Stellantis evaluating future use of Auburn Hills headquarters

[Airforceguy]

While Stellantis is claiming they won't leave their Auburn Hills campus, I wouldn't put it pass them to move out of the state in the future.

Stellantis NV is reassessing its footprint in Michigan, including its mammoth North American base in Auburn Hills, amid contract talks with the United Auto Workers and a dayslong strike that threatens to intensify.
"As part of our company's evolution to a more flexible work environment, called the New Era of Agility, we are currently evaluating how we work to enable our teams to be their most innovative, creative and efficient," company spokeswoman Jodi Tinson told Crain's in an email. "That analysis includes potential adjustments to our real estate portfolio. However, the Chrysler Technology Center will continue to be our North American headquarters and North America technical center." The 5.4 million-square-foot Chrysler Technology Center east of I-75 and north of M-59 is among 18 facilities the automaker included in a proposal last Thursday to the UAW, according to a report from CNBC, which said the company is required to notify the UAW of any possible sales or closures of facilities where a union member works. Other Michigan plants potentially on the chopping block include the Trenton Engine Complex and Mount Elliott Tool & Die in Detroit, the report said.Like many office buildings around town — including General Motors' Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit — the hulking complex in Auburn Hills has sat underutilized since the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the work-from-home era for many companies. Stellantis has maintained a flexible hybrid work approach even as some other companies have asked employees to return to the office full or part time.



Stellantis COO Mark Stewart, who is overseeing talks with the UAW, told WWJ-AM on Tuesday that the company has a "series of facilities that we were looking to downsize or reconfigure."

"Here in Auburn Hills, this is our North American headquarters. It will be our North American headquarters," Stewart told the radio station. "But like everyone in a hybrid working environment and looking at our overall environment across the region and specifically in the U.S., we have a lot of the building here in Auburn hills that we are not utilizing today. We're looking at other use cases for that."

Stellantis evaluating use of Auburn Hills headquarters | Crain's Detroit Business [[crainsdetroit.com)

[Henry Whalley]

While Stellantis is claiming they won't leave their Auburn Hills campus, I wouldn't put it pass them to move out of the state...

They certainly would do so if the old guard grifters were still running the UAW.

[Burnsie]

"Chrysler Technology Center will continue to be our North American headquarters"

Yeah sure. Chrysler said the same thing about Highland Park when it announced the Auburn Hills engineering center in the '80s.

[Richard]

^ You guys are becoming pretty adept at seeing that train coming from a mile away,in a lot of things.

[Gistok]

Wow... 5.4 million sq. ft., that's a LOT of space!! If they were ever to move out, I don't see another company that would be interested in that much office space. At least with the Renaissance Center's 2 3/4 million sq. ft. 6 tower HQ, if they ever did leave their space, the building could be marketable. I think that Auburn Hills could end up like the former Kmart HQ, if they ever vacated.

[401don]

I think with all of their operations in this one location, which means the Head Office, Marketing, Design, Engineering, etc. staff are also here it's unlikely they move out in the near term. They will probably try to sell the building and lease about half the space.

[Lowell]

They certainly would do so if the old guard grifters were still running the UAW.

Not so sure about that as it was Stellantis [then Fiat] grifters who led many of those of UAW astray. They'd likely have worked out an honor-among-thieves deal.

[Lowell]

I was living in Highland Park when Chrysler exited, much to the exultation of Auburn Hills. While not immediate, the effect was to crush Highland Park leaving it in its current helpless state.

I'd wager this is a play to extract something from Lansing, along with applying pressure to the current strike situation. The cost of exiting would have to be huge. However, Stellantis, like all companies post-pandemic have learned that they do much of their operations just as efficiently by remote work force and likely have a lot of space sitting idle as a result.

"Chrysler Technology Center will continue to be our North American headquarters"

Yeah sure. Chrysler said the same thing about Highland Park when it announced the Auburn Hills engineering center in the '80s.

[JBMcB]

It is an enormous space, but, as others have pointed out, it's the entire Stellantis North America operation in one place. Executive operations, financial, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and all related support departments in one place. For comparison, look at the massive Ford campus spread out across Dearborn, or the Renaissance Center combined with the huge Tech Center campus for GM.

In comparison, I think it's one of the smaller automotive corporate footprints, compared to the combined footprints of the other companies.

Still, the way the facility is segmented off, you could close a wing and rent it out. There are a lot of Tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers with offices in that area.

[Danny]

Lose the Pentastar Tower for what?

[Burnsie]

I was living in Highland Park when Chrysler exited, much to the exultation of Auburn Hills. While not immediate, the effect was to crush Highland Park leaving it in its current helpless state.

I'd wager this is a play to extract something from Lansing, along with applying pressure to the current strike situation. The cost of exiting would have to be huge. However, Stellantis, like all companies post-pandemic have learned that they do much of their operations just as efficiently by remote work force and likely have a lot of space sitting idle as a result.

