with quicken loans officially moving downtown, the book-cadillac scheduled to open within a year, the new detroit institute of arts, and 1,200 new high end hotel rooms is detroit really on the verge of a come back or is it more of the same hype the city's seen ever since portman's renaissance center?
Cadillac Centre looks promising. I visited downtown Detroit on a weekday about a year ago. It was quite enlivened, and I enjoyed the vibe. There was an instant when my husband and I saw "new urban condos from the $200's (or $300's?)," and we both looked at each other like... "hrm? this might not be so bad."
the developer, dembitzer, seems to have a pretty good track record. i also think its promising the money is coming from outside michigan and not through jerryrigged tax incentives like many of these deals (most of which minus the book cadillac have sunk).
does anyone know anything about the architect, anthony caradonna? it says he is a professor at pratt, but i haven't been able to find much on him with google.
I second that Lb but the reality is this - great cities are born of nessecity and geography, even in this information age. dubai may be a glaring example counter to this but it hasnt been time tested and much of the investment is shady to dubious at best. Detroit is still the center of the largest concentration of automotive manufacturing anywhere in the world. It is however losing it's production capabilities to the lower midwest and upper south. The reason is clear in my mind and the minds of every economist, businessman and auto industry supplier, the labor unions have destroyed it. Until Ford and GM are free'd from the contract obligations they were forced to sign in the 60's and 70's, and just as important all the small suppliers, tool and die shops and mid sized business are freed from ongoing extortion, the entire region will continue to disintegrate. Now the revival of the auto industry wont be the only change needed but it will be a foundation to build on such as great lakes tourism, a canadian trade port, possible free trade zone, and its proximity to Chicago, the new steel city (sorry Pittsburgh, you did good though) which has achieved that revival through forign steel firms' investment. Some may argue that expansion of north american trade agreements means lower wages. But I dare those folks to go to Detroit and see what no wages looks like.
Why do you think there ARE no wages? Thanks to free trade, all the jobs went south (and overseas). I don't like the idea of corporate subsidies and I don't think the government should be artificially propping up companies like they do, but what's the alternative? Manufacturing jobs go overseas. Technical jobs are now going overseas, too - engineering, to be specific.
The US needs to find a way to be competitive on its own. Either that, or citizens need to come to terms with the fact that they've been living high on the hog for generations, and somehow find it within themselves to live on less.
(Same goes for Canada, as I'm Canadian and what America does, so do we. Pathetic, really, but there it is.)
evilp, i think what's really positive about cadillac centre and the new quicken loans headquarters is that neither of these moves has anything to do with the auto industry. detroit's best chance to reinvent itself is to diversify beyond the auto industry - an influx of outside cash can't hurt either given the amount of skepticism that exists within the detroit metro area.
true, dat jafidler. the D has a long way to go, but i too want to be optimistic as well. it will slowly come around but a lot of the responsibility falls on the people to help get the city on its feet again. to long have companies like DTE used the suburbs to subsidize the inner city's debt.
the architecture seems a bit over-the-top to me but overall, i think the developer has the right idea. a mixed use building (with attractive markets & shops) should plug nicely into downtown detroit's demographic. this could be a winner.
too bad the plans for the motown museam/center were scrapped earlier this year because that was a very nice looking building desigend by aro.
biggest thing holding detroit back these days is the rather shitty opinions that so many of the local michiganders have of it. especially amongst those over 40 years old, there are still so many people clinging to old stereotypes...and it time to move forward already.
it depends on who's paying for it. if they are securing the funds themselves, it is renaissance. if it is being subsidized or partially subsidized, than it is hype.
i think downtown detroit is going through an intense renaissance period as we speak, and although the design for the cadillac square seems overhyped, i have a feeling the development seems solid...
look back over the last 15 years and what has happened in downtwon detroit...it has been quite remarkable, and there is enough momentum to keep it going, so i am hopeful;
but having said, more needs to be done to attract residents to downtown/midtown/new center...and those urban condos - lofts for 300k are incredibly overpriced imho - limited safety, bad schools, limited groceries/retail, taxation for detroit - my wife and i are planning on having kids, and that fact alone pretty much forbids us from moving to detroit...
