Ally Financial Moving to Southfield?

**Scottathew** · January-27-15, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by ferndalien

Ally's name may only be 6 years old, but it was founded in 1919 as GMAC.

I use Ally for my bank, and I've been very satisfied. Their interest rates are high. They rebate ATM fees, so I can go to any ATM and withdraw cash without fees. I deposit checks through my mobile phone. Their customer service is really good too.

**Mind field** · January-27-15, 02:02 PM

We should write Ally expressing our interest in seeing them stay in the city. It helps to mention if you are a customer or investor. Gina Proia is an Ally spokeswoman. gina.proia@ally.com Let's rise up Detroit yes and act on keeping Ally in the city!

**tkelly1986** · January-27-15, 02:44 PM

It probably wont make a difference, but I bank at Ally and wrote to express my concern.

**iheartthed** · January-27-15, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Wait. Doesn't GM have a HUGE employee parking lot and garages right next door to the Ren Cen? Is that not free for employees?

I thought GM doesn't own Ally anymore?

**Huggybear** · January-27-15, 10:56 PM

This has to be about consolidation; 300K sq ft would be more than 20 office floors of a Ren Cen tower [[which are 16K @ gross), and Ally does not occupy anywhere near that kind of space [[which would be 400+ sq ft per employee).

HB

**Hermod** · January-28-15, 05:30 AM

Originally Posted by Huggybear

This has to be about consolidation; 300K sq ft would be more than 20 office floors of a Ren Cen tower [[which are 16K @ gross), and Ally does not occupy anywhere near that kind of space [[which would be 400+ sq ft per employee).

HB

Even in a cube farm with 6X8 cubes, when you start adding in aisles, bathrooms, reception areas, break areas, conference rooms, hallways, and other common areas plus bosses suites, total square feet per employee goes up dramatically.

**mwilbert** · January-28-15, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by Hermod

Even in a cube farm with 6X8 cubes, when you start adding in aisles, bathrooms, reception areas, break areas, conference rooms, hallways, and other common areas plus bosses suites, total square feet per employee goes up dramatically.

This is completely true, but a corporate office is usually more like 250 total sq ft/employee than 400.

**Detroit500** · February-07-15, 08:38 PM

My guess is Ally is leaving... Which is a shame. Detroit needs financial service firms. If only we could get bigger banks from outside the region to relocate.

**313WX** · February-07-15, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by bailey

And by the end of the summer One Kennedy will be mostly vacant as Meridian moves across the street to the Compuware Building.

Ernst and Young is no longer in One Kennedy Square?

**Dexlin** · February-07-15, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Ernst and Young is no longer in One Kennedy Square?

Ernst & Young is still there. It's also likely that they take up less than 50% of the leasable space in that building, which could technically leave the building "mostly" empty depending on how much space Meridian is taking up.

**ParisianLesion** · February-08-15, 12:05 AM

Meridian is only taking up 2 floors out of 10 [[including first floor retail and common) in One Kennedy, or just over 40k sq ft. One of the floors they are due to vacate is being taken by Marketing Associates, which is expanding from their current one floor. So Meridian moving across the street doesn't come anywhere close to leaving One Kennedy "mostly" empty. Redico is only going to need to fill the equivalent of one floor or around 25k sq ft. Considering the location and trajectory of the CBD, I don't think they are going to have a very hard time of that.

Other tenants in One Kennedy include: Walbridge, Ernst and Young, Visteo, Marketing and Assoc., and Ryan and Co.

**Dexlin** · February-08-15, 12:50 AM

Thanks for that. I went and looked up the building on Redico's website after typing that, and it seems the only space they are currently looking to fill is the retail spot on the south end of the building. I had no idea how current that information was, though.

Do you work in real estate, Lesion?

**ParisianLesion** · February-08-15, 01:08 AM

Originally Posted by Dexlin

Thanks for that. I went and looked up the building on Redico's website after typing that, and it seems the only space they are currently looking to fill is the retail spot on the south end of the building. I had no idea how current that information was, though.

Do you work in real estate, Lesion?

I used to - and I also used to work in One Kennedy - but I still follow local development and RE happenings very closely.

**jiminnm** · February-08-15, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I thought GM doesn't own Ally anymore?

GM spun Ally off to the public in 2008-2009, but kept a minority chunk of ownership. Since then, there have been numerous transactions between Ally and GM regarding different pieces of the prior GMAC business. I am not sure what the ownership is today. GM recently announced that they were withdrawing their auto financing business from Ally and Ally's CEO resigned last week.

I expect the move out of the RenCen is to complete the separation from GM.

