Matt Cullen told attendees of the Detroit Policy Conference Thursday at Motor City Casino that a “drumbeat” of negative media the city is getting is being offset by these developments, outlined below.
He played attendees the “Opportunity: Made in Detroit” commercial featuring Kid Rock. The Quicken Loans marketing team scrambled to put it together in five days during the World Series last summer.
“You might be wondering why somebody’s talking about ‘opportunity’ and ‘Detroit’ in the same sentence,” Cullen said.
Talks about an emergency manager, bankruptcy, population loss and political scandal have all dominated headlines, Cullen said.
But, “Our goal is to make Detroit a great place to live, work and play,” he said.
Here are some of the examples Cullen gave:
Live
The company continues to participate in the $10 million Live Downtown and Live Midtown incentive program, which has thus far helped 516 young professionals with rent and helped 89 people buy a house.
Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans has had 175 of its own employees go through the program.
Occupancy for residential units in “greater downtown” is approaching 97 percent.
“We got people moving in all the time and packing the great buildings downtown,” he said.
Broderick Tower and The Auburn were both highlighted as successful residential developments in downtown and Midtown, respectively. Soon, Cullen notes, the David Whitney Building – across the street from the Broderick Tower on the edge of downtown – will also be developed into residential housing units and a boutique hotel .
He mentioned the Capitol Park development, where three buildings are being developed into retail, residential and office space.
“I think you're going to see a dramatically different Capitol Park over the next few years,” he said.
Work
Cullen noted that Rock Ventures has moved 7,500 employees and recruited 65 companies to downtown over the past three years, and new companies continue to move to the city’s inner core.
“As we bring all these people down, we’ve suddenly found ourselves, unbelievably, almost out of office space,” he said.
The Chrysler House is now at 93 percent occupancy, and the Chase Building is 100 percent full.
Cullen said Rock Ventures hopes to get 1,000 interns in Detroit this year, a rise from 700 last year, and along with other companies, the city could see 7,000 interns downtown this summer.
Play
Cullen highlighted the redvleopemnt of the city's reiverfront, which he ahs been actively involved with: “Eventually someone can ride bike 20 miles down along the river.”
He highlighted the city's entertainment and sports venues, the recently reopened Michigan Science Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
He said that Greektown Casino-Hotel has a lot of potential to be opened up to the rest of the surrounding area. His company has been trying to purchase it since mid-January.
For that matter, there is no reason the city could not open up continuous green space connecting Campus Martius and Cadillac Square to the riverfront, he said.
"Why couldn’t we do a promenade all the way down Woodward to the river and start tying that together?" he said.
There is still, however, the matter of retail.
“It’s always a chicken and the egg issue,” he said. A lack of sufficient populace downtown means retailers won’t come; people won’t move to a downtown that lacks merchants. Rock Ventures has said for some time that it in talks with major retailers, but has yet to reveal any specific deals.
“We’re getting kind of tired of that sequential discussion, so we’re going to try to get big bang approach,” Cullen said.
More from the conference:
-With emergency manager on the way, Mayor Dave Bing comments on debt exaggeration claims
-'Creative Class' author Richard Florida: Region should stop blaming Detroit
-State economic development official: It has to get easier for businesses to open in Detroit
-Opening date of Whole Foods in Midtown Detroit to be announced Friday
-Rock Ventures CEO: Downtown Detroit’s Greektown Casino-Hotel area ‘can be a lot more vibrant’
-Rock Ventures to host design contest for building at Hudson's site in Downtown Detroit
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