yes, i was thinking the exact same thing, mdler. it's what makes me most skeptical about this project. for reference, in downtown detroit, the budget for the renovated book-cadillac is $180 million dollars. i have no idea how they are going to make this fancy two tower wonder for $150 million. something is fishy there.
mdler...you are right...with the program below, and the renderings, i am thinking you can double that number - but the "design" seems very loose and the renderings much like eye candy made for marketing - it does need a good dose of reality
With a striking design that could become a new architectural icon for the city, Cadillac Centre would include two, 24-story apartment towers connected by a 12-story link that would house a six-screen movie theater, health club and spa, restaurants and stores.
The project would include 84 apartments, plus a 30,000-square-foot market, more than 100,000 square feet of major retail space, a 14,400-square-foot health club and spa, a 40,000-square-foot public park with water features, more than 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty shops, and 800 parking spaces.
the east riverfront opened to the public last summer. it's a boardwalk that extends (non-continuously) from the rencen to belle isle. the area from the rencen to rivard was designed i believe by hargreaves and is quite nice and very popular. some of the big-time detroit former sports stars-cum-developers (dave bing and jerome bettis) are trying to get financing for high end condominiums along the river. there is in fact development planned for that whole stretch, but there are continuing problems with many of the sites being contaminated brownfield sites in need of expensive remediation. once again, there are projects in the works that may or may not get off the ground. the lousy housing market and one-state recession ain't helping.
i'm not sure the construction numbers could even be realistic at this point. they're not talking of breaking ground until 2009 and who knows what the project will cost by then.
le bossman, i think that the your referenced area of the waterfront that was intended for development might have been in the mix for the relocated, permanent casinos that had originally been proposed back during the dennis archer regime. as it turned out, much of that part of the city was cleared up only to see the casinos relocate elsewhere.
the river actually runs ne --> sw. it's very confusing. the whole city is not layed out to the cardinal directions. but yeah...
we're talking about the same area, puddles. after the casino plan was scrapped around 2000 or so, the east riverfront alliance began work on the boardwalk proposal. to make way for the development, two cement silos were torn down, and the former uniroyal site was cleared. there was a um design charrette for the east riverfront that was incorporated into the plan. the bing/bettis developments are the latest phase of that plan.
the fun thing about ren cen is it actually could have proved quite successful as far as urban renewal is concerned if Ford hadn't pulled the plug after the first phase was over (the tower), leaving it high and dry on the river.
"is it true there are men with machine guns guarding the ren center and nearby yacht club?"
are you serious? if so, then, no. the nearest yacht club is on belle isle about 2 1/2 miles away. no machine guns there either.
apu, the rencen was completed i believe as intended. the central tower is 80 stories high and there are four adjacent towers each something like 50 stories high. there may have possible been a plan to expand to the east, but i don't think this was ever in the original scope.
in 2004 or thereabouts, som did a nice job creating a curtain walled entry off jefferson that opened the building to the street more than the original portman design.
..and a winter garden atrium / retail center facing the river, along with a plaza adjacent to the new riverwalk, facing canada...it did wonders in opening up the area surrounding the rencen...
downtown is getting increasingly nicer and nicer...
jafid, check out PMans original proposal model, the scope of project was initially far more vast than just a tower and included a deck over the highway which wasn't actually put in place 'till SOM hit it up in '04. Portman is often portrayed as the villain in this story, but in truth much of the blame should lay with Ford. Don't get me wrong, PMan ain't perfect by a long shot but in this instance his vision really was for more grand. You wont be able to find images on the net of his original vision or else I'd link them, but I believe I saw them originally in a Global Architecture monogram about him, or it could have been in one of the books written about his work in the 60s/70s.
speaking of construction costs and the renaissance center. the first phase of the ren cen was completed in about 1976 at a cost of $350 million...and the entire complex was sold to general motors in 1996 for a total of $72 million...how's that for appreciation. probably worth noting that general motors has since spent several hundred millions of additional dollars on renovations.
