Ed Dawda, founding member with the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based law firm Dawda Mann, says that Detroit is heading in the right direction. And, like many others here, he credits much of this with the investment that Quicken Loans founder and chairman Dan Gilbert has made in the city’s downtown.
Gilbert bought five downtown Detroit buildings at the end of 2012. That meant that at the end of last year, Gilbert owned 15 buildings in downtown. He also owns three parking garages and recently broke ground on a new office/retail development.
Dawda also said that he’s intrigued by Gilbert’s vision of Detroit as a center for young, intelligent and creative people.
“He wants to energize the city by attracting young people who will live and work downtown,” Dawda said. “He has a vision of bringing life back to the city by getting young people to come downtown, work there, stay there and live there.”
For this vision to work, Gilbert, though, can’t be the only person investing in downtown Detroit. Fortunately, there are enough positives in Detroit and its surrounding areas to, hopefully, encourage other investors.
Dawda points to the strength of the automobile industry. This one industry is already providing a financial boost to the area, he said.
“All of the suppliers who deliver to the OEMs who slowed down their businesses are now ramping up again,” Dawda said. “They are either entering into leases or buying industrial and light-industrial properties all around town. This is happening in all three of the major counties around here.”
Other commercial sectors are doing well, too, in Detroit and its suburbs. Dawda said that retailers are investing in Michigan largely because of the skilled and well-paid workforce here. These well-paid workers, after all, make for good customers.
The area has also seen a strong resurgence in industrial, Dawda said. Industrial companies are interested in locating in the Detroit area because of the presence of the big three automakers, GM, Chrysler and Ford.
Finally, the state and Detroit area benefit, too, from what Dawda calls a solid incentive and tax-credit program.
“It’s like a cornucopia of options available to companies at the state, county and local levels,” Dawda said. “This has resulted in some businesses coming to Michigan. Even more importantly, those businesses who get seduced by other states are often convinced to stay and grow here because of these incentives. That’s a very big deal for us.”
Mann, too, sees strong activity in the high-tech sector.
Several tech startups have moved into Detroit, Dawda said. The area has also seen the emergence of incubator companies focused on the tech area.
“This all goes back to that vision of bringing young people to Detroit,” Dawda said. “If you have younger people interested in working and living downtown, you can build a technology core around them. There has been a brain-drain of people who are smart and younger who don’t see an opportunity here and leave. We have to stop that. This kind of forward thinking where you create a core where young people can get together with others with the same interests, that could be one of the very strong lights on which Detroit is rebuilt.”
Dawda, though, isn’t unrealistic. He realizes that the Detroit area, and the whole of Michigan, still faces challenges. Unemployment is still far too high. Corruption in Detroit city government continues to bring bad press. And there are still far too many vacancies scattered throughout the downtown area.
But Dawda says that the Detroit MSA is heading in the right direction today.
“We sort of have a rollercoaster view of the world,” Dawda said. “When things are going good for the auto companies, as they are now, that creates a ripple effect on everything here. When the car companies are down, everyone here is also down. That’s just how it is here.”