The Detroit News
Detroit's Renaissance Center has never worked.
Led by Max Fisher and Henry Ford II, the mega development was conceived by Detroit's business leaders after the 1967 Detroit riot as a catalyst for reviving downtown.
It was the first major commitment by the business community to reverse disinvestment in the city. The ribbon cutting took place in 1977 and everyone believed the ceremony was the start of a rush to the riverfront that would deliver Detroit's version of a Gold Coast.
That never came true. Though stunning on the skyline, on the ground the RenCen was a nightmare.
Frustrating to navigate and encompassing tens of thousands of square feet of impractical space, the center was a tough sell to both those looking for offices and the retailers needed to fill out its many stores, restaurants and bars.
It was also cut-off from the rest of downtown by busy Jefferson Avenue. Instead of a magnet to the riverfront, it became a barrier, an isolated fortress that blocked Detroiters from the city's most prized asset.
When the renaissance finally came to downtown Detroit, it landed in the central city and not along the river, a contrast to the route taken by other waterfront cities.
Now, nearly a half-century after its opening, the Renaissance Center will get a second chance to fulfill its destiny.
The coming departure of General Motors Corp., which purchased the building in 1996 and moved its headquarters there, triggered an urgent push to reimagine the future of Detroit's signature structures. GM worked with Dan Gilbert on a plan that will have the automaker and Bedrock, Gilbert's development arm, collaborate on repurposing the RenCen for its next 50 years.
Their vision, unveiled Monday, dramatically shrinks the 5.5 mill sq. ft. center, taking down two of the five towers and eliminating the big, square podium building that is the major obstruction to the Detroit River.
The current 1,200 room hotel will remain but will be scaled back to 850 rooms. Roughly half the office space will disappear, replaced by apartments. That's a nod to the reality of plummeting demand for offices, and a big bet on the residential future of downtown.
And instead of service roads and parking decks, the land surrounding the RenCen will host bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues. New parks will tie into the Riverfront Conservancy's River Walk, elevating it from a walking trail to a multi-use destination point. And it should give fresh life to Hart Plaza, the uninviting concrete slab that sits next door wasting valuable waterfront real estate.
"We hope to find the right mix of uses," says Bedrock CEO Kofi Bonner. "It will open up a riverfront that has been walled off for decades."
The vision is to give Detroit its version of Chicago's Navy Pier.
Bedrock and GM are breaking a pattern that has plagued Detroit throughout its history. Think the Hudson Building, Tiger Stadium and the train station. The tendency here is to hang on to beloved buildings while we watch them slowly rot.
The Renaissance Center will be restructured at the same time GM packs up and leaves for its new digs up Woodward Ave. in Gilbert's Hudson tower.
The price tag for saving the RenCen is $1.6 billion. Of that, Gilbert is kicking in $1 billion, and GM is contributing $250 million. The developers are counting on another $250 million from the state, and $100 million from the Downtown Detroit Development Authority.
Public dollars will be used to upgrade the infrastructure around the development and build the parks and other public spaces.
David Massaron, GM's chief development officer, says the state's contribution is critical.
"The project will create tremendous value," Massaron says. "It will create the type of assets other cities in the midwest have."
For the automaker, he says, this is "a philanthropic investment. There's really no hope of market return."
Still, it is a necessary expression of confidence in the hometowns of both companies, and as Bonner says, "when we do the right thing, profits will follow."
Wresting the money from Lansing will be a challenge. The state must do its due diligence to assure this project is a better investment than others competing for public resources.
A project of this magnitude would be the capstone of Detroit's comeback, a finishing touch that brings downtown's redevelopment back to the long-neglected place where it started 47 years ago: The riverfront.