i think apurimac was referring the third phase of the project which would have extended the complex further up the riverfront to the northeast. it would have had several more of the smaller towers. of course, detroit has a legacy of not completing projects in their entirety. the fisher building (as completed) was actually only the first of what would have been a three building mega-structure. one of the detroit newspaper did a nice little feature once on all of the projects in detroit that didn't happen. it included a rather cool bird's eye perspective of how the city might have looked. some day i should try to research that article. i think it's quite old though and was probably published sometime between 1985 and 1990.
lastly, i wouldn't doubt that the building is protected by men with machine guns...although armed guards may not be readily visible. keep in mind that the ren cen is a symbol of american corporate might and that it does happen to be located on an internationl border (with the windsor tunnel partically at its feet). in fact, i remember that when i ran the detroit marathon and came up the tunnel that there were armed border patrol guards there...i ran as fast as i could.
i'll take your word for it, apu, but as it is with its five towers and 80 story height, i believe the rencen was the largest portman project ever completed.
puddles/evilp, it's true. there may be armed border patrol guards at entrance of the windsor tunnel at the foot of the rencen.
Oh forgot to address the diversification of the economy thing -from yesterday. Detroits only hope to diversify is still based on the auto industry. Investment firms need a reason to go there, capital has to come from somewhere - yes Detroit needs diversification but that wont happen on any notable scale until the auto industry gets rebuilt. I think its best hope is outside forign direct investment but again, the unions scare away toyota and Mazda. Until that happens I dont see much growth beyond corner bakeries and some movie theaters. And Detroit and the state of Mich better wake up - the boat left the docks 10 years ago, they better do something dramatic with their labor laws.
Why wouldnt Detroit want to be motor city again? A futuristic high tech motor city, with just as many robots as people. Thats a lot better than 2nd tier, comfortably diversified just like any other US city for an image.
I still see Detroit as a major world comand and control function point - for the auto industry, thats better than then just a nice place to live right? Build on your strengths!
short of having a seance to resurrect the ghost of harley earl, i'm not sure what the big three can do to bolster their image, and image is their big problem - from the perception that they are owned by labor to the perception that they build shitty, undesirable cars.
detroit does have some other major assets that would help it diversify in a very real way. it's airport is beautiful and a hub for a major carrier (nwa). it also has three major research universities within a hundred mile radius of detroit. the general consensus among business leaders is to harness these assets to look beyond the auto industry. many believe the airport is really the key. there's a $100 million committed to creating an "aerotropolis." nwa also recently was able to wrangle a nonstop flight to beijing that people around here are hopeful will create a gateway for expansion into china.
no one is going to abandon the auto industry. it's far too ingrained, but being a one trick pony has devastated the local and state economy in recent years. it's more complicated than you make it seem, evilp. it's deeper than just labor conflicts.
I heard that detroit is getting some batting cages too! Which would be great as long as the kids stay away from them. adult batting cages...now that's what I'm talking about!
I think that the auto industry is so huge, so integral to the economy of the industrialized world, that its far greater than just the airport and research. It spawns research into composites, lasers, robotics, software, its finance arms extend into credit markets and such. It should be the focus for the future because its the biggest, most important thing to the region.
for research, engineering, design, and other peripheral white-collar pursuits, the auto industry will always be huge in michigan. it is the blue-collar manufacturing jobs that are the problem. all industry is interconnected somehow; the difficulty is not abandoning the auto industry but seasoning the mix with other things.
as a side note, many of the blue collar manufacturing jobs in the furniture industry on the west side of the state are still there; although steelcase has lost a few mostly due to poor leadership. but i would say the success of the furniture industry generally centers around the innovations knoll, herman miller, and to a lesser extent steelcase have implemented in terms of design and other factors as well. they have been able to keep up with their asian and european counterparts, whereas the auto industry has not.
it should be also noted that some of the tool and die outfits which provide parts for the auto industry are only surviving because they also do so for the furniture and other related industries. this is one example of why diversity=good. i don't really know where the boom in the healthcare industry in michigan fits in to all of this.
i guess thats a great example of what im getting at - the lighter gauge sheet steel used in furniture is prob there because of the proximity to auto mfr. I still think auto mfr is the big time sexy sector that that gives Detroit it's global position and from that come the peripherals.
