Why Did Chryler Move from Highland Park to Auburn Hills?

**bragaboutme** · June-23-10, 12:55 PM

Gnome, thanks for the info. Do you know the story behind Chrysler moving its head quarters from Highland park, to Auburn Hills?

**gnome** · June-23-10, 01:37 PM

BAM: Sure do, Highland Park is a dangerous dump and Lee Iacocca needed to build a campus which would house all R&D, marketing, production and management under one roof.

The new Chysler HQ even has a small test track and a mini production line to test new manufacturing techniques. At the time in the mid-1980's Chysler was on the rise. It had come out of bankruptcy, had bought Jeep and the remaining Renualt/AMC properties. They were in the process of tearing down their ancient Jefferson Ave plant and building a new state-of-the-art plant. [[the story behind the land grab and how Coleman Young screwed the City is massive but again too long to detail here)

Auburn Hills offered a great package of low taxes and a perfect location with acres of open land. The State even built a dedicated exit ramp for them. Their original plan of having supplies build all around their new HQ never really happened except for BBDO and a couple of other smaller players. Even the BBDO building was built a couple of miles away.

The old Chrysler HQ in HP was a hodgepodge of various buildings with nothing really connecting engineering with design or anything else. If you were in one building, you had to trek several hundred yards to another building. On a nice day like today, getting up from your desk and going for a walk would be a welcome diversion. In Feb with -5 on the wind chill 500 windy yards can seem like hell. If you want to attract top people, making them suffer is bad for business.

When they left HP Lee set-up a trust fund to help HP in the years to come; however, the Blackwell clan made short work of that and now the balance is zero.

**gnome** · June-23-10, 01:45 PM

oh yeah, you should know that the HP place was never really designed to be a HQ ... the Chrysler Building in NYC was where management was until the late 1950's. So the idea that HP had a HQ isn't quite accurate. I think the tallest building on the HP campus was a 4 story affair that was tossed up during WWII.

**bragaboutme** · June-23-10, 02:09 PM

Thanks Gnome, I wondered why Chrysler would build the Chrysler building in New York instead of Detroit. With every building that is built outside the City that was meant to be built inside the downtown area, our downtown would be more alive than what it is today.

**R8RBOB** · June-23-10, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by gnome

BAM: Sure do, Highland Park is a dangerous dump and Lee Iacocca needed to build a campus which would house all R&D, marketing, production and management under one roof.

The new Chysler HQ even has a small test track and a mini production line to test new manufacturing techniques. At the time in the mid-1980's Chysler was on the rise. It had come out of bankruptcy, had bought Jeep and the remaining Renualt/AMC properties. They were in the process of tearing down their ancient Jefferson Ave plant and building a new state-of-the-art plant. [[the story behind the land grab and how Coleman Young screwed the City is massive but again too long to detail here)

Auburn Hills offered a great package of low taxes and a perfect location with acres of open land. The State even built a dedicated exit ramp for them. Their original plan of having supplies build all around their new HQ never really happened except for BBDO and a couple of other smaller players. Even the BBDO building was built a couple of miles away.

The old Chrysler HQ in HP was a hodgepodge of various buildings with nothing really connecting engineering with design or anything else. If you were in one building, you had to trek several hundred yards to another building. On a nice day like today, getting up from your desk and going for a walk would be a welcome diversion. In Feb with -5 on the wind chill 500 windy yards can seem like hell. If you want to attract top people, making them suffer is bad for business.

When they left HP Lee set-up a trust fund to help HP in the years to come; however, the Blackwell clan made short work of that and now the balance is zero.

Very interesting on the Chrysler info. I commented in another thread that Chrysler could have moved their headquarters into the then-American Center in Southfield which they acquired when they bought AMC. Then they could have leveled the Chrysler campus in HP and built the Tech Center that they currently have in Auburn Hills. But this was the 80's and the move to the suburbs was always the first move.

**Gistok** · June-23-10, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by casscorridor

Please tell us because it was a tragedy, if not a crime. Within a matter of months Highland Park was without a police department, fire department or library. The entire city was placed under state supervision.

For what? So Chrysler could build a sprawling HQ in the outer ring, so their employees could build new big box mansions on credit and be within a 20 minute drive?

Casscorridor.... what you describe taking place in Highland Park... it happened over several years... not several months as you described it....

It took a few years for Highland Park to squander the money they got from Chrysler. In order for Chrysler to get tax abatements in Auburn Hills, they had to get the OK for the move from Highland Park... and that OK came with a $20 million price tag, IIRC.

**douglasm** · June-23-10, 06:12 PM

Chrysler HQ was a rabbit warren. It had nothing to recommend it, and Dad once commented that in a facility like that it was hard to recrute quality new talent.

A question about retailing in RenCen. Could one resonably expect stores to draw from outside of the building? I would think that if you were to run a retail shop in a stand alone building, you would do it sorta like the Fisher Building when I was a younger. That is, have stores that tended to cater to the people who worked or had business in the building.

