Quote Originally Posted by DeLemur View Post
He's obviously done a lot for Detroit and guess what? He plans on making a ton of money in it. This has been a business decision for profit. I'm glad he made it. He's been instrumental to downtown's turnaround and should be praised for it.
Yet the things you mention, we're evident BEFORE yhe incentives we're finalized. Thus, did government incentivize a project for Gilbert's past investment and not the actual Hudson's project and Monroe? Is that ok or sound policy?
This topic is the headline story of today's Free Press.

Gilbert promised, officials believed
Experts: Usual real estate procedures not followed

I'm not comfortable with procedures not being followed, but there is a bit of a "the proof is in the pudding" argument. For instance the lead paragraph reads.
Businessman Dan Gilbert's organization persuaded Detroit and state officials to give his development companies free land and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives by promising to turn downtown into a walkable urban center with public plazas and a skyscraper that would be a “landmark destination.”
That pudding today looks like what was promised, even better. After decades of squatter speculators dominating a downtown ghost town am I going to get my panties in a bunch over some rules getting bent and the pudding-maker making some money, even a lot of money? No. If anything I get a little burned over the speculators who cleaned house due to Gilbert's investments that gave value to their blighted ruins. Ilitch's? Hello?