A related story could be Chicago - its financial status was severly diminished with the decline of the Fordist model of industrial production in the 60's and 70's. No one ever expected a city with such a fall from global status to ever gain it back, especially since it's chief financial expertise was now in the trading of pork bellies, cattle and grain futures. However around these core finncial exchanges the butter and egg exchange started experimenting with electronic network trading in the 70's and "invented" new financial devices to offer institutional investors from London, NY and around the globe, repackaging the core concept of the comodities hedge, into financial futures. Now in 2007 the Merc is the largest liquid pool of money on earth, larger in dollar value of transactions than even the NYSE. Its concidered one of the top 4 financial capitals on Earth. In short, its financial comunity rallied around it's core business and expertise and then inovated. Could a green machine be Detroit's next big product to the world? An international steel exchange?
another article about cadillac center by model d...not much additional info...but nice to see that they mispelled frank gehry's name.
personally, the more i look at this proposed "exciting" design, the more that i wish the developer would simply invest the $150 million into saving one of detroit's beautiful old buildings that needs help before those buildings all end up in the scrap heap...lost forever.
Jan 15, 08 10:44 am ·
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cadillac centre, detroit - renaissance or more hype?
with quicken loans officially moving downtown, the book-cadillac scheduled to open within a year, the new detroit institute of arts, and 1,200 new high end hotel rooms is detroit really on the verge of a come back or is it more of the same hype the city's seen ever since portman's renaissance center?
oops, i overhyped it myself. $150 million development.
Cadillac Centre looks promising. I visited downtown Detroit on a weekday about a year ago. It was quite enlivened, and I enjoyed the vibe. There was an instant when my husband and I saw "new urban condos from the $200's (or $300's?)," and we both looked at each other like... "hrm? this might not be so bad."
i say it's hype.... and the design is not really convincing....
der
the developer, dembitzer, seems to have a pretty good track record. i also think its promising the money is coming from outside michigan and not through jerryrigged tax incentives like many of these deals (most of which minus the book cadillac have sunk).
does anyone know anything about the architect, anthony caradonna? it says he is a professor at pratt, but i haven't been able to find much on him with google.
I want to be very optimistic about this, so I will be. I'd love for Detroit to be born again.
I second that Lb but the reality is this - great cities are born of nessecity and geography, even in this information age. dubai may be a glaring example counter to this but it hasnt been time tested and much of the investment is shady to dubious at best. Detroit is still the center of the largest concentration of automotive manufacturing anywhere in the world. It is however losing it's production capabilities to the lower midwest and upper south. The reason is clear in my mind and the minds of every economist, businessman and auto industry supplier, the labor unions have destroyed it. Until Ford and GM are free'd from the contract obligations they were forced to sign in the 60's and 70's, and just as important all the small suppliers, tool and die shops and mid sized business are freed from ongoing extortion, the entire region will continue to disintegrate. Now the revival of the auto industry wont be the only change needed but it will be a foundation to build on such as great lakes tourism, a canadian trade port, possible free trade zone, and its proximity to Chicago, the new steel city (sorry Pittsburgh, you did good though) which has achieved that revival through forign steel firms' investment. Some may argue that expansion of north american trade agreements means lower wages. But I dare those folks to go to Detroit and see what no wages looks like.
Why do you think there ARE no wages? Thanks to free trade, all the jobs went south (and overseas). I don't like the idea of corporate subsidies and I don't think the government should be artificially propping up companies like they do, but what's the alternative? Manufacturing jobs go overseas. Technical jobs are now going overseas, too - engineering, to be specific.
The US needs to find a way to be competitive on its own. Either that, or citizens need to come to terms with the fact that they've been living high on the hog for generations, and somehow find it within themselves to live on less.
