GM to plan move from RenCen to Dan Gilbert’s Hudson’s tower

[stasu1213]

The Hudson Block is simply a much better quality office facility than the RenCen is, or could be. GM is getting a state of the art facility. That fact itself is good for the company, good for Detroit, good for Michigan. Yes it would have been better if some out-of-state Fortune 500 company was lured to relocate to the block, but that wasn’t realistic. Short of that, this is probably the next best thing.

As for the posts about how renovation of the RenCen side towers to hotel/residential being too cost prohibitive.., I am old enough to have heard very similar things said about the Book Tower, Metropolitan Bldg, David Whitney, etc. But those happened, and on a square foot by square foot comparison, a hypothetical RenCen conversion to hotel/lodging will cost a lot less than restoration of those historic jewels.

A fortune 500 company still can be lured into moving to the Block. GM is only occupying two floors. Bedrock should focus on getting an international corporation to open an office in the Block instead of the usual suspect such as Blue Cross Blue Shield.

[Gistok]

A fortune 500 company still can be lured into moving to the Block. GM is only occupying two floors. Bedrock should focus on getting an international corporation to open an office in the Block instead of the usual suspect such as Blue Cross Blue Shield.

They currently occupy 1 1/2 towers of the 4 tower RenCen. If they only take 2 floors of the Hudson's Block... then they are shipping 90% of their downtown employees out to Warren...

[Atticus]

They currently occupy 1 1/2 towers of the 4 tower RenCen. If they only take 2 floors of the Hudson's Block... then they are shipping 90% of their downtown employees out to Warren...

Important context: GM is effectively leasing-to-itself 1.5 of the 4 of the towers … as in 1.5 towers is the space they currently control for their own usage. Whether that “1.5 tower” amount of space is actually being utilized by GM workforce is a much different question.

GM doesn’t need that amount of RenCen space today. Effectively, what is probably being vacated in leaving the RenCen is 1) a lot of unused space, and 2) probably the workforce to fill 2 floors in the new Hudson block.

[Gistok]

^ Let's put this into context.... GM has 857 workers at the RenCen. GM has 21,000 employees working at the Warren Tech Center.

It's easy to put two and two together... they have been slowly leaving Detroit... to make Warren their HQ in all but name.

All that is happening now is that GM, the city and county have been sugar coating this.

GM has ended up screwing Detroit BIG TIME. Back when they bought the Ren Cen... Ford had 1,700 employees which they moved to Dearborn to make room for GM HQ. They made it their HQ, everyone else left... and now they are leaving the city with an empty shell, but it is all being sugar coated.

Looks like the former Warren mayor Jim Fouts is getting his wish.

GM CEO Mary Barra is no friend of Detroit.

[Genesyxx]

I guess I see it as a 'push' but more of a negative. I understand being in the CBD in a great location for the workers that are still coming in. It's been long known that RenCen is isolated from the city, but in a way, GM didn't do much to change that outside of removing the concrete wall.

Since buying, they've done nothing to really bring in any tenants [[and have lost quite a few since the Winter Garden's heyday not long ago), nor develop the surrounding lots that it owns to make it a true home.

I hope they sell it soon to a developer who will turn it around quickly and make it something special. I hear people rumbling about Gilbert buying it, but I don't think that will happen. As far as converting it to hotel or residential, that will be a massive project and for someone with seriously DEEP pockets. For those still there, it will be a major blow and who knows what will happen after they eventually have to close or relocate.

[Burnsie]

Each RenCen 39-story tower floor is about 18,100 sf, if they're indeed using 2 floors/ 100,000 sf of the Hudson's block that's equivalent to about 5 1/2 RenCen floors.

[Atticus]

Each RenCen 39-story tower floor is about 18,100 sf, if they're indeed using 2 floors/ 100,000 sf of the Hudson's block that's equivalent to about 5 1/2 RenCen floors.

Good information. It helps reinforce the suspicion that again, while GM does control 1.5 towers in the RenCen, much of it is functionally not being used.

And that is not unique, nor surprising… as post Covid there are a lot less office cubes necessary by many employers, both from downsizing, consolidation, and work-from-home. There are many, many companies nationwide who right now have multi-year leases on large office complexes filled with vacant cubes. It is just a glut of unused office space waiting for the lease to end. the only difference with GM is they own the facility, so their lease doesn’t end unless they sell the place.

[Danny]

There goes their $100 million dollar building.

[casscorridor]

My guess is that at least one of the towers will be converted into residential.

There are still office tenants in the other ren cen towers, so I wouldn't expect them to be converted straight away but maybe in the long run those will be as well.

As others have said, tearing the whole thing down would probably cost more than adaptive reuse, not to mention the bad PR.

This will be a net positive for the city in the end.

[mkd]

GM CEO Mary Barra is no friend of Detroit.

