Detroit: So cheap, there's hope?

[TrooperBari]

Interesting read from the Economist on how Detroit might be turning a corner as entrepreneurial types move in and take advantage of cheap, abundant real estate downtown:

http://www.economist.com/node/21533407

The most remarkable of these is Dan Gilbert. A 49-year-old native of Detroit whose motto is “We can do well by doing good”, Mr Gilbert is reshaping Detroit’s centre. Last year he moved his main business, Quicken Loans, the largest internet mortgage company in America, from the quiet suburbs into a building on Campus Martius park, the heart of downtown. His 1,700 staff there were joined, earlier this month, by another 2,000 people whom he moved into a second building nearby. From his window Mr Gilbert points to some of his other acquisitions, including one, of 800,000 square feet, that he bought for just $8m and intends to let out. It is hard to beat $10 a square foot for downtown office space.

Mr Gilbert is buying other buildings for internet start-ups, and is planning a big new residential development and lots of retail space in the area as well. “The intellectual energy of a city depends on livability,” he says. “We have to create a hot urban core, and it is going to happen.” Miles of new river-walks and cycle-lanes help. So too will the planned construction of M1, a new light-rail system that will run in a north-south corridor from the Detroit river to 8 Mile Road. Since the city has no money, the $100m for its first stage is coming from investors, philanthropists and the federal government. Ideally, it would then link up with services reaching deep into the suburbs; but bureaucratic and political rivalries between the various municipal and county governments involved have so far stymied attempts to do it. It really should fall to Michigan’s governor to bang the necessary heads together, but this has not yet happened.

What are the odds that this Detroit Renaissance is the one that sticks?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Yeah, if you want to buy a four-bedroom home with a swimming pool for $60K, Detroit is the place to go.

 

[YankeeFan]

If I'm Detroit, or Gary, IN, I'm giving away housing, office space, industrial sites, to entrepreneurs.

Give 'em tax breaks. Give incentives.

There's no tax base now. You have nothing to lose, and in some ways an incredible opportunity.

These cities have infrastructure and geographical advantages.

They need to attract engineers, computer programmers, artists, and entrepreneurs.

You just graduated from Harvard or Stanford? Come here.

They've got to retain (in the case of Detroit) and attract young college grads.

 

[KJIM]

Detroit's been giving tax breaks to businesses left and right for years, hasn't it? It doesn't seem it's helped that much just yet.

As a former Detroiter, I hope the city springs back, but one thing I see is that all the efforts are concentrated in one little area. The city is spread out farther than just a mile outside of the fist. Those residents outside the immediate area get nothing from any resurgence -- or at least, that's how it seems to me.

You've got Foxtown, and then you take eight steps and you're back in a post-nuclear zone. (Note: I moved in 9/07 - not sure of recent developments.)

I know my former roommate, who owns her house, is paying exorbitant taxes to make up for absent landowners, etc.

When does the light rail get built? Is that a done deal?

 

[YankeeFan]

I know my former roommate, who owns her house, is paying exorbitant taxes to make up for absent landowners, etc.

Gary has the same problem. So few home owners left, their property taxes are very high, even though they get few/no services.

And many can't afford to pay, so delinquencies are sky high.

 

[Stitch]

Detroit's been giving tax breaks to businesses left and right for years, hasn't it? It doesn't seem it's helped that much just yet.

As a former Detroiter, I hope the city springs back, but one thing I see is that all the efforts are concentrated in one little area. The city is spread out farther than just a mile outside of the fist. Those residents outside the immediate area get nothing from any resurgence -- or at least, that's how it seems to me.

You've got Foxtown, and then you take eight steps and you're back in a post-nuclear zone. (Note: I moved in 9/07 - not sure of recent developments.)

I know my former roommate, who owns her house, is paying exorbitant taxes to make up for absent landowners, etc.

When does the light rail get built? Is that a done deal?

Detroit is too big area-wise. I don't know what you do unless the city condemns entire neighborhoods and turns them into open space reserves. With the city trying to revitalize certain areas, some will be left behind. The hope is increased tax revenue benefits all residents instead of the core, but I doubt that will happen.