(Same goes for Canada, as I'm Canadian and what America does, so do we. Pathetic, really, but there it is.)
i'm just gonna sit back and watch
der
evilp, i think what's really positive about cadillac centre and the new quicken loans headquarters is that neither of these moves has anything to do with the auto industry. detroit's best chance to reinvent itself is to diversify beyond the auto industry - an influx of outside cash can't hurt either given the amount of skepticism that exists within the detroit metro area.
true, dat jafidler. the D has a long way to go, but i too want to be optimistic as well. it will slowly come around but a lot of the responsibility falls on the people to help get the city on its feet again. to long have companies like DTE used the suburbs to subsidize the inner city's debt.
Definetly agree diversifying is the only hope of the old car towns.
The renderings look pretty if nothing particularly exciting. At least it is in the city and not the burbs..
the architecture seems a bit over-the-top to me but overall, i think the developer has the right idea. a mixed use building (with attractive markets & shops) should plug nicely into downtown detroit's demographic. this could be a winner.
too bad the plans for the motown museam/center were scrapped earlier this year because that was a very nice looking building desigend by aro.
biggest thing holding detroit back these days is the rather shitty opinions that so many of the local michiganders have of it. especially amongst those over 40 years old, there are still so many people clinging to old stereotypes...and it time to move forward already.
they do have the electronic music fest. I wouldnt bash the car industry too much - it is about the biggest mfr industry on earth
it depends on who's paying for it. if they are securing the funds themselves, it is renaissance. if it is being subsidized or partially subsidized, than it is hype.
i think downtown detroit is going through an intense renaissance period as we speak, and although the design for the cadillac square seems overhyped, i have a feeling the development seems solid...
look back over the last 15 years and what has happened in downtwon detroit...it has been quite remarkable, and there is enough momentum to keep it going, so i am hopeful;
but having said, more needs to be done to attract residents to downtown/midtown/new center...and those urban condos - lofts for 300k are incredibly overpriced imho - limited safety, bad schools, limited groceries/retail, taxation for detroit - my wife and i are planning on having kids, and that fact alone pretty much forbids us from moving to detroit...
the fact that kids aren't allowed in detroit is probably the single biggest reason that i want to move there.
edit: the fact that kids dont want to cross 8 mile.........
der
is it just me, or does $150 million seem a little low for the amount of construction that is being proposed????
yes, i was thinking the exact same thing, mdler. it's what makes me most skeptical about this project. for reference, in downtown detroit, the budget for the renovated book-cadillac is $180 million dollars. i have no idea how they are going to make this fancy two tower wonder for $150 million. something is fishy there.
mdler...you are right...with the program below, and the renderings, i am thinking you can double that number - but the "design" seems very loose and the renderings much like eye candy made for marketing - it does need a good dose of reality
With a striking design that could become a new architectural icon for the city, Cadillac Centre would include two, 24-story apartment towers connected by a 12-story link that would house a six-screen movie theater, health club and spa, restaurants and stores.
The project would include 84 apartments, plus a 30,000-square-foot market, more than 100,000 square feet of major retail space, a 14,400-square-foot health club and spa, a 40,000-square-foot public park with water features, more than 25,000 square feet of boutiques and specialty shops, and 800 parking spaces.
i think the 11story compuware headquarters nearby cost 255 or 265 million...
what happened to the new 'waterfront' development that was to occur to the north of downtown? anyone know what happened with that?
north? do you mean east?
the east riverfront opened to the public last summer. it's a boardwalk that extends (non-continuously) from the rencen to belle isle. the area from the rencen to rivard was designed i believe by hargreaves and is quite nice and very popular. some of the big-time detroit former sports stars-cum-developers (dave bing and jerome bettis) are trying to get financing for high end condominiums along the river. there is in fact development planned for that whole stretch, but there are continuing problems with many of the sites being contaminated brownfield sites in need of expensive remediation. once again, there are projects in the works that may or may not get off the ground. the lousy housing market and one-state recession ain't helping.
i'm not sure the construction numbers could even be realistic at this point. they're not talking of breaking ground until 2009 and who knows what the project will cost by then.
le bossman, i think that the your referenced area of the waterfront that was intended for development might have been in the mix for the relocated, permanent casinos that had originally been proposed back during the dennis archer regime. as it turned out, much of that part of the city was cleared up only to see the casinos relocate elsewhere.
