Detroit is My Home

13
Nov

Quicken moves to Detroit

Author: Teresa, Category: Uncategorized

Good news for Detroit - Quicken Loans Inc. plans to relocate its corporate offices and 4,000 jobs from the suburbs to Detroit, a move the online mortgage company hopes will help revive downtown by attracting housing, stores and other businesses.

According to columnists Daniel Howes of The Detroit News and Tom Walsh of the Detroit Free Press, Quicken Loans owner Dan Gilbert has one year to consider two possible sites and 18 months to two years more to develop a construction plan.

“This is big,” Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said, describing a package of state and local incentives that could total as much as $200 million over the next 20 years. “This is a done deal. We’ve signed the development agreement. This is the largest package that we - the city and state - have put together to bring a company to downtown Detroit.”

Kilpatrick and Gov. Jennifer Granholm were expected to join Gilbert at an afternoon news conference Tuesday to formally announce the deal.

“We’re going under the moniker of Detroit 2.0,” Gilbert said. “The grand vision is to create our version of Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley.”

Quicken currently is headquartered in suburban Livonia. The lease ends in 2009.