GM plans move from RenCen to Dan Gilbert’s Hudson’s site in 2025

General Motors Co. plans to leave its Renaissance Center office complex for Dan Gilbert’s Hudson’s Detroit development downtown.

The departure involves the Detroit-based automaker taking space in the 404,000-square-foot office component in the so-called “block” portion of the 1.5 million-square-foot Hudson’s Detroit development at Woodward and Grand River avenues, the companies said Monday.

The move, first reported by Bloomberg, throws into limbo the future of the Renaissance Center, the massive office and hotel complex on the Detroit riverfront that has suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic as office usage trends have shifted dramatically.

GM CEO Mary Barra said at a news conference Monday that the move will take place in 2025.

 

Bedrock and the automaker plan to spend the next year analyzing what to do with the 5.5 million-square-foot RenCen, which was built in the 1970s and 1980s. 

“Together with Bedrock, the city and the county, we will work to reimagine the Renaissance Center for its next chapter,” Barra said.

“Hudson’s will soon be the global headquarters of one of America’s most beloved brands,” Gilbert said during the announcement at the under-construction Hudson’s building. “GM represents more than just a new office anchor. It solidifies the company’s commitment to the city they have called home for more than 100 years.”

The move marks one of the largest office deals of the pandemic. Others that have inked large deals include Plante Moran, Comerica Inc. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. 

A source told The Associated Press that the plan does not involve a sale of the RenCen complex, a defining part of Detroit’s skyline. GM and Bedrock did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

Gilbert has previously held conversations with GM about purchasing the Renaissance Center prior to the pandemic, although those discussions never resulted in a deal. The RenCen, the region’s largest office complex, has suffered during the pandemic, which began in early 2020 and saw offices empty out in favor of remote work.

The Hudson’s site last week got its official name and officially topped out. Its tower will be the second-tallest building in Detroit behind the Renaissance Center.

The 1.5 million-square-foot Hudson’s project consists of two buildings: A shorter one with 400,000-plus square feet of office space and other uses on the northern portion of the 2.3-acre site, and a 680-foot-plus skyscraper with a planned Edition hotel, for-sale residences and other uses. The two components are to be separated by an activated alley. 

The GM deal secures a major tenant for the Hudson’s Detroit project.

GM has steadily shrunk its workforce in the city of Detroit, a process that predates the pandemic that largely emptied out the RenCen. In 2018, GM reported it had 5,932 employees in the city, according to a Crain’s list of largest Detroit employers. That figure declined to 4,658 in 2021 and 2,798 by July of last year.

GM told Crain’s in 2022 that it had moved several large teams out of the RenCen to the automaker’s sprawling Warren Tech Center.

A GM spokesperson on Monday said the automaker has 25,585 employees in Southeast Michigan, including the Renaissance Center and its technical center in Warren, but did not specify how many work at each site. The spokesperson told Automotive News that GM no longer breaks out employment numbers for different cities in the region because workers “are able to flow between locations.”

Even before the pandemic, the towering complex with a complex relationship with downtown north of Jefferson Avenue was seen as an urban planning relic, largely bifurcated from the rest of the central business district by a large boulevard.

The RenCen, which has its own ZIP code, was built in the 1970s and early 1980s as Detroit continued to hemorrhage people and companies following the 1967 rebellion prompted by police brutality. Business and civic leaders saw it as a testament to the Motor City’s and business community’s resilience, but today it is viewed somewhat as a city unto itself, designed to be geographically a part of, but otherwise apart from, the central business district.

There have been changes in recent years, including opening up the riverfront side to the Detroit RiverWalk. There have also been interior renovations.

Late last year, Friedman Real Estate purchased two Renaissance Center office buildings — the 500 and 600 towers — and signed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in a long-term lease, leaving the 600 tower empty for a future user. Those two buildings were not owned by General Motors, but instead a New Jersey-based public utility company.

Today, GM owns five of the seven Renaissance Center towers, including the 73-story central cylinder that contains a Marriott hotel.

“GM represents more than just a new office anchor” for Hudson’s Detroit, Gilbert said Monday. “It solidifies the company’s commitment to the city they have called home for more than 100 years.”

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