Interesting to see this thread. I've just returned to Detroit after about 5 years away. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Interesting to see this thread. I've just returned to Detroit after about 5 years away. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Penske funded the big downtown cleanup ahead of the Super Bowl
when it happened in Detroit. His downtown heart was in the right
place at that time. It's fine if he always stays in Bloomfield Hills
or if he goes wherever. He is a good neighbor here, there, or anywhere.
Their office building in bloomfield is pretty small [[two floors and not a big footprint). The various companies have their own hqs which are located around the country/world, and while moving them to Detroit would be great for Detroit, arbitrarily relocating companies is probably not good for those companies. And just with the nature of their businesses I doubt a whole ton of the 64,000 employees are hq-type office jobs, they're mostly trucking businesses.
From one of their websites....
Penske Automotive Group, Inc. [[NYSE:PAG) headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is an international transportation services company that operates automotive and commercial truck dealerships principally in the United States, Canada and Western Europe, and distributes commercial vehicles, diesel engines, gas engines, power systems and related parts and services principally in Australia and New Zealand. PAG employs more than 26,000 people worldwide and is a member of the Fortune 500, Russell 2000, an was named one of the World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune.
Here is a list of 181 Auto Dealers he owns in the USA....
https://www.penskeautomotive.com/Cus...GenPage=429675
Trucking is only part of his business interests. Around the world he probably owns over 300 car dealerships.
So most of his employees are probably located in remote sites, such as dealerships around the world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gistok
And now he has bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy 500, and the entire Indy Car racing series.
His net worth is usually listed around 1.5 billion. Not petty cash by any means, but if you look at the size and diversity of his companies, and his age for that matter, I'm surprised it's not higher.
I want the whole region to grow and prosper... both the City of Detroit and its suburbs.
We all saw what happened when it was Suburbs vs. City for decades, with most of the investments in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s going to the suburbs and the city neglected. I don’t want to flip it the other way and see the suburbs completely neglected either.
It is great to see the redevelopment downtown, and yes that is the area that is most vital for attracting talent and jobs in many different sectors. But..,, the bigger point is that some industries and their headquarters are still better suited for the suburbs. Penske and the Automotive industries he owns mostly fall into that category. Celebrate more jobs in the region as a whole. That should be the goal, not suburbs vs. city again, even if city is winning that battle this time around.
I had a Crain's subscription for a year recently, and once or twice a month Crain's would report a new foreign or domestic auto supplier either re-locating & building a new facility or substantially expanding it's current local facility and employment force. 9 times of out 10, these companies chose the suburbs for the new/expanded facility.Quote:
Originally Posted by Atticus
Just look at the new chains that have set up shop in the Detroit area over the past few years - BJ Wholesale, Bob's Discount Furniture, Menards, Smoothie King, Tropical Smoothie Cafe - none of those are in the city.
The suburbs are definitely still winning big.
I do agree we need to pull employers from OUTSIDE THE REGION.
-Volkswagen and Ford are rumored to be collaborating, could VW be convince to bring their US HQ back here?
-Kellogg's has a big office in downtown Chicago - could they be convinced to relocate this office to Detroit?
-The new Dow in Midland. Would they be interested in opening an office in Detroit?
-The Smile Direct Club was originally located in the area before moving to Nashville in 2016. Would they be interested in returning?
Maybe Penske’s HQ is in Bloomfield Hills bc he got a good deal on the Bloomfield Hills location. He is a businessman, after all. Where he's located now used to be GE Capital's location. Not sure where they went.
After almost bankrupting GE in the 2006-2008 mortgage meltdown, GE Capital was spun off as Synchrony BankQuote:
Originally Posted by Pat001
I have worked downtown for the last 4 1/2 years and very winter walking somewhere for lunch [[especially Grand Circus Park) is asking for broken bones... the sidewalks are always untouched and dangerous.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bham1982
If all my employees live near [[centrally) where I am located, and I have a nice lease deal where I am - what reason should I locate further from my employees and ask them to pay city tax? Asking for a friend. FYI - food trucks and exorbitant Gilbert parking fees aside. Also, why are Troy and Southfield major office centers at all? How do we address generational decisions without ever addressing public transit, public safety or schools? Should we abandon these suburbs and ignore making our larger regional center an attractive place to live and work? Can we not have both? Real question, are we doomed to have neither? Houston will surpass Chicago as the 3rd largest city shortly. Should we continue our rush to the coasts and drought-sensitive climates? Do we have a national strategy to address global climate change? Do we even care?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat001
Furthermore, we are facing a global climate catastrophe, species of animals and plants are dying off at record levels, wealth inequality and national debt at at record levels. Healthcare costs are on a runaway train. We have a mental health and opioid crisis. Mass shootings are more and more frequent. Our infrastructure is garbage. We’re opening up Alaskan wilderness to drilling and logging. Endless wars and record incarceration levels under for profit operators are the norm. We’re denying survivor benefits to 9/11 first responders. Kids are dying in cages on the border, but we’re all too worried to make sure we get our pittance of a stupid tax break. Our president openly admitted to tampering with our elections and says our national intelligence agencies and free media are enemies of the state. This is not fringe thinking anymore folks. And we are fretting over a theatre getting torn down. Not that isn’t a noble cause, but where are our priorities? How are we not marching on the Capitol?
Penske seems like a nice guy, and Detroit is fortunate to have him on its side [[except for what his Grand Prix does to Belle Isle every summer). But... the Penske Corporation isn't the future of the global economy. Where the Penske Corporation locates is not even an argument worth having today.
Imagine we all took a time machine back to the late 90s, and we could all vote on whether we want Google or Amazon to locate downtown vs GM or Ford. In 1999, GM had a market cap of about $47 billion and Google was worth less than $200 million. Today, GM is worth about $57 billion and Google is worth nearly $1 trillion.
A company like GM still employs far more people at least compared to google and is still very relevant for new technology. What a company is worth is mostly based on intangible beliefs that could change at any moment. Just look at Tesla's insanity they've lost nearly a billion this year alone. Any of us can buy a stock and make that gamble. Who knows what the next crop of super hot companies will be in twenty years.