Quicken Clarification

**tkelly1986** · August-10-10, 11:58 AM

With the 1,700 employees in process of moving downtown, I have two quick questions.
1.Is this the total of Quicken HQ employees in Michigan? [[down from 4,000 due to economic downturn)? Or is only part of the HQ moving from Livonia. I found that there are approximatly 2,800 total, but the chart I saw did not break it down between Michiga, Ohio and Arizona.
2.If only part, does Gilbert plan to move the remainder downtown once he builds a “Quicken HQ Building”.

Sorry for the multiple, obvious questions to many. I am currently living out of state and do not have the access some of you do and information online is limited.

**Downtown Lady** · August-10-10, 01:39 PM

I asked a Quicken employee, who said:

1. Only part of the HQ employees are moving from Livonia. Additionally, there are other Michigan locations that are staying where they are [[in Farmington Hills and I think he also said Southfield).

2. Dan Gilbert does plan to move the rest of the employees downtown eventually.

**davewindsor** · August-10-10, 05:22 PM

I've got another clarification question.

#1 What is Quicken Loans? Is this a trust company? Or is this a syndication of mortgage brokers? Where do you they get their money they lend out from? Wikopedia says in 2007 Quicken Loans processed approximately $19 billion in residential mortgage loans.

#2 Why did Comerica Bank, which was HQ'd in Detroit for over 150 years move to Dallas, while Quicken Loans is moving to downtown? Quicken Loans operates in other states. Why didn't Quicken Loans move their HQ to Dallas or another state?

**Detroit500** · August-10-10, 08:41 PM

Who cares? This Quicken Loans scenario has been talked about for years... First this, now that... I'll believe it when I see it. Hope they move downtown. Hope this will stop the sprawl in Brighton/Milford/Hartland. We don't have the population in this region to be spread throughout Wayne-Washtenaw-Oakland-Macomb-Livingston. Absolutely absurd.

**esp1986** · August-11-10, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by davewindsor

I've got another clarification question.

#1 What is Quicken Loans? Is this a trust company? Or is this a syndication of mortgage brokers? Where do you they get their money they lend out from? Wikopedia says in 2007 Quicken Loans processed approximately $19 billion in residential mortgage loans.

#2 Why did Comerica Bank, which was HQ'd in Detroit for over 150 years move to Dallas, while Quicken Loans is moving to downtown? Quicken Loans operates in other states. Why didn't Quicken Loans move their HQ to Dallas or another state?

2) Comerica was bought by a Dallas Company, so, naturally, they moved the headquarters to Dallas. It's not like Comerica just up and moved to Dallas, there was a reason.

**mwilbert** · August-11-10, 07:53 AM

Comerica wasn't bought by anyone. They just moved because they wanted to; most likely because they wanted to change their image to being a Sunbelt bank rather than a Rustbelt bank.

**Detroitej72** · August-11-10, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

Comerica wasn't bought by anyone. They just moved because they wanted to; most likely because they wanted to change their image to being a Sunbelt bank rather than a Rustbelt bank.

It also helped that their CEO is from Texas.

**313WX** · August-11-10, 08:01 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitej72

It also helped that their CEO is from Texas.

And ultimately, Texas is a far more friendlier state to corporations than Michigan.

**rsa.313** · August-11-10, 09:11 AM

and texas/the sunbelt is a growth market for the financial sector, while the rustbelt is a declining one.

**JDKeepsmiling** · August-11-10, 10:13 AM

I don't want to turn this into a threadjack concerning Comerica, but there are a couple of things worth pointing out. The "move" to Dallas had a ton to do with a CEO who wanted his HQ in Texas becasue he is from Texas. Mostly just the executive team has moved. The company still has FAR more employees in Detroit then in Dallas, and plans on keeping it that way. The last commnet about the growth being in the Sunbelt may have been true a few years ago, but for at least the last two years the Midwest, and especially Michigan operations have been the drivers of Comerica's profits. the move was mostly for the CEO and public image. Kind of a pathetic reason to move. I would not be surprised if they eventually move back if a new CEO takes the helm.

**clayc** · August-11-10, 11:47 AM

I work at Quicken Loans and wanted to answer the question about who we are. We are a retail mortgage orginator, meaning we lend our own money to folks to buy homes or refinance. We aren't a holding company or a group of brokers. Quicken Loans team members are all directly employed by the company and we did $25 billion in closed home loans last year. About 1,700 of us are moving downtown in the next few weeks. It's pretty cool and I'm looking forward to it. I went to Cass Tech for high school and worked for the city of Detroit back in the 90s when Archer was in office, so it's like returning home for me. I hope to take the SMART bus to work when I can [[though it doesn't run that often on my route, so it might be difficult).

**Packman41** · August-11-10, 11:56 AM

Comerica Leaves Detroit
Here are some comments when the announcement was made in 2007:
Ralph W. Babb Jr., Comerica's chairman and CEO, says the relocation is directly tied to a plan put into play three years ago to diversify and extend the financial institution's reach into high-growth markets. "Today, a significant percentage of Comerica's earnings is generated in Texas, Arizona, California and Florida," he says in the release.

Babb also says the availability of skilled employees in Dallas, Austin and Houston further underwrites the decision. Comerica's decision cites US Census Bureau stats that project two-thirds of all Americans will live in the southern and western US by 2030, with 30% choosing California, Florida and Texas. Furthermore, the International Monetary Fund ranks Texas as the 10th largest economy in the world: nearly $1 trillion in gross state product and highest growth population counts in the nation.

Comerica has 71 branches in Dallas, Houston and Austin, with 1,351 employees now on its payroll book. When the shift is done, Comerica will be the largest bank holding company headquartered in Texas. As always, the state and Dallas have provided incentives to help offset relo costs.

And then there is this article from the Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20070307/BIZ/703070397/Why-Comerica-checked-out

"Moving to a fast-moving state like Texas-away from Michigan and its economic woes could boost shareholder value by as much as 50 percent over the next couple of years, experts predict. As a result,
Wall Street was pushing Comerica to make the move."

I also seem to recall that Texas was going to calculate Comerica's tax bill differently than Michigan was doing. We were charging taxes on ALL the income they earn from whatever state they earned it in. Texas was going to calculate income earned only in the State of Texas - effective cutting their state income tax by more than half. That would be a significant savings and allegedly more dividends for stock holders.

All that and maybe they were not given the $200 million incentive package that Quicken is scheduled to receive.