Yes, I'd also bet that this is to prime Michigan/Oakland County/Auburn Hills for tax break requests and as a bargaining chip in the strike. Otherwise it's a bit unusual to pre-emptively announce that you're considering doing something negative in the future.

Chrysler had about 9,900 workers in Highland Park in Dec. 1984, up from 7,300 in 1980, when it bought the Auburn Hills land from Oakland University. At the time, Highland Park was bursting at the seams due to Chrysler consolidating offices from other locations around Detroit. By the time the Auburn Hill campus opened in 1991 Chrysler had about 7,500 people in Highland Park. One of the reasons Iaccoca cited in 1992 for moving its HQ by 1995 was that Chrysler had shed 12,000 white collar jobs since 1987 and was able to fit everyone into Auburn Hills.

[Henry Whalley]

Not so sure about that as it was Stellantis [then Fiat] grifters who led many of those of UAW astray. They'd likely have worked out an honor-among-thieves deal.

Yeah, doing the grifter math = it always takes two to tango.

[Henry Whalley]

Lose the Pentastar Tower for what?

Although franchise pizza's becoming too pricey for autoworkers and other wage workers, Auburn Hills might become the largest Little Caesar's carryout in the universe. Perhaps combined with the world largest payday loan store, rent-to-own furniture store, rent-to own used auto dealership, rent-to-own cardboard boxes, etc.


A neoliberal theme park.

[K-slice]

I don't know how any of these suburban office complexes continue to exist. I've worked in the suburbs, and hated every minute of being in a drab office surrounded by parking lots. Working from home beats that by a mile.

Maybe Chrysler needs to take a page out of the Ford playbook and build a campus that people will enjoy working at. Of course, if they still owned the city of Highland Park that would be a lot easier, and if they undertake that today it would probably be out of state...

[JBMcB]

I don't know how any of these suburban office complexes continue to exist.

For some jobs you still need an office. Especially if you are doing any sort of engineering, research, or manufacturing, which is every single tier 1, 2, and 3 supplier to the automotive industry.

[Richard]

That’s the problem,they gave workers an inch and now they want a mile and control of the businesses they work for without having to take the risks,you can see the ramifications on society now.

When you have business pandering to employees it upsets the balance,if they really knew what was best for the business they would be business owners and not employees.

It used to be when you got a job,part of that job was to follow the rules provided or you were fired and it was not like you could just go pluck another job off of the tree.

Part of working for somebody is having to put up with things that you do not want to because you are getting paid to do a job,if an employee is going to dictate to a company,if,where and when they are going to work then they are wanting the benefits of being self employed without having to put up the investment or take on any risk.

[K-slice]

For some jobs you still need an office. Especially if you are doing any sort of engineering, research, or manufacturing, which is every single tier 1, 2, and 3 supplier to the automotive industry.

You missed the key word in my quote, SUBURBAN!

I've done both and going to an office in a dense urban environment, where bars, restaurants, and entertainment are right down the block from your job makes a world of difference in how tolerable the office is. Especially in comparison to the drive-in-drive-out, eat lunch in your car, drudgery for Troy or Southfield.

I'm not advocating for the end of offices, quite the contrary. I'm for making offices a place people enjoy being. This was a big thing pre-covid, but it seems to be a forgotten concept now just three years on.

[Satiricalivory]

It's disgusting that Auburn Hills campus monstrosity exists. The state should have forced them to stay in Highland Park.

[Richard]

It's disgusting that Auburn Hills campus monstrosity exists. The state should have forced them to stay in Highland Park.

If that was the case they should have forced all the residents to stay in Michigan and in Detroit,easy as that,you would not have this problem.

[swingline]

That’s the problem,they gave workers an inch and now they want a mile and control of the businesses they work for without having to take the risks,you can see the ramifications on society now.

When you have business pandering to employees it upsets the balance,if they really knew what was best for the business they would be business owners and not employees.

It used to be when you got a job,part of that job was to follow the rules provided or you were fired and it was not like you could just go pluck another job off of the tree.

Part of working for somebody is having to put up with things that you do not want to because you are getting paid to do a job,if an employee is going to dictate to a company,if,where and when they are going to work then they are wanting the benefits of being self employed without having to put up the investment or take on any risk.

Wow Richard. I've agreed in the past with plenty of your opinions on DYes but geez, it appears you have some fully formed doozy opinions about entitlements due to the supposed smartest guys in the room, the business owners. You kind of sound like President Trump - he's made clear many times that if you don't own one of the "nicest houses" or have money in the bank then you're a loser who should shut up and do what they're told by the smart people that have the money. Apparently we would be better off if the risk takers could simply treat labor like a commodity to be purchased, like paper for the photocopier. Collective bargaining shouldn't stand in the way of the heroes of economy who invest and take risk, right? If the workers knew what's "best for business they would be business owners, not workers"? Seriously? No, most don't think so. Especially those who acknowledge worker humanity. Collective bargaining exists precisely to protect workers from your classist entitlement assumptions that are indeed too common among too many business owners.