Jim Fouts, the mayor of Warren, Michigan, has made GM an offer he hopes it can’t refuse. According to the DetN, Fouts hand-delivered a proposal to GM’s Renaissance Center that offered the automaker a 30-year tax abatement on personal property taxes if it moved headquarters to its Warren Technical Center. The offer, which Fouts calls “unprecedented,” would give GM 100 percent off taxes on all machinery and equipment and 50 percent off the taxes associated with any new construction for a period of 12 years.
“I present this to you not as a choice between Detroit and Warren, but as a matter of GM moving forward and surviving,” Fouts’ letter states. “Restructuring implies cost-cutting, and this proposal is a prime example of cutting costs through consolidation.” But Fouts is known for helping the auto industry when it helps him. He admitted, for example, that his recent “buy American” effort was more about keeping his cronies employed than anything else. Meanwhile, the Freep is wringing its hands (twice!), calling the proposal a potential coup de gras for Detroit after decades of urban flight. Not since the later stages of the Donner party have we seen such a hotly-contested corpse.
Edward,
I had to laugh at the Donner party reference! Well played, sir!
Tex
This would have made sense when GM left it’s old headquarters. There is plenty of room on that site. Now, however, they own the RenCen, and selling it would be difficult.
Living in Ohio, this is nothing new. The tax abatements given to Honda to enlarge their operations here in Ohio is on the same level.
Come visit the upper Midwest sometime – you’ll get to see our industrial base as it is now, and not something you read about in a college textbook. What took us 150 years to build we’ve managed to piss away in about 30 years.
Our economic decline has been masked by massive debt spending by consumers, business, and government. You’ll see how this will evitably end.
Hahaha, right on with the Donner Party reference.
Sick, but classic TTAC.
With Kwame Kilpatrick moving to Dallas, the North American International Auto Show eyeing Novi, and GM pondering Warren, whose going to be left in Detroit?
Detroit: The Artist Formerly Known as the Motor City
whose going to be left in Detroit?
Anyone who’s too poor to move, and that’s a huge whopping shit-ton.
” What took us 150 years to build we’ve managed to piss away in about 30 years.”
Really? Even with the current recession US industrial production is twice as high as it was in 1979.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s%5B1%5D%5Bid%5D=INDPRO
Do you have any facts/data to back up your assertion?
@taxman100 I’ve visited your part of the world a few times.The closed factories are heart breaking.
Because of taxation issues in Ontario, our closed factories are demolished.Still,our manufactoring base has been devastated.
JMO, statistics make wonderful lying tools :)
If you follow deeper into the site, you’ll see the %capacity utilization is way down and falling at a rate rivaling 1983 (or worse). http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CUMFN?rid=13&soid=1
When the capacity utilization begins falling under 75%, permanent cuts have to be made. When they start falling under 65%, economic theory tells you it’s time to start closing plants. The steepness of the dropoff scares me, but, it’s reflecting the massive and unprecedented layoffs.
“it’s reflecting the massive and unprecedented layoffs.”
It doesn’t seem any worse than 1958 and about the same as the early 1980’s recession.
http://www.data360.org/graph_group.aspx?Graph_Group_Id=149
I don’t see that the city of Detroit serves any useful purpose anymore. Its raison d’etre has blown away.
The kindest thing would be for any businesses still there to simply leave, and let the last person turn the lights out on their way.
I wonder what Jim looks like when he smiles!
oboylepr :
May 29th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I wonder what Jim looks like when he smiles!
Jim was a high school teacher before he retired. So I don’t believe he’s ever smiled.
This is that evil bingo-the-clown fascist who essentially said that if any city employee buys a non-American car, they can kiss their jobs goodbye because they all are “at will” employees.
Scumbag. Fascist. Pig.
Besides which; I understand that his daily driver is a late Chrysler 300.
Go fire yourself, idjit.
The 300 was built in Bramalea, ONTARIO, CANADA.
Last I checked, Canada was a sovereign nation and not part of the United States.
Actually, it would make business sense for GM to consolidate its operations at their Technical Center in Warren as it is leading edge (thanks to a 1.2 billion dollar investment of R&D and new facilities), is a mile square, and would bring execs closer to gearhead engineers (as in face-to-face) who run their global development.