I’ve long found her decision-making to be questionable. Attachment 43114

I worked at the Ren Cen prior to the pandemic doing some consulting work. They started displaying messages like this on the then-new video boards and I couldn’t figure out why the CEO of a company that sells cars would want to minimize the number of cars on the road...

Contrary to comments here about how confusing/cumbersome the Ren Cen is, I loved every part of working there... the views, the restaurants, multiple coffee shops, cars on display, CVS, post office, a cobbler, a tailor, riverfront access, a couple covered bridges or the people mover connected you to the core downtown. It was a nice place to be then.

This announcement should only be met with backlash by the community. I'd rather they leave for Warren altogether than keep a token presence at "Hudson's Detroit" just to be able to say they haven't left.

Anyone foreseeing a Gilbert miracle should be very cautious with any optimism. Take a look at the Monroe blocks, even our city's savior has his limits.

[sirrealone]

If having 95% of the workforce together in one campus is the most efficient for them to operate and make money, shouldn't we applaud them for making that decision? It was 15 short years ago when the entire company nearly went belly up because they were completely inefficient in just about everything they did.

Remember when they would sell hundreds of thousands of cars at a loss just so they could claim the highest market share? Very similar if they were to keep workers in a space that held them back, simply because of decisions that were [[correctly) made nearly 30 years ago.

Sure, moving to the RenCen in 1996 sounded great. It worked.

But a lot has changed.
The workforce has shrunk. They don't need all that space.

The industry has changed. They need to be agile and flexible.

Technology has changed. Many people can do their jobs from anywhere, which wasn't the case back then.

If this helps keep GM running as the lean, profitable, smart business that we demanded they become during the bailouts, then why complain about it? GM brought this space back to life, got 25 good years out of it, and now hopefully someone else will find a way to transform the space into something that fits better with today's world.

[Gistok]

^Silly us... we didn't know that centralizing all staff in 1 location was the answer to the problem. Here we thought product and development were the key.

[Cough... Kmart & Troy]

[stasu1213]

Gilbert's probably will do what GM Ceo Mary Barra and RenCen managers failed to do. That is make the RenCen a tourist attraction, a shopping area, as well as an office complex. The World Trade Center were both tourist attraction and office complex before the twin towers were knocked down. G.M used the complex as strictly an office building but nothing else saving a few retail that catered mostly to the office workers.

[Gistok]

sirrealone... sorry for being snarky... had a cranky day today... but I don't think that location of employees matters as much anymore when it comes down to corporate performance.

stasu1213... I agree... during the GM years, there was no real feeling of welcome to visit the center. Dan Gilbert would change that.

I do feel that with no observation area in the Hudson's Tower, that the RenCen hotel tower should once again open themselves up for meal, bar and also observation visitation. I remember the first 10 years of the opening of the RenCen that anyone could visit the observation area for free, while later there was a nominal charge [nothing outrageous]. The 71st floor was the restaurant, the 72nd floor was viewing and 73rd floor was the bar. Even if they charged $5 just to go to view, it would draw some folks into the complex. And they need to have something to draw the folks to the Wintergarten... not sure if it should be some kind of entertainment, or what.

The lowest level of the hotel atrium used to be some sort of museum space... maybe they should bring that back too.

It's just that GM killed the mood of visiting the RenCen, and Gilbert should bring that back... so much potential!!

[stasu1213]

^ Let's put this into context.... GM has 857 workers at the RenCen. GM has 21,000 employees working at the Warren Tech Center.

It's easy to put two and two together... they have been slowly leaving Detroit... to make Warren their HQ in all but name.

All that is happening now is that GM, the city and county have been sugar coating this.

GM has ended up screwing Detroit BIG TIME. Back when they bought the Ren Cen... Ford had 1,700 employees which they moved to Dearborn to make room for GM HQ. They made it their HQ, everyone else left... and now they are leaving the city with an empty shell, but it is all being sugar coated.

Looks like the former Warren mayor Jim Fouts is getting his wish.

GM CEO Mary Barra is no friend of Detroit.

Wasn't Mary Barea asked earlier this year if GM was going to leave the RenCen and she said no?

[Jimaz]

What does GM’s move from RenCen mean for Detroit’s iconic skyline?

GM's plan to move its headquarters from the RenCen is making headlines across the country.

[Burnsie]

Wasn't Mary Barea asked earlier this year if GM was going to leave the RenCen and she said no?

Could only find Barra saying this in May 2022: "Right now, our plans are to be in the RenCen, we've updated many of the floors. But, um, I think we are focused...we don't occupy the whole RenCen, we're a couple of towers right now. But that's our home, that's what we're creating into open space. The HR team just moved to their new floor last week when I was there...into a new open workspace. So that's our home."

