 11:02 AM

According to a friend at Auburn Hills HQ, they are back to capacity of 10 years ago. They have also relocated the power tran engineers to Trenton. As they are constantly working on problems at the the Trenton plant, they were paying travel expenses to and from the plant/office. I'm sure alot of those that bought houses in Oxford, Clarkston and such are not too happy about the move.

**DetroitPlanner** · December-12-11, 12:01 PM

Does anyone know who the downtown workers will be from Chrysler? Which departments? I have a sinking feeling this is a lot like the rush to build the building on Campus Martius for Visteon, while they had plenty of vacant office space in Dearborn and building a campus out by the airport. I'm calling Skipper's rule on this.

**DTWflyer** · December-12-11, 01:26 PM

Chrysler's Auburn Hills campus is refered to as CTC, Chrysler Technical Center.

Chrysler has their business operations, engineering, and design all incorporated into one campus.

GM has the Ren Center which houses groups like Finance, Marketing, IT, and business operations functions. The Tech Center in Warren has the engineering groups, global supply chain, R&D.

Chrysler has it all on one campus.

Not sure where the comments about CTC being vacant, the place is back to near capacity. They consolidated some other space from around the region to back-fill, moved in some Fiat, have brought back a lot of contract employees, and have been hiring. Sure there are some vacant sections but most businesses have some excess floor space.

**louis** · December-12-11, 05:13 PM

Chrysler used to have smaller offices like this one all over before the recession. then to save money they cut all of them and solidated in aulber hills. this is them just spreding their chips back out

**Flintoid** · December-12-11, 06:02 PM

I think that we all know that Chrysler screwed over HP when they left, but the past is the past and it needs to be left there. Thankfully they are now occupying a floor and a half in the dime building and putting their money where their mouth is. Good work Chrysler, lets just keep it up.

**ndavies** · January-05-12, 10:23 AM

I was talking to my Chrysler manager friend over the holidays. CTC is 2000 people over capacity. It has a capacity of 12000 people they have over 14000 people currently assigned to the building. They had dropped to 6000 people working there after the cuts. It is currently so full they have received citations for being over capacity. Hence the need for more office space.

**DetroitPlanner** · January-05-12, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by ndavies

I was talking to my Chrysler manager friend over the holidays. CTC is 2000 people over capacity. It has a capacity of 12000 people they have over 14000 people currently assigned to the building. They had dropped to 6000 people working there after the cuts. It is currently so full they have received citations for being over capacity. Hence the need for more office space.

If this is the scenario, why would they come downtown? There is tons of vacant office space all around the metro, and much closer to Auburn Hills. If they do move folks down, they would need to be an autonomous group that has little interaction with the rest of the company, or perhaps the folks who coordinate things between Chrysler and Chrysler of Canada [[just across the river).

**Jason** · January-05-12, 10:41 AM

They can get that office space anywhere in the metro but if they get it downtown they get some PR and they get to tap into more of the talent pool for those positions.

**tkelly1986** · January-05-12, 10:49 AM

In an ideal world Chrysler would move 2-3000 extra bodies downtown and set up an, albeit fake, HQ presence. Why not take over One Detroit Center? That's a prominent location....anyway, I know its wishful thinking, but really, is it THAT far fetched?

**Jason** · January-05-12, 10:59 AM

I don't think it's too far fetched to think that if they do well and need to hire more people that the downtown office might grow.

**Islandman** · January-05-12, 02:24 PM

This thread has reminded me of when I worked at CTC, the CEO would fly [[yes, fly) his helicopter to come in to work, lunch, etc. Good times for some, apparently.

**tkelly1986** · January-06-12, 11:37 AM

With all the talk about Chrysler’s impact in the city and CEO Sergio Marchionne’s comments linking Detroit’s future with the future of Chrysler, one could assume there is more to come. That being said; where would the “more” come from?

The first thought is “what about moving out of state Chrysler jobs in to Detroit”. I know that Jeep is located in Toledo, but what other divisions are located out of state? Are there engineering satellite offices? Any major subsidiaries or partners located out of state that could move in?

Like much on this board, talk of Chrysler moving anything downtown is hypothetical. But nevertheless, it’s interesting that they have really turned their attention south from Auburn Hills.

**401don** · January-06-12, 11:45 AM

I still think, while a great story, the Chrysler comeback is much more tenuous than Ford and Gm because they rely so heavily on trucks and crossovers. They had a great year but some of the big 3's 2011 success was due to the Japanese shortages. I can't believe they are overcapacity at Auburn Hills instead of being the lean and mean organization they need to be. Hope I'm wrong.

**Scottathew** · January-06-12, 11:47 AM

All the union folks only want us to buy American, so why do we care about Chrysler, since they are a European auto maker?

**Gistok** · January-06-12, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

All the union folks only want us to buy American, so why do we care about Chrysler, since they are a European auto maker?

Jobs... Jobs.... Jobs...

I bet that a lot of local people who thought the automakers should have been allowed to go under... are very quiet now...

**Scottathew** · January-06-12, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Jobs... Jobs.... Jobs...

I bet that a lot of local people who thought the automakers should have been allowed to go under... are very quiet now...

Toyota and Honda build cars here [[in America) too. But when it comes to local jobs, buying Big 3 would support the Detroit area.

**DetroitPlanner** · January-06-12, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Toyota and Honda build cars here [[in America) too. But when it comes to local jobs, buying Big 3 would support the Detroit area.

Keep in mind that the Detroit area is home of lots of suppliers to these companies. Honda has a huge presence not too far away from Detroit. No doubt it had located its Ohio plants to take full advantage of the supply chain. Toyota too employs thousands in the Metro as well.

**Orthophonic** · May-03-12, 05:37 PM

Getting back to an earlier part of this thread, below is a list of 2002 top employers in the city [[source http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/T...t-Economy.html)

Largest employers [[2002)	Number of employees
Detroit Public Schools	26,000
City of Detroit	20,799
The Detroit Medical Center	11,836
U.S. Government	11,363
Chrysler Group	9,707
Henry Ford Health System	7,337
General Motors Corp.	6,865
U.S. Postal Service	6,157
St. John Health	5,767
State of Michigan	5,637

... and now the same list for 2011 [[source http://www.degc.org/major-employers.aspx, as they lifted from Crains Book of Lists 2012)

Organization	Detroit Employees [[January 2011)
City of Detroit	11,396
Detroit Public Schools	10,951
Detroit Medical Center	10,823
Henry Ford Health System	8,774
U.S. Government	6,665
Wayne State University	6,272
State of Michigan	4,212
Chrysler Group LLC	4,150
St. John Health	4,006
DTE Energy	3,655
General Motors Corp.	3,640
U.S. Postal Service	3,338
Wayne County Government	2,809
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan	2,480
MGM Grand Detroit Casino	2,358
MotorCity Casino	2,040
Compuware Corp.	1,882
Comerica Bank	1,452
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center	881
Deloitte, LLP	862
American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc.	838
Johnson Controls - Automotive Experience	575
Soave Enterprises, LLC	540
Pepsi Beverages Co.	413
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.	400

**Gistok** · May-03-12, 06:06 PM

The top 3 employers in the city went from a 2002 total of 58,500 employees in 2002... to... a 2011 total of 33,000... for a loss of 25,500. The US govt/postal went from 17,500 down to 10,000.

That should be a reality check for all the boosters who think that between Blue Cross and Gilbert & Co... that the city is on its' way back.... only marginally...