You have to live in the Detroit area to understand the quarrelling between Detroit and the suburbs. Statistics don’t lie…we are still the most segregated metropolitan region in the country. You have Ficano worrying about the airport in Wayne County and then you have L. Brooks Patterson looking to keep Oakland County at AAA level rating. Then you have older suburbs such as Warren, which borders Detroit. Sadly, the southern end of Warren is turning into a slum….the area south of 696 used to be all hillbillies, but now it’s probably half black. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but crime has risen sharply. Take a look at Eastpointe (East Detroit). Once it was a strong middle class enclave full of well-kept brick homes….Now it’s a slum.
If you don’t live here then you can’t fully comprehend what goes on here….no pun intended. Fouts was a government teacher at Sterling Heights HS….my brother and sister both had him. Boundaries got changed and I ended up going to HS in Warren. I grew up in the shadows of the Tech Center. It’s an architectural marvel designed by Eero Saarinen. Probably one of the most architecturally significant HQ/Tech Centers ever built in any industry.
Being an architectural historian in the area I can say that the auto companies never dicked around when it came to architecture. GM always spent lavishly when building offices and facilities. Ford and Chrysler did the same. All the auto barons built lavish homes that rivaled anything built anywhere in the country so it must have had an effect on who they chose to build their offices.
Now, the GM Technical Center is freaking huge at over a square mile big with a railway going through as well as a vast semi industrial park south across 12 Mile Road. It’s basically across the street from Warren’s “city center” where the Warren city government resides. The US Army’s massive Tacom complex is just south and basically that whole corridor is used for automotive and defense purposes. Take the area from 8 Mile Road to roughly 22 Mile Road…between Van Dyke and Mound. You will find one of the greatest concentrations of defense contractors outside of Northern Virginia.
Geographically, it makes sense for GM to have everything in one location. Not necessarily one building, but one small area. GM put, what…$500 million into the Ren Cen…I worked there a few months ago and its pretty nice inside. However, the downside is parking which sucks. I mean, you have to walk 6-7 blocks in some cases just to get TO the Ren cen and that doesn’t include all the navigating once you are inside.
The thing that sucks about working in the City of Detroit is the tax rate and shitty services. Cops never show up, ambulances take 30 minutes. And the City Council hates anyone who isn’t Afrocentric. GM, it’s time to split.
Do GM executives generally live farther north in Oakland county or do they live in places like Grosse Pointe closer to downtown? Seems that company locations are selected to be conveninent for their executives.
@derm81 Thanks for the geography education.I spent 13 years shipping at Oshawa metal Fab.Those street names all sound familar.We would send empty racks with a hand written bill of lading.Warren,Grand Rapids,Livonia,Flint and Pontiac three or four times a week.
I’m probably the only Canadian on the planet that
can spell Active Tool Sebewaing/Elkton Michigan.
My old dock is closed now with all the jobs gone.
I go out of my way to avoid driving by the place.
derm81 has a good handle of what’s happened in the Detroit area. I lived in Detroit for 50 years, finally blew a gasket and couldn’t take the corrupt and racist politics of that shithole any longer. Man could I tell you stories…
Moved to Livonia three years ago– shoulda done it 30 years ago. Farmington and Farmington Hills are on the decline now, once nice communities now going the route of Warren and Southfield.
Do GM executives generally live farther north in Oakland county or do they live in places like Grosse Pointe closer to downtown? Seems that company locations are selected to be convenient for their executives
Company locations generally don’t mean much and they never did….even in DeLorean’s day. DeLorean himself lived both in GP as well as Bloomfield Hills. However, keep in mind that you are going to drive long distances in Metro Detroit regardless of residential location. We have no mass transit unless you count the “Smart” buses that run the Mile and spoke roads.
Don’t believe the historical hype that GM execs lived exclusively in Bloomfield Hills. Or that Ford big shots lived only in Grosse Pointe. That isn’t true. While it is true that the Ford family all had massive mansions in the GPs, everything was spread out. If you want a secluded mid-size home on a large lot, then Bloomfield is your ticket. However, if you want a grand architectural masterpiece, then Grosse Pointe is what you want.
The Downriver area has a large island called Grosse Ile and as lot of Downriver execs lived there. Basically like a Bloomfield Hills, but on an island.
A lot of GM big shots lived in Flint and commuted weekly to Detroit via airplane. These guys all had apartments on the 14th Floor of the former Gm HQ. Alfred P. Sloan commuted back to Manhattan damn near every weekend and lived on the 14th floor for most of his career at GM.
