GM TO BE LANDLORD OF FORD : AUTOMAKER TO ACQUIRE DETROIT OFFICE COMPLEX.Byline: Amy Yuhn Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. General Motors is becoming a landlord to Ford. GM said Thursday that it is buying the Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center, nicknamed the RenCen, is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in Detroit, Michigan, and the tallest building in Michigan since 1977. Located on the Detroit International Riverfront, the entire Renaissance Center complex is owned by General , a huge hotel-office-retail complex that Henry Ford II pushed to help revitalize downtown Detroit. The No. 1 automaker will move its headquarters to the showcase property along the Detroit River Detroit River River, southeastern Michigan, U.S. Forming part of the boundary between Michigan and Ontario, Can., it connects Lake St. Clair with Lake Erie. It flows south for 32 mi (51 km) past Detroit and Windsor, Ont., where a bridge and tunnel connect the two cities. from the landmark Art Deco art deco (ärt dĕkō`; är dākō`, ärt) or art moderne (är môdĕrn`, ärt) home it built four miles north in 1920. General Motors Corp. would become sole owner of the complex, buying it from Highgate Hotels. The Texas investment firm recently reached agreement to buy the property from its original owner, a partnership that includes both GM and Ford Motor Co. Ford has offices in the complex and has 10 years to go in its lease. It said it has no objection to being a GM tenant. ``We're pleased to hear that General Motors is making this new investment in Detroit,'' Ford said in a statement. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. GM vice chairman Harry Pearce Harry Pearce CBE is the fictional head of the Counter-Terrorism department of MI5, featured in the British television series, Spooks. This program is also known as MI5 in the United States. would say only that the automaker got ``a good price.'' The complex's owners reportedly had been asking $72 million. Known as the Ren Cen, the complex was built for $350 million and opened in 1977 with a 73-story hotel and four 39-story office towers. Two 21-story office towers were added in 1981. Henry Ford II, former Ford chairman, envisioned the glass complex as a way to breathe life into the moribund moribund /mor·i·bund/ (mor´i-bund) in a dying state. mor·i·bund n. At the point of death; dying. mor downtown area. But the design was largely criticized for appearing to close off the center from the rest of the city. GM said the movement of employees to the complex would take place over the next several years as leases come up and office space opens. ``As we considered our 21st century needs for effective office environment, we looked at revitalizing the General Motors Building, but it would have cost us considerably more to do that than it did to buy this prime facility in the center of downtown,'' Pearce said in a statement. He said the move represents a ``major contribution to the economic well-being and vitality of downtown Detroit.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer
Dennis Wayne Archer (born January 1, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan) is a former president of the American Bar Association and former Mayor of Detroit. , left, joins Harry J. Pe arce, General Motors vice chairman, at a conference Thursday to announce the auto firm's plans to purchase the Renaissance Center. Associated Press |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion