Gilbert thinks Detroit-Windsor deserved HQ2

[313WX]

"The billionaire founder and chairman of Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Ventures LLC implied that brass from the Seattle-based company that, as of Thursday, had a market capitalization of $806 billion, didn't visit the city as it was mulling responses from more than 200 in North America late last year and early this year.

"We tell everybody, you just can't understand what's going on here unless you're on the ground," Gilbert said last week in an interview. "It doesn't matter what you say, or the videos you send."

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/gilbert-thinks-detroit-windsor-deserved-hq2

[SammyS]

How can you not agree with him. Detroit offers talent, affordable housing, available office space and a city Amazon can be part of growing just like they did in Seattle. The public transportation factor should never have been the disqualifier.

[313WX]

How can you not agree with him. Detroit offers talent, affordable housing, available office space and a city Amazon can be part of growing just like they did in Seattle. The public transportation factor should never have been the disqualifier.

The fact that Nashville is getting a 5K employee operations centers means transit was never a honest disqualifier.

[poobert]

The fact that Nashville is getting a 5K employee operations centers means transit was never a honest disqualifier.

Nashville is a lovely, thriving city. In the middle of the 20th century it was 1/10 the population of Detroit and is now...more populous! There are many, many ways besides transit that Nashville is more qualified, and a better quality place to live and work than Detroit.

[313WX]

Nashville is a lovely, thriving city. In the middle of the 20th century it was 1/10 the population of Detroit and is now...more populous! There are many, many ways besides transit that Nashville is more qualified, and a better quality place to live and work than Detroit.

To be fair, only Nashville city proper is bigger than Detroit city proper because they annexed all of Davidson County.

For now, Metro Detroit is still 2 to 3 times the size of Metro Nashville, but I gotta say, I'm seeing similar exponential growth signals in Nashville that Atlanta experienced back in the late 1970s.

[Meddle]

Nashville is a lovely, thriving city.

Ever been there? I have. It ain't that great. Lots of closed up malls and things.

[p69rrh51]

Ever been there? I have. It ain't that great. Lots of closed up malls and things.

Every city in the US has malls that are closed or on their knees! Nashville itself is thriving quite nicely.

[poobert]

Ever been there? I have. It ain't that great. Lots of closed up malls and things.

Of course I have been there. Yes, Metro Detroit has no "closed up malls and things."

Again, I would like to reiterate the point that a place that within living memory once had the population of Warren, and 1/10 that of Detroit, and now outpaces Detroit in population in every other measure. To scream about how terrible it is compared to metro Detroit is like extolling the virtues of the Ebola virus verses the common cold.

[aj3647]

The fact that Nashville is getting a 5K employee operations centers means transit was never a honest disqualifier.

5K employee "operations center" is nowhere near being in the same league as a 50K employee headquarters. One is literally 10x more than the other.

Yeah, fuck high paying jobs!

How many billions of dollars in tax breaks, grants, and subsidies were you willing to shell out for those high-paying jobs? NYC and NY State shelled out $3 billion for half of a headquarters. Ask the people of Wisconsin if the billions they shelled out for Foxconn was worth it.

[313WX]

5K employee "operations center" is nowhere near being in the same league as a 50K employee headquarters.

No one said it was.

And how does that change the fact that transit was obviously never an honest disqualifier if Amazon selected a city with arguably worse transit than even Detroit for a large office?

Ask the people of Wisconsin if the billions they shelled out for Foxconn was worth it.

Low wage warehouse jobs are not equivalent to high paying tech jobs.

[Bham1982]

How many billions of dollars in tax breaks, grants, and subsidies were you willing to shell out for those high-paying jobs? NYC and NY State shelled out $3 billion for half of a headquarters.

NYC didn't "shell out" a penny. They have a blanket policy against direct corporate subsidies.

NY State offered billions, but all based on job counts [[they only get the full tax breaks if they hit 40,000 employees).

