Daniel Howes

Quicken Loans CEO says moving to Detroit will help the entire region

Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans Inc. and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, doesn't do small.

From his fiery denunciation of LeBron James' decision to bolt the Cavs for the Miami Heat to his successful play last year to establish casino gaming in Ohio, the impresario who built his 22-company empire on the mortgage business didn't get there by taking the easy way. Now, he's preparing one of his most controversial moves yet -- establishing his corporate headquarters in downtown Detroit.

Controversial? Yes, to the local pols in Livonia preparing to see one of their most prominent corporate citizens lost to Detroit with the help of state economic incentives. Yes, to the cynics who believe Detroit -- no matter who's leading the city -- is too far gone to be a viable host to a flourishing corporate sector, to supporting businesses and to housing employees drawn to a richer urban lifestyle.

He doesn't say so, not exactly, anyway, but Gilbert isn't interested in what the critics think. He's interested in honoring an agreement made to another mayor (Kwame Kilpatrick) in another economic era (November 2007) to move Quicken and associated businesses downtown, to make a difference when it can really matter.

"We do believe we can affect the outcome, lead with others and have credibility once we get there," Gilbert said in an interview before the LeBron James flap made him a household name to sports fans. "We made a commitment. That's how we got to where we are -- we stand by our commitments. We've got to start thinking big again in Detroit."

For Gilbert, that begins Aug. 16 with 1,700 Quicken employees and top executives moving into 240,000 square feet on four floors in the Compuware building. In the wake of company presentations and bus tours of downtown, Vice President David Carroll said, 100 employees have expressed interest in moving into the city. We'll see.

Coming, too, will be Gilbert's Fathead sports logo business, In-House Realty, One Reverse Mortgage and a corporate intention to build a stand-alone headquarters nearby (most likely on the Hudson's site) to cement Quicken's place among downtown corporate citizens.

"We do think it gives us a competitive advantage on these first-mover kinds of things," said Matt Cullen, president of Rock Ventures, which oversees many of Gilbert's affiliated business ventures outside of Quicken and the Cavs of the NBA. "It's an informed bet to say that we think we've got the right leadership now (in Detroit), that people are going to do the right thing."

But it's no sure thing, as any astute observer of Detroit's woeful political and economic predicament could attest. If Gilbert and Cullen are right, the move could be an image and business boost to the city and Gilbert's "family of companies," which includes mortgage and financial services, sports and entertainment, real estate and gaming.

Connecting the city's pieces

No single corporate move is a panacea for what ails the poorest major city in America. Still, this is big for Detroit, buffeted as it is by chronic budget problems, a bumpy transition to more stable political leadership and an economic environment that can often make investing here an excruciating exercise in hope over experience. In other words, the timid need not apply.

"If we could get 4,000 or 5,000 additional people coming into the city, that would be very helpful because that shows confidence in the leadership and in the business community," Mayor Dave Bing said in an interview. "You start to build momentum. What we need to do as an administration is to take away all the roadblocks."

Smart entrepreneurs find their way around them, too.

As Quicken prepares for the big move, Gilbert and Cullen say the "connectivity" for a revived downtown is already there. Redevelopment of the riverfront, from the Renaissance Center to the Stroh Brewery site, is well along. Compuware and Quicken will be joined across Woodward at Campus Martius by 500 software engineers and designers hired by New Jersey-based GalaxE.Solutions.

Up Woodward, the Fox Theatre-based Ilitch empire is mulling options for a future home for its Detroit Red Wings. Some smart money (and you get the sense that includes Gilbert and Cullen, his Detroit deal guy) is betting the Wings will end up in a new arena on the northwest corner of Woodward and the I-75 service drive.

For hotels, bars and restaurants, the lifeblood of a vibrant downtown, that'd be huge: the Wings' arrival in Foxtown would create year-round traffic to events there, Comerica Park and Ford Field. That matters. In August, occupancy of the refurbished Westin Book Cadillac is expected to run at 70 percent, the developer told me last week. In August. In Detroit.

Further north, the new owners of Detroit Medical Center are preparing to invest $1 billion in upgrades and expansions, likely sparking a health care arms race that will draw responses from competitors based in and out of Detroit. Either way, the investment is confirmation of a viable market in the city.

At New Center, the College for Creative Studies' new Taubman Center for Design Education is bringing middle schoolers, high-schoolers, undergrads and grad students together in a refurbished and re-imagined Argonaut Building.

'The Game' is getting bigger

And plans are moving ahead to connect most of it with a light rail line along Woodward. The project is championed, in part, by Gilbert and other civic heavyweights, despite skepticism from more traditional business interests pushing tax-and-regulatory reform to create jobs and improve competitiveness.

"The people he's bringing downtown are the younger folks ... who might actually live downtown and hop the trolley to go to a game or the medical center," said Rip Rapson, president of the Kresge Foundation and architect of its aggressive program to support the redevelopment of Detroit. "He may actually be ahead of the game, not behind the game."

Either way, Gilbert won't be first to the game. The Ilitches have been managing their pizza-sports-and-entertainment interests from downtown for a generation. Peter Karmanos Jr.'s Compuware is a fixture at Campus Martius. General Motors Co., a driving force behind the revival of the riverfront, mulled then rejected vacating the RenCen for its Tech Center in Warren amid bankruptcy.

And smaller entrepreneurs like Cynthia Pasky's Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc.? They've been expanding and prospering from a Detroit base for two decades.

"Any jobs that he brings here is great," said Pasky, whose new Downtown Development Center expects to have filled at least 250 new IT jobs downtown by the end of this year. "We're self-creating our own momentum. We just keep pushing."

dchowes@detnews.com (313) 222-2106