Originally Posted by
esp1986
It's a little further than 10 miles...their Livonia offices, at least most of them, are off of I-275 at 7 mile, almost in Northville... and there are a lot of people who aren't going to like driving from Livonia or Novi or Northville or Plymouth or Canton or Westland [[wow that's a lot of 'or's). Quicken employs a lot of college grads, who can easily pick up and go.
Now I am not saying that 25% of them will move downtown, but at least a couple hundred for sure, maybe even as many as 300. Most college grads can't afford to buy much of anything, especially houses, so they really aren't tied to any area, so they would be willing to pick up and move downtown to minimize the commute. If I, for one, was to move downtown, I wouldn't want a loft, and that is the majority of what's available downtown. That's why there are so many of them available. Not everyone wants lofts, but since that is the cheapest way to residential space, that is what all of the developers are doing. So with Quicken moving downtown, there is a chance that there will be an influx of affordable [[$800-$1000 a month for rent) residential space downtown, i.e. apartments. I have heard that Washington Square is experienceing the highest occupancy rates they have ever seen, so the demand for those types of apartments is definately growing...
However, as far as retail space is concerned, it will likely continue to struggle unless a number of these Quicken employees actually do move downtown, because, lets be honest, most of the people that work downtown go to work in the morning then go straight home afterwards at 5.