-Fisher Brothers had estates in Palmer Woods, Boston-Edison, Grosse Ile and Grayhaven.
-Iacocca lived in Bloomfield Hills
-Roy Chapin lived in Grosse Pointe as did his family and heirs. HFII bought his John Russell Pope-designed estate….which was later torn down and turned into luxury development.
-Dodge descendants lived along Woodward then to the Grosse Pointes before the untimely deaths of John and Horace.
–
Harry Bennett had a place near Ann Arbor and a “Pagoda” house on Grosse Ile
-Ransom Olds built a lavish mansion on Grosse Ile, which still stands but was damaged by fire.
-Benson Ford lived in massive estate o lakeshore in GP
-William Clay Ford has a place a few houses down from his birth mansion
-Josephine Ford lived on Provencal along with other Ford members. Her house was designed by Robert O. Derrick…later torn down by Elena Ford.
-Henry Bourne Joy had a GP estate called Fair Acres designed by Albert Kahn. Torn down…
-Ross Judson lived on Windmill Pointe and the house was recently up for sale.
-George Romney lived in Palmer Woods for a while before moving to Bloomfield.
-Alvin Macauley had a huge Albert Kahn Tudor estate not far from Vernier in GP on the lake.
-Lemuel Bowen, one of Cadillac’s first financial backers giant mansion still stands on Woodward and belongs to Wayne State.
-Edsel Ford’s house is still open for tours now called the Ford House. His original mansion occupied the site of the current UAW HQ near Belle Isle. His first home was in Indian Village called the Honeymoon house.
-Henry Ford’s Fairlane mansion is not kept up the way it should be. His original Boston-Edison mansion still stands with garage and everything. The original garage was removed to Greenfield Village.
-James Couzens lived right around the block from HF, before cashing in and building a secluded estate in Bloomfield called Wabeek.
These are just a handful. I have hundreds more.
derm81, you are the real deal in terms of knowing accurate information.
I, for one, appreciate your comments and the education very much.
What are the odds GM moves its HQ to the Warren Technical Center once it has the cover of bankruptcy, which will shelter such a decision from politics (much more so than sans bankruptcy)?
I have heard that it’s pretty damn good chance unless Detroit mayor Dave Bing puts together some sort of “zone” incentive package. The GM Tech Center is perfect for an HQ. Look at Chrysler having everything under one roof rather than having to drive up 75 to 696 and up Van Dyke every time you have to get something real done.
If you havent been in the area or arent familiar with it….the Tech Center isnt one building. It’s a campus with a great many buldings. A lot of financial “stuff” is done in the new blue addtion that was added on the east side of the TC.
Plus Detroit city income tax is something like 1.5% for non-residents.
Derm – I agree. I think that the bankruptcy filing will insulate GM’s brass from any criticism if they decide to make that move (and it may be decided by the government auto czar), and that it’s clearly in GM’s and their employees best interests to do so, for financial, employee morale and consolidation & efficiency of operation reasons.
I think that the bankruptcy filing will insulate GM’s brass from any criticism if they decide to make that move (and it may be decided by the government auto czar), and that it’s clearly in GM’s and their employees best interests to do so, for financial, employee morale and consolidation & efficiency of operation reasons.
Moving to the newly revamped and technologically advanced (if you don’t believe how advanced, you’ve obviously never been on site) Warren Technical Center would be the smartest business move, by far, for GM.
The Warren Technical Center is the ‘Command & Control’ center where all global platforms for GM cars are developed by the most advanced engineers and designers working for the company, whether the chassis is being produced in Lansing, Seoul, Shanghai, Mumbai, Mexico City, Rüsselsheim, or San Paulo.
Moving the white collar execs from their glass house in the RenCen to the Warren Technical Center would only improve communication and efficiency, and deconstruct the walls and barriers that impede and have impeded GM’s operations for so long.
This decision should be made based on sound, rational business judgment, and not politics of race or region.
Let’s face it, another compelling reason is that Detroit is dreadful in delivering city services efficiently, has one of the most onerous and burdensome tax structures for corporations and employees in the entire nation, and is a place where the companies and countries that GM deals with are literally afraid (rightfully or not) to send their employees to.
i would like Jimbo to make a list. a list comprising of 30 things that i use in my day to day life that are made in the US. if he can’t finish the list, he should eat that bumper sticker.