i consider the detroit river to be a body that runs from north to south
jfid knows what i mean. i think a lot of this detroit coming back or michigan coming back seems to just come down to taxes.
the river actually runs ne --> sw. it's very confusing. the whole city is not layed out to the cardinal directions. but yeah...
we're talking about the same area, puddles. after the casino plan was scrapped around 2000 or so, the east riverfront alliance began work on the boardwalk proposal. to make way for the development, two cement silos were torn down, and the former uniroyal site was cleared. there was a um design charrette for the east riverfront that was incorporated into the plan. the bing/bettis developments are the latest phase of that plan.
the fun thing about ren cen is it actually could have proved quite successful as far as urban renewal is concerned if Ford hadn't pulled the plug after the first phase was over (the tower), leaving it high and dry on the river.
is it true there are men with machine guns guarding the ren center and nearby yacht club?
"is it true there are men with machine guns guarding the ren center and nearby yacht club?"
are you serious? if so, then, no. the nearest yacht club is on belle isle about 2 1/2 miles away. no machine guns there either.
apu, the rencen was completed i believe as intended. the central tower is 80 stories high and there are four adjacent towers each something like 50 stories high. there may have possible been a plan to expand to the east, but i don't think this was ever in the original scope.
in 2004 or thereabouts, som did a nice job creating a curtain walled entry off jefferson that opened the building to the street more than the original portman design.
..and a winter garden atrium / retail center facing the river, along with a plaza adjacent to the new riverwalk, facing canada...it did wonders in opening up the area surrounding the rencen...
downtown is getting increasingly nicer and nicer...
jafid, check out PMans original proposal model, the scope of project was initially far more vast than just a tower and included a deck over the highway which wasn't actually put in place 'till SOM hit it up in '04. Portman is often portrayed as the villain in this story, but in truth much of the blame should lay with Ford. Don't get me wrong, PMan ain't perfect by a long shot but in this instance his vision really was for more grand. You wont be able to find images on the net of his original vision or else I'd link them, but I believe I saw them originally in a Global Architecture monogram about him, or it could have been in one of the books written about his work in the 60s/70s.
speaking of construction costs and the renaissance center. the first phase of the ren cen was completed in about 1976 at a cost of $350 million...and the entire complex was sold to general motors in 1996 for a total of $72 million...how's that for appreciation. probably worth noting that general motors has since spent several hundred millions of additional dollars on renovations.
i think apurimac was referring the third phase of the project which would have extended the complex further up the riverfront to the northeast. it would have had several more of the smaller towers. of course, detroit has a legacy of not completing projects in their entirety. the fisher building (as completed) was actually only the first of what would have been a three building mega-structure. one of the detroit newspaper did a nice little feature once on all of the projects in detroit that didn't happen. it included a rather cool bird's eye perspective of how the city might have looked. some day i should try to research that article. i think it's quite old though and was probably published sometime between 1985 and 1990.
lastly, i wouldn't doubt that the building is protected by men with machine guns...although armed guards may not be readily visible. keep in mind that the ren cen is a symbol of american corporate might and that it does happen to be located on an internationl border (with the windsor tunnel partically at its feet). in fact, i remember that when i ran the detroit marathon and came up the tunnel that there were armed border patrol guards there...i ran as fast as i could.
of course, i'm still waiting for somebody to renovate the hotel yorba
i'll take your word for it, apu, but as it is with its five towers and 80 story height, i believe the rencen was the largest portman project ever completed.
puddles/evilp, it's true. there may be armed border patrol guards at entrance of the windsor tunnel at the foot of the rencen.
the hotel yorba is all you, puddles.
Oh forgot to address the diversification of the economy thing -from yesterday. Detroits only hope to diversify is still based on the auto industry. Investment firms need a reason to go there, capital has to come from somewhere - yes Detroit needs diversification but that wont happen on any notable scale until the auto industry gets rebuilt. I think its best hope is outside forign direct investment but again, the unions scare away toyota and Mazda. Until that happens I dont see much growth beyond corner bakeries and some movie theaters. And Detroit and the state of Mich better wake up - the boat left the docks 10 years ago, they better do something dramatic with their labor laws.
