QUICKEN LOAN/ROCK FINANCIAL IS MOVING TO THE MOTOR CITY
Detroit 2.0 continues the growth  of a new era in the local business economy
 


By HB Meeks
Editor-in-Chief
Tell Us Detroit



Quicken Loans/Rock Financial is relocating its World Headquarters and 4,000 jobs from western Wayne County to Detroit, a move the online mortgage company hopes will continue to help revive downtown by attracting housing, stores, other businesses and an intelligent skill-set workforce .

Tuesday's announcement was hailed by elected officials and business executives  as a giant step in the right direction for the new economically driven business template. Quicken currently is headquartered in suburban Livonia. The lease ends in 2009.

"This is big," Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said, describing a package of state and local incentives that could total as much as $200 million over the next 20 years. "This is a done deal. We've signed the development agreement. This is the largest package that we - the city and state - have put together to bring a company to downtown Detroit."

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called it a "fantastic" deal for Detroit.

"Having it go to Detroit will have a phenomenal ripple effect," she said. "It's not just symbolic. It's a real boost to the city and certainly to the state."

The Quicken Loan/Rock Financial move to downtown Detroit from suburban Livonia comes on the heels of other recent high-profile local development over the past decade, including the opening of three casinos, Comerica Park, Ford Field, and the world headquarters of software company Compuware Corp.

Quicken has one year to consider two possible headquarters sites and 18 months to two years more to develop a construction plan.

"This isn't just about us saying, 'Let's just go to Detroit because it's right thing to do.' We do think it is the right thing to do, but we also think it's the smart thing to do," said Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert.

Quicken Loans is paperless -- every transaction is processed electronically in an office where a vast computer network handles 175,000 phone calls and 2.4 million internal e-mails each day.

Gilbert is worth about $1.2 billion. He turned a $5,000 investment in the mid-1980s into an online mortgage empire and bought the Cleveland Cavaliers for $375 million in early 2005. Quicken Loans includes Michigan mortgage company Rock Financial.