- General Motors has scheduled a press conference for Monday afternoon to announce its intention to relocate its Detroit headquarters.
- GM’s headquarters will move to a tower currently under construction on the site of the former JL Hudson Building, a department store that was demolished in 1998.
- Bedrock, a real estate company that owns several office buildings in downtown Motor City, also plans to join GM in considering redevelopment of the Renaissance Center.
General Motors plans to move its iconic Detroit headquarters to a new downtown office tower and redevelop its headquarters, according to people briefed on the plans.
The company is scheduled to hold a press conference with Bedrock Real Estate on Monday afternoon to announce its plans, the person said.
In addition, Bedrock, which owns several downtown office buildings, will join GM in considering redeveloping the Renaissance Center, which currently consists of seven buildings owned by GM, although plans have not been formally announced. The person spoke on condition of anonymity.
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GM CEO Mary Barra and Bedrock Chairman Dan Gilbert attend a press conference at the site of a new tower Bedrock is building on the site of the former Hudson department store in the heart of downtown.
The official said GM’s headquarters will move to Hudson’s Tower.
The plan does not include GM’s sale of RenCen, as the tower complex is known locally. The complex is a staple of Detroit’s skyline and often appears on sports television broadcasts.
GM purchased the tower complex in 1996 and later moved its headquarters there from a site north of downtown. It has been the company’s headquarters ever since, and the move marks the end of an era for the location.
The General Motors World Headquarters building rises into the Renaissance Center on the downtown skyline in Detroit, Michigan on November 21, 2008. (Photo by Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
Gilbert Bedrock has been buying up downtown real estate for years and leading its revitalization. He also runs the loan company Rocket Mortgage.
In a 2022 interview, Barra told The Associated Press that GM would be headquartered at the Lensen complex, just across the Detroit River from Canada.
However, she justified her statement and said that she cannot predict what will happen in 5, 10, 15 years. Since then, GM’s roughly 5,000 white-collar employees have taken early retirement buyouts, and GM needs less office space as employees are still working hybrid office-home work schedules. .
“Our headquarters will always be in RenCen in Detroit,” she said, referring to the name given to the complex by local residents. “Right now, the plan is to have it at the Renaissance Center. That’s our home,” she said.
The company occupies about 1 1/2 of Rensen’s towers, which have seen little pedestrian traffic in recent years. Many of GM’s employees, including those in product development and engineering, are located in his 1950s-era state-of-the-art technology center north of the city in the Warren suburb. After GM’s bankruptcy in 2009, the company considered moving its headquarters here.
“As we move to more hybrid work arrangements, we need to consider what space is appropriate,” Barra said.
She also indicated in the interview that GM will explore riverfront development opportunities with the city.
The Renaissance Center was built by Henry Ford II, who formed a coalition in the 1970s to revitalize downtown Detroit.
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Bedrock announced last week that the final structural steel beams were installed on Hudson Tower. The tower will include 1.5 million square feet of retail, office, dining, hospitality and residential space. The new tower is about a mile north of GM’s current headquarters.