**ASR89** · February-08-15, 04:55 PM

Just a small correction to ParisianLesion's post - Meridian takes up a small portion of floor 5, all of 6, all of 7 and most of 8.

**Mackinaw** · February-12-15, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by Mind field

We should write Ally expressing our interest in seeing them stay in the city. It helps to mention if you are a customer or investor. Gina Proia is an Ally spokeswoman. gina.proia@ally.com Let's rise up Detroit yes and act on keeping Ally in the city!

I just did. Bumping to encourage others. I basically wrote: stay somewhere in the city, leaving the city would undercut its ongoing turnaround, and moving to Oakland County would be against the public interest [[which should matter to Ally as a recipient of taxpayer monies).

**Mind field** · February-12-15, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by Mackinaw

I just did. Bumping to encourage others. I basically wrote: stay somewhere in the city, leaving the city would undercut its ongoing turnaround, and moving to Oakland County would be against the public interest [[which should matter to Ally as a recipient of taxpayer monies).

Great! The more input they receive against a move out of the city, the more it might give someone at Ally pause about leaving. I wonder if Duggan or Gilbert have approached them. There are so many great parcels to build on, in prime locations in the heart of the CBD, the new arena district, or right on the riverfront. They could consolidate and have a world class headquarters in the city.

**Bham1982** · February-12-15, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by Mackinaw

I just did. Bumping to encourage others. I basically wrote: stay somewhere in the city, leaving the city would undercut its ongoing turnaround, and moving to Oakland County would be against the public interest [[which should matter to Ally as a recipient of taxpayer monies).

There is zero "public interest" in a private company locating in one city over the other. That's just your selective bias.

**Mind field** · February-12-15, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by Bham1982

There is zero "public interest" in a private company locating in one city over the other. That's just your selective bias.

that's just your [[uninformed) opinion. I know a few people that would like to see Ally stay in Detroit. That's more than zero interest. Shouldn't you be on OaklandCountyyes.com??

**Mackinaw** · February-12-15, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by Bham1982

There is zero "public interest" in a private company locating in one city over the other. That's just your selective bias.

Tax dollars, employees, and increased downtown residents all render a large company's presence in Detroit more valuable than its presence in Oakland County. First, Detroit's various marginal benefits would be larger than Oakland County, as it is in greater need. Second, the entire metropolitan region is better off if Detroit is better off. The bottom line is neither complicated nor subjective.

**Dexlin** · February-12-15, 11:24 AM

This whole debate seems so 5 to 10 years ago. I want to keep Ally as much as the next guy, and every legiti business should be fought for. And, yes, the public does have an interest in the centralization of this section of the economy.

That said, unlike 10 years ago, where this would have felt like the end of the world for downtown, were Detroit to lose Ally? Meh. Sure, it would be felt, but to a much lesser degree and for a much shorter period of time. There is too much other good economic news going on for me to get worked up over Ally's potential split.

Furthermore, the back and forth trading between downtown and Southfield is a whole lot better than the old Detroit way where they they'd go out to some greenfield in Canton or way up in Troy. As long as we keep it in the inner-ring, I'm all right with that. Even New York City has secondary suburban office hubs.

**SpartanDawg** · March-30-15, 06:04 PM

http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/arch...eting-tomorrow

"In what could be related news:A little birdie tells MT Ally Financial, the former finance arm of General Motors, is expected to announce as soon as tomorrow it will consolidate some, or all, of its operations across metro Detroit into a building in downtown Detroit. No word yet on what the details are — we may find out tomorrow. Ally has regional offices in Southfield, Detroit [[inside the RenCen), Troy, and Auburn Hills. "

Looks like they changed their mind.. FANTASTIC NEWS!!!

**ParisianLesion** · March-30-15, 07:51 PM

This is indeed, potentially, very big news. Here's to hoping that it is a net huge increase of employees downtown and that they are NOT just expanding their footprint in the RenCen. A larger presence in the RenCen would have perhaps the least impact on foot traffic than any other building downtown.

**Mind field** · March-30-15, 09:15 PM

If Ally does actually consolidate in downtown Detroit, someone better get Brooksies one huge xanax pill

**southen** · March-30-15, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by ParisianLesion

This is indeed, potentially, very big news. Here's to hoping that it is a net huge increase of employees downtown and that they are NOT just expanding their footprint in the RenCen. A larger presence in the RenCen would have perhaps the least impact on foot traffic than any other building downtown.

based on a link in the metro times article it appears as though there are already 300 employees in the ren cen with another 1000 at various places in the metro. my guess is that they end up bringing the 1000 to downtown, hopefully in the cbd and not in the ren cen.