General Motors plans to move its global headquarters to Hudson’s new Detroit complex in 2025, abandoning its iconic Renaissance Center location. GM will retain ownership of the RenCen, as it is known, and will join a partnership with real estate company Bedrock, the city of Detroit and Wayne County to redevelop the group of towers that dominate Detroit’s skyline.
GM will be the anchor tenant at Bedrock’s Hudson’s Detroit project, which is being built on the site of the former JL Hudson department store. This will be GM’s fourth headquarters in Detroit. The location is on Woodward Avenue, where GM established its first headquarters in 1911.
GM will enter into a 15-year lease for the upper office floors of the Hudson complex, as well as street-level spaces to display its vehicles and for public activities. Hudson’s Detroit is a 1.5 million square foot development that will otherwise include ground floor retail, a 5-star hotel, a rooftop bar, a public plaza, parking and large event spaces. It’s two buildings: a 12-story office building and a 45-story hotel and residential condo tower, all with stunning views of the Motor City.
“We are proud to remain in the city of Detroit in a modern office building that meets the evolving needs of our workforce, right in the heart of downtown,” said Mary Barra, GM president and CEO . “Our new headquarters will provide collaboration spaces for our teams, management offices and an exhibition space for our vehicles. Dan Gilbert and Bedrock have done so much to make downtown Detroit a great place to live, work and visit. We are excited to play an important role in the historic Hudson project and also look forward to working with them to explore new ideas and opportunities for the Renaissance Center site and riverfront.
“For more than a century, General Motors has been synonymous with the city of Detroit, and we warmly welcome them to Hudson’s as they continue to drive the future of innovation and mobility,” said Dan Gilbert, president and founder of Bedrock. “I can’t imagine a better organization to help define the new legacy of Hudson’s as General Motors continues to shape the way the world moves straight from Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit.”
The deal means the automaker will remain a long-term player in the renaissance of downtown Detroit, which Gilbert has led by acquiring and developing 45 major office, retail and hospitality properties.
The original Hudson’s department store, which was the namesake of the new project, was once known as the “Big Store” and for a time was the second largest store in the world. It closed its doors in 1983.
And RenCen?
GM’s current location, like the rest of the commercial real estate world, has been shaken by post-pandemic changes. GM, in its press release, emphasized a recent study from CBRE That said, 80% of today’s office workers are or will be working hybrid schedules, meaning at least part of their work week will be done from home.
Much of GM’s workforce, including product development and engineering, is located north of the city, in a modernized 1950s technical center in suburban Warren. After GM’s bankruptcy in 2009, the company considered locating its headquarters there.
“As we move toward a more hybrid work structure, we need to look at what the right space is,” Barra said in a 2022 interview.
GM’s occupancy of the RenCen Towers has declined over the years, meaning it now occupies only half of the towers in the seven-building complex. The Renaissance Center was built by Henry Ford II, who formed a coalition in the 1970s that launched the revitalization of downtown Detroit. GM purchased the site in 1996, as part of the transformation of Detroit’s waterfront, and has invested more than $1 billion in those efforts over those years. The riverside receives 3.5 million visitors per year.
GM, Bedrock, the city and the county will explore the question of how to redevelop the Renaissance Center site over the next year, ahead of GM’s move to Hudson’s Detroit.
Contains Associated Press and Bloomberg.
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