[Rocket]

I saw an article yesterday claiming that GM was negotiating to move to the Hudson building, but is actually moving to Sterling Heights, by the golden ring.

Anyone else see that?

[Jimaz]

...but is actually moving to Utica...

Good satire should have at least a hint of believability.

[southen]

The lowest level of the hotel atrium used to be some sort of museum space... maybe they should bring that back too.

That is an interesting thought. If you look at some of the earliest renderings of Hudson's the initial plan was to put several cultural spaces into the building including some sort of car museum. I feel like Gilbert could take that concept and apply it to the Ren Cen. GM had already been thinking about that when they shared renderings of "GM World" which was going to alter the exterior the exterior of the building and drastically change the northeast corner of the site.

There are definitely things that can be done to reactivate the building and better open it up to the river and surrounding area. There has to be the will and money behind it though.

[Lowell]

The internet meme-sters are at work.



Attributed to Detroit Peoples Platform but could not locate it on their site.

[sirrealone]

It's just that GM killed the mood of visiting the RenCen

I think GM did quite a bit.

They moved in and renovated the entire complex. I think they tried to draw the public in by initially putting prototype cars in the atrium space, before dumbing it down with plain old showroom cars, presumably if it affected their draw at the auto show.

They got rid of the berms, and put actual front doors to open up the street side. They built the Wintergarden and opened it up to the riverfront side. I always seemed to remember these things being applauded for making it more welcome to the public. Yes, the place was still a maze, but that was still a byproduct of the initial design. I'll be curious if the next effort will be able to fix this.

The renovations created quite a bit of retail space. For quite some time, a lot of it was occupied. But, yeah, things eventually started closing, especially when they started laying off thousands of workers and the overall economy began to crater.

After the initial outlay to re-do the building and get themselves settled, they had plans to work with developers to do a lot with the surrounding land. If I recall, they had plans to build condos, retail and more office space, but outside of the failed Asian Village project, it all went to crap when the company and the city both went bankrupt.

The place was always on kind of an island Having the nearby Rivertown area killed off right around the time when they bought the building probably didn't help things out at all.

Just saying, I think they did an awful lot, but there was quite a bit that simply was out of their control.

[DetBill]

Well thinking about this, with a little vision, maybe between Wayne State and other educational institutions we have and their never ending need for expansion, and a sweetheart deal with GM, it could taken over by them for educational purposes..think about it, parking is available, not a ton of retro fitting, small food court businesses would do well, lots of foot traffic with students..the hotel would continue to be viable….Not to be sarcastic but it would truly be a site of “ higher learning” for so many purposes getting a Renaissance education…A little imagination/ ingenuity could make this work with great benefit for the city and all.

[Lowell]

Ooo I like this idea! Open air among the buildings. Break up the gloom.

The indoor podium needs to be demolished and create a direct street access to the hotel and the other buildings, with it's own entrance from street. Should build roads thru the site. Turn the Winter Garden into an outdoor event, retail, bar, restaurant destination. Similar to the outdoor led ceiling plaza in Las Vegas with the Zipline.

This solves the terrible pedestrian and automobile access, similar to the Joe Louis Site. Do the same for the RenCen

[stasu1213]

I think GM did quite a bit.

They moved in and renovated the entire complex. I think they tried to draw the public in by initially putting prototype cars in the atrium space, before dumbing it down with plain old showroom cars, presumably if it affected their draw at the auto show.

They got rid of the berms, and put actual front doors to open up the street side. They built the Wintergarden and opened it up to the riverfront side. I always seemed to remember these things being applauded for making it more welcome to the public. Yes, the place was still a maze, but that was still a byproduct of the initial design. I'll be curious if the next effort will be able to fix this.

The renovations created quite a bit of retail space. For quite some time, a lot of it was occupied. But, yeah, things eventually started closing, especially when they started laying off thousands of workers and the overall economy began to crater.

After the initial outlay to re-do the building and get themselves settled, they had plans to work with developers to do a lot with the surrounding land. If I recall, they had plans to build condos, retail and more office space, but outside of the failed Asian Village project, it all went to crap when the company and the city both went bankrupt.

The place was always on kind of an island Having the nearby Rivertown area killed off right around the time when they bought the building probably didn't help things out at all.

Just saying, I think they did an awful lot, but there was quite a bit that simply was out of their control.

What GM should had done was to put classic cars throughout the first and lower levels of the RenCen as well as new cars. GM had done similar when their headquarters were on Grand Blvd. That would had drawn more visitors and tourists especially on weekends when people are on the Riverwalk on warmer days. Former CEO Wagoner probably would had considered it but Mary Bara just wanted an office complex which closed after 6pm and on weekends. Thank God that GM will only leade out two floors and not control the whole Hudson's Detroit building. I would be good to put a classic Chrvy, Pontiac, or Cadillac in the atrium of the Block for show to visitors