 

[Azrael]

You just graduated from Harvard or Stanford? Come here.

Why?

That's the question these cities have to answer. It's not enough to offer $1 houses. Or tax breaks.

 

[WolvEagle]

Detroit's been giving tax breaks to businesses left and right for years, hasn't it? It doesn't seem it's helped that much just yet.

As a former Detroiter, I hope the city springs back, but one thing I see is that all the efforts are concentrated in one little area. The city is spread out farther than just a mile outside of the fist. Those residents outside the immediate area get nothing from any resurgence -- or at least, that's how it seems to me.

You've got Foxtown, and then you take eight steps and you're back in a post-nuclear zone. (Note: I moved in 9/07 - not sure of recent developments.)

I know my former roommate, who owns her house, is paying exorbitant taxes to make up for absent landowners, etc.

When does the light rail get built? Is that a done deal?

Detroit is too big area-wise. I don't know what you do unless the city condemns entire neighborhoods and turns them into open space reserves. With the city trying to revitalize certain areas, some will be left behind. The hope is increased tax revenue benefits all residents instead of the core, but I doubt that will happen.

I live in suburban Detroit. A lot of good things are happening in downtown Detroit. The rest of the city? No. High taxes, high crime, crappy schools. Yes, outside of downtown, the city is a bombed-out war zone.

If hipsters are going to move to the Detroit area, odds are they won't be living in the city - once their ideals collide with reality.

 

[micropolitan guy]

With jobs, come employees. It's not a stretch to think that some of these employees will settle within the city limits over time, attracted by affordable housing and a convenient commute. Detroit will never be what it was in the 1940s and 1950s, but it can be reclaimed to a degree, house by house, block by block. This is happening in Buffalo in certain neighborhoods like the Larkin blocks, the area by Kleinhans and the west side.

The key, of course, is jobs. No jobs, no people.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

You've got Foxtown, and then you take eight steps and you're back in a post-nuclear zone. (Note: I moved in 9/07 - not sure of recent developments.)

This is a pretty accurate description. I drove around the city this summer and ended up eating at some joint near Foxtown. There was a huge hollowed out shell of a building staring me in the face. It seemed absurd that it just stands there among all of the good things happening in that area, but that's Detroit, I guess.

 

[wicked]

Detroit is too big area-wise. I don't know what you do unless the city condemns entire neighborhoods and turns them into open space reserves.

Bing's been trying to do this, funnel the population into more concentrated areas. Not outright condemnation, of course.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

Same Dan Gilbert who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers?

 

[Brian]

Same Dan Gilbert who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers?

The very same. You'd think The Economist wouldn't leave that loose string just hanging there, but I guess the Cavs aren't all that marketed in the UK now that LeBron is gone.

Does Gilbert own any part of the casinos in Detroit? I know he's the driving force in legalizing them in Ohio, but I don't know if he has gambling connections in Michigan.

 

[Azrael]

Light rail.

Huh.

 

[NickMordo]

Same Dan Gilbert who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers?

He was an MSU graduate so he probably feels strong ties to Michigan/Detroit, or at least wants to be viewed as someone who can change the economic landscape of Michigan. Employing thousands of people in a city like Detroit -- especially downtown -- is making progress any way you look at it. Now, whether the workers are actually FROM Detroit is something to look into.

 

[Magic In The Night]

They are giving bonuses to workers at various corporations in downtown to move into Detroit. Not mine, of course.

 

[wicked]

Same Dan Gilbert who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers?

He was an MSU graduate so he probably feels strong ties to Michigan/Detroit, or at least wants to be viewed as someone who can change the economic landscape of Michigan. Employing thousands of people in a city like Detroit -- especially downtown -- is making progress any way you look at it. Now, whether the workers are actually FROM Detroit is something to look into.

While living in Detroit would aid the tax base, that's not the only metric to consider. Are people spending money in the city? Buying gas in the city? Buying lunch in the city? That also matters, a lot.