Why wouldnt Detroit want to be motor city again? A futuristic high tech motor city, with just as many robots as people. Thats a lot better than 2nd tier, comfortably diversified just like any other US city for an image.
I still see Detroit as a major world comand and control function point - for the auto industry, thats better than then just a nice place to live right? Build on your strengths!
short of having a seance to resurrect the ghost of harley earl, i'm not sure what the big three can do to bolster their image, and image is their big problem - from the perception that they are owned by labor to the perception that they build shitty, undesirable cars.
detroit does have some other major assets that would help it diversify in a very real way. it's airport is beautiful and a hub for a major carrier (nwa). it also has three major research universities within a hundred mile radius of detroit. the general consensus among business leaders is to harness these assets to look beyond the auto industry. many believe the airport is really the key. there's a $100 million committed to creating an "aerotropolis." nwa also recently was able to wrangle a nonstop flight to beijing that people around here are hopeful will create a gateway for expansion into china.
no one is going to abandon the auto industry. it's far too ingrained, but being a one trick pony has devastated the local and state economy in recent years. it's more complicated than you make it seem, evilp. it's deeper than just labor conflicts.
I heard that detroit is getting some batting cages too! Which would be great as long as the kids stay away from them. adult batting cages...now that's what I'm talking about!
i guess to me it's like investing in anything. you never want to put all of your money into one thing. it's a good way to lose your shirt.
or to put it another way - batting cages are as important as muscle cars, and they're even better together.
zug island is where it's at......
der
I think that the auto industry is so huge, so integral to the economy of the industrialized world, that its far greater than just the airport and research. It spawns research into composites, lasers, robotics, software, its finance arms extend into credit markets and such. It should be the focus for the future because its the biggest, most important thing to the region.
for research, engineering, design, and other peripheral white-collar pursuits, the auto industry will always be huge in michigan. it is the blue-collar manufacturing jobs that are the problem. all industry is interconnected somehow; the difficulty is not abandoning the auto industry but seasoning the mix with other things.
as a side note, many of the blue collar manufacturing jobs in the furniture industry on the west side of the state are still there; although steelcase has lost a few mostly due to poor leadership. but i would say the success of the furniture industry generally centers around the innovations knoll, herman miller, and to a lesser extent steelcase have implemented in terms of design and other factors as well. they have been able to keep up with their asian and european counterparts, whereas the auto industry has not.
it should be also noted that some of the tool and die outfits which provide parts for the auto industry are only surviving because they also do so for the furniture and other related industries. this is one example of why diversity=good. i don't really know where the boom in the healthcare industry in michigan fits in to all of this.
i guess thats a great example of what im getting at - the lighter gauge sheet steel used in furniture is prob there because of the proximity to auto mfr. I still think auto mfr is the big time sexy sector that that gives Detroit it's global position and from that come the peripherals.
A related story could be Chicago - its financial status was severly diminished with the decline of the Fordist model of industrial production in the 60's and 70's. No one ever expected a city with such a fall from global status to ever gain it back, especially since it's chief financial expertise was now in the trading of pork bellies, cattle and grain futures. However around these core finncial exchanges the butter and egg exchange started experimenting with electronic network trading in the 70's and "invented" new financial devices to offer institutional investors from London, NY and around the globe, repackaging the core concept of the comodities hedge, into financial futures. Now in 2007 the Merc is the largest liquid pool of money on earth, larger in dollar value of transactions than even the NYSE. Its concidered one of the top 4 financial capitals on Earth. In short, its financial comunity rallied around it's core business and expertise and then inovated. Could a green machine be Detroit's next big product to the world? An international steel exchange?
I think the boom could be even bigger than furniture
another article about cadillac center by model d...not much additional info...but nice to see that they mispelled frank gehry's name.
personally, the more i look at this proposed "exciting" design, the more that i wish the developer would simply invest the $150 million into saving one of detroit's beautiful old buildings that needs help before those buildings all end up in the scrap heap...lost forever.
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