**Lowell** · June-24-10, 11:05 PM

This was great thread that sprung up from within the thread, "Why Did GM Move to Ren Ctr & Leave Cadillac Place?" It deserves its own. thanks to Gnome. So the relevant posts are move here.

**MoparDan** · June-25-10, 07:50 AM

Thanks for the info Gnome.
I found this NY Times article from Sep 9, 1992
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/09/bu...l?pagewanted=1

COMPANY NEWS; Chrysler to Move Its Headquarters

DETROIT, Sept. 8— The Chrysler Corporation, which had previously said it would not move its corporate base from Highland Park, Mich., announced today that it would transfer its headquarters operations to its technology center in Auburn Hills, about 50 miles to the north.
Chrysler said the move was necessary because it had eliminated 12,000 white-collar jobs since 1987 and had reorganized its engineers into teams from functional departments.
The platform-team concept, organized around individual vehicles, requires that various disciplines, including product design, engineering, manufacturing and procurement and supply, work together under one roof. "Under this organization, it is essential for the entire team to be together in the same location," said Lee A. Iacocca, the company's chairman. "We can't have our executives traveling 50 miles back and forth for meetings two and three times a day." Depressed City
Highland Park, an economically depressed city of 20,000 people, is mostly surrounded by Detroit. It has been home to Chrysler since the company was founded in 1925.
Deputy Mayor Scotty Wainwright said in response to the Chrysler announcement: "Before the 1987 downsizing, Chrysler was Highland Park's largest employer, and they're right up near the top today. We haven't had a chance to sit down and review the facts."
When the move to Auburn Hills is complete in about three years, Chrysler said it expected to keep only 500 technical and administrative employees in Highland Park of the 5,000 employed there now. Chrysler pledged to work with Highland Park officials in an effort to reduce the economic impact of the move and to determine the best future use for its facilities.
While criticizing Japanese automobile manufacturers for opening United States factories in rural locations, Chrysler opened its new Jefferson Avenue plant on the east side of Detroit last year. The plant produces the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Photo: The Chrysler Corporation's technology center in Auburn Hills, Mich., during final construction in 1990. [[Chrysler Corporation)

**R8RBOB** · June-25-10, 08:02 AM

Truth be told, Chrysler could have built their tower in downtown Detroit and razed their HP campus and built the tech center there. But Auburn Hills gave them the sun, the moon and thirty pieces of silver to move there so they did. GM's setup of having the headquarters based in Detroit and have the Tech Center in Warren has worked for decades. It could have worked for Chrysler.

**JBMcB** · June-25-10, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by bragaboutme

Thanks Gnome, I wondered why Chrysler would build the Chrysler building in New York instead of Detroit.

Because New York is where the money is, i.e. Wall Street. If you wanted large infusions of investment capital back then, you needed to be near the stock market. That is, physically near the stock market. Doing huge deals over the phone or by mail didn't work so well back then [[nor does it today.)

**Meddle** · June-25-10, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by R8RBOB

Truth be told, Chrysler could have built their tower in downtown Detroit and razed their HP campus and built the tech center there.

Or the Plymouth Road AMC facility where they would have had good freeway and railroad access.

bartock · June-25-10, 09:40 AM

The NY Times thought Auburn Hills was 50 miles to the north? Guess they didn't have Mapquest in 1992?

**Packman41** · June-25-10, 10:00 AM

Actually, Chrysler planned a new HQ at the Crooks Road/I-75 interchange in the 1970's. They acquired the land and built 900 Tower Drive, but had to sell it when they fell on hard times with their first, near bankruptcy in 1980. From the www.900tower.com:

900 Tower Drive is a 281,425 sq. ft. 14 story high rise office building located in Troy, Michigan at Crooks and I-75. Constructed in 1974 by the Chrysler Corporation, the building design was created by the world-renowned architectural firm of Yamasaki & Associates.

They also sold off the additional acreage to stave off creditors. When they recovered, they moved out a few more exits to Auburn Hills and bought land from the developer that was creating a new tech park out there.

**Danny** · June-25-10, 10:52 AM

So Chysler moved from the black ghettos of Highland Park to the White Boondocks of Auburn Hills. So they could build the glass like Tower of Babel with a Pentastar logo on top.

HA, HA, HA It is to laugh! Corporate nuts for the name of money.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

'We're movin' on up, movin' on up, to the east side, movin' on up. To a delux apartment in the sky!'

In memoriam: Neda

**bragaboutme** · June-25-10, 12:34 PM

Ok JBMcB, I know for a fact detroit had a stock exchange downtown. That's not an excuse. I just don't understand why highland park was just left for dead. I could remember rumors that the reason why chrysler got the bailout from the government the first time was because they were going to build new inside Highland Park proper. When they got the money, they waited till after they paid the money back and moved. I just don't understand why Chrysler expected people to be loyal to their brand, when they show to be disloyal to Highland Park. I remember people were burning chryslers durning the time just because they were mad at the move, crazy.