And most of the "subsidies" are just commercial tax breaks. NYC has, by far, the highest commercial property tax rates in the U.S., so Amazon will still be paying a lot more than in other jurisdictions.

[JBMcB]

How can you not agree with him.

Because it involves huge tax incentives. We need to stop carving out special deals for corporations if you want to pay for things like pensions and parks.

[DeLemur]

Gilbert is saying what he has to say. The fact is we don't have enough assets to warrant it. No economic or political center [[NYC/D.C.) no qualified labor pool [[S.F./Austin/Pittsburgh) not sure on the incentives. Yes on fascinating story, cheap land and ability to wield significant local power. Of these three only one is unique to Detroit.

Detroit is rising, but its not there yet. We have to get education right.

[Lowell]

One could argue that Gilbert was lucky we didn't get it. Amazon would have poached Gilbert's talent and the competition would surely have driven up wage costs.

[DeLemur]

One could argue that Gilbert was lucky we didn't get it. Amazon would have poached Gilbert's talent and the competition would surely have driven up wage costs.

Very true, though it may have been a temporary problem for him. It would no longer be Gilbertville either which he could welcome. It would have automatically brought tremendous value to his real estate holdings and allowed him to shy away from being Detroit's biggest private industry champion.

[SammyS]

Very true, though it may have been a temporary problem for him. It would no longer be Gilbertville either which he could welcome. It would have automatically brought tremendous value to his real estate holdings and allowed him to shy away from being Detroit's biggest private industry champion.

And perfect timing to take advantage of the Auto downturn and layoffs.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Dodged a bullet by not getting HQ2

[313WX]

Dodged a bullet by not getting HQ2

Yeah, fuck high paying jobs!

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Yeah, fuck high paying jobs!

More like fuck the billions in subsidies to the richest man on earth.

[SammyS]

Dodged a bullet by not getting HQ2

Yeah, fuck the population boost

[DeLemur]

Has anyone heard Bezos talk? I'm surprised by his relatively quiet approach. More akin to the Waltons than Zuckerberg, Buffet and Jamie Dimon.

[313WX]

Has anyone heard Bezos talk? I'm surprised by his relatively quiet approach. More akin to the Waltons than Zuckerberg, Buffet and Jamie Dimon.

I've seen Bezos in a total of one Amazom commercial [[the Super Bowl one from earlier this year), and he said maybe 3 words total.

Also, his speech at the DC Chamber of Commerce can be found on the internet.

That said, I will admit [[to my surprise) his voice does NOT align with his alpha-male look/mindset.

[Richard]

I am thinking to much,to fast.

The downside would have been skyrocketing real estate,good for those wanting to cash out,but not so much for those coming in and the amount of displacement would have been hard to absorb.

Gilberts rise has been slow and steady and still drew resentment from displacement,now imagine doing the same thing in 1 year?

[poobert]

Okay, the fact of the matter is that Metro Detroit didn't get it because it didn't deserve it. Otherwise it would have, yes? In terms of overall quality of life and education, Metro Detroit is not stellar by any metric.

If you cannot discern why New York and northern Virginia are more desirable locations for virtually every reason for a technology company or someone wishing to work for a technology company, then you likely have never left metro Detroit or have little awareness of those locations.

Gilbert also hires many relatively unskilled positions. Yes, there is definitely a solid technology side to his businesses but the core of it - mortgage banking - is sales, and they do the training. People literally come from delivering pizzas to slinging mortgages there after a few weeks of minimal training. So talent probably isn't a huge concern for him.

The solution is not to bitch about why they didn't locate here [[which, I think as some have pointed out, isn't some panacea) but to fix what is wrong with the region so people and jobs want to move here. Admittingly, I think there is some progress on this front, but a long way to go.

[Hypestyles]

the regions racism possibly scared off Mr. Bezos. there's that, too. You don't have another metro region to gleefully bash the core city like here in the Metro D.