GM moves to redevelop its downtown Detroit headquarters with help from Rocket Mortgage founder

GM CEO Mary Barra and and Bedrock Chairman Dan Gilbert plan to hold a news conference Monday afternoon to discuss the deal involving the Renaissance Center, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans have not been formally announced.

The person says the plan does not involve a sale of the complex, which is an icon in Detroit’s skyline and often appears on sports television broadcasts.

Gilbert’s company has been buying up properties downtown for many years. He also runs loan company Rocket Mortgage.

In a 2022 interview, Barra told The Associated Press that GM will keep its main office in the seven-building tower complex just across the Detroit River from Canada.

But she qualified her statements, saying she can’t predict what might happen in five, 10 or 15 years. Since then, about 5,000 white-collar workers at GM took early retirement buyouts, and may workers are still on a hybrid office-home work schedule, so GM needs less office space.

“Our headquarters will always be in Detroit, in the RenCen,” she said, using the name given to the complex by locals. “Right now the plan is for it to be at the Renaissance Center. That’s our home,” she said.

The company takes up about 1 1/2 of the RenCen’s towers, which have seen little pedestrian traffic for years. Much of GM’s work force, including product development and engineering, is north of the city at an updated 1950s technical center in suburban Warren. After GM’s 2009 bankruptcy, the company considered moving the headquarters there.

“As we move to having more of a hybrid work structure, we have to look at what’s the right space,” Barra said.

She also hinted in the interview that GM would explore riverfront development opportunities with the city.

The Renaissance Center was built by Henry Ford II, who formed a coalition in the 1970s in an effort to reinvigorate Detroit’s downtown. GM bought the complex in 1996 and renovated it, moving its headquarters there from an area north of downtown.