**gnome** · June-25-10, 12:52 PM

HP's mayor from 1967-75 and from 1980 to 1988 was dear Robert Blackwell, father of Art and your overall general scammer, thief, briber and con-artist. kwame had nothing on this guy.

Please don't forget that Chysler tried to stay in HP, but Blackwell couldn't find enough empty land for a the kind of complex that Lee wanted.

**Zacha341** · June-25-10, 01:08 PM

Hah. I bet there's more enough empty land now... yeah, Blackwell, wrote the book and Kilpatrick read it cover to cover and added a long addendum.

Originally Posted by gnome

HP's mayor from 1967-75 and from 1980 to 1988 was dear Robert Blackwell, father of Art and your overall general scammer, thief, briber and con-artist. kwame had nothing on this guy.

Please don't forget that Chysler tried to stay in HP, but Blackwell couldn't find enough empty land for a the kind of complex that Lee wanted.

**Ltdave** · June-25-10, 06:30 PM

chrysler got the bailout from the government the first time

for the 14th time, Chrysler did NOT get a bailout from the government. Chrysler got the Carter administration to co-sign some loans it got from PRIVATE BANKing concerns. the feds paid NO money...

back to Auburn Hills. word on the street is that there are COMPLETE FLOORs out there with NO PEOPLE on them...

**Zacha341** · June-25-10, 06:43 PM

I can believe that fo' sho! The hand writings is on the wall... That complex is huge! I worked in that area for a while off of Squirrel Rd etc. and got to see all sides of the headquarters in the fall when the trees are bare and it's incredible!!

The full breadth of the building sets far back from what you can see on from I-75 and the thumb-print of the building is incredible. You can not get a grasp of how big it is until you ride along th length of it... It is incredible that such a large building was built in the first place?

The operations of such has to eat into their profitability. They've probably stiffed enough of their suppliers to off-set the cost!!

Originally Posted by Ltdave

....word on the street is that there are COMPLETE FLOORs out there with NO PEOPLE on them...

**bragaboutme** · June-25-10, 07:34 PM

Umm...they paid the federal government 350 million dollars back in 1983. So yea, they got a loan from the government. It was a package deal, and in that deal they were to build new. The location is what I was trying to get clear. Does anyone know, for sure?

**R8RBOB** · June-25-10, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

I can believe that fo' sho! The hand writings is on the wall... That complex is huge! I worked in that area for a while off of Squirrel Rd etc. and got to see all sides of the headquarters in the fall when the trees are bare and it's incredible!!

The full breadth of the building sets far back from what you can see on from I-75 and the thumb-print of the building is incredible. You can not get a grasp of how big it is until you ride along th length of it... It is incredible that such a large building was built in the first place?

The operations of such has to eat into their profitability. They've probably stiffed enough of their suppliers to off-set the cost!!

I wonder what the folks at Fiat said when they drove to Auburn Hills the first time and saw this: http://www.autoblog.com/photos/chrys...-mall/#1535669

CTC may have been Iacocca's dream but is it too much for a Chrysler that is in foreign hands for a second time?

**56packman** · June-25-10, 10:45 PM

The Chrysler Building in NYC had/has nothing to do with the company with the exception of the fact that Walter P. Chrysler was behind each. He built the Chrysler building in NYC as a private real estate investment, ostensibly for his family after his passing. Chrysler was always managed from Detroit and partially from the Chrysler building in NYC, because Walter P. Chrysler maintained his primary office there. The business of running the company was almost entirely at Highland Park.
His home was near NYC and he commuted to Detroit on the New York Central railroad, he was a director of that railroad and took many [[free) sleeper car trips back and forth. Walter never had a residence in Detroit [[or Grosse Pointe, Bloomfield Hills), he stayed in a suite in the Tuller Hotel when in Detroit looking after the car business.

**DTWflyer** · February-24-12, 03:51 PM

Also, Chrysler has plenty of room to expand on their Auburn Hills campus. They could easily add-on, over some of the surface lots and convert that to more garage parking.

Directly north of the campus is a wood/wetlands area where a tributary of the Clinton River flows through. North of there off of University Drive is the Cross Creek Parkway development. There are still a number of vacant parcels in this development, but what is there currently is a bunch of auto suppliers and medical buildings. It is too bad they had to build-up that area, there is some really nice property in there. Rather hilly and wooded.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · February-24-12, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by Ltdave

for the 14th time, Chrysler did NOT get a bailout from the government. Chrysler got the Carter administration to co-sign some loans it got from PRIVATE BANKing concerns. the feds paid NO money...

back to Auburn Hills. word on the street is that there are COMPLETE FLOORs out there with NO PEOPLE on them...

That is correct. A buddy of mine is a Chrysler exec and he said there is plenty of open floors that are closed off. Which doesn't suprise me, there are all kinds of empty office buildings throughout the Detroit area.