"I'm David Hall, President of Rock Financial." These ads, played over and over during Pistons games, would quickly move from the bottom to the top of my list of favorite advertisments on TV if David Hall plays any role in convincing Dan Gilbert to move his headquarters downtown. Please, Lord, let this happen! This rumor has been floating around for a few months, but to my knowledge this is the first time that Dan Gilbert has publicly said he is indeed considering moving downtown.
Considering the old Statler Hotel site and the old Hudson's site, I would prefer to see them develop the Hudson's block. Although a development this size on the Statler site would provide a legitimate anchor for Grand Circus Park, the move to the Hudson's block would really help finish off the Lower Woodward cooridor. Detroit has plenty of pockets of development going on, but nothing that seems to be completely finished. Quicken Loans, Compuware, Campus Martius, One Kennedy Square all within a stone's throw from eachother would create a truly walkable district and potentially fill in the remaining downtown Woodward storefronts.
This is really exciting, but I won't get my hopes up until I hear Quicken Loans official announcement.
Images of the empty Hudson's site loom in my mind as the perfect place for Quicken Loans to move...filling that space in would just be so cool.
ReplyDeleteBut as the columnist points out, "From one Dan to another: Grand Circus Park is the play. Why share Lower Woodward with another tech player and fellow sports mogul, Compuware Chairman Pete Karmanos? You can be the big dog on Grand Circus, give your employees direct access to two of the country's best new stadiums, a world-class opera house and some of the coolest loft, apartment and restaurant spaces in Detroit."
Hopefully the company doesn't stick to the suburbs. I bet Grand Circus Park will be the site because of the reasons cited by the columnist.