RenCen (Photo by Deadline Detroit)
John Gallagher, former reporter and columnist for the Detroit Free Press, offers some pretty blunt words about the Renaissance Center, headquarters for General Motors for the time being.
He writes in a column for the Freep:
Had the RenCen never been built, Detroit would have been spared the embarrassment of a project long derided as a fortress on the waterfront, cut off from the rest of downtown, and now, fifty years on, a see-through building largely empty, with partial demolition viewed as the only viable option.
General Motors, which owns the majority of the RenCen, is moving its headquarters out next year to Gilbert's Hudson's Detroit development on Woodward. Under the arrangement, Gilbert has the option to buy the main five-building complex plus other surrounding properties.
Gallagher tells the story how then-CEO of Ford, Henry Ford II, who was the driving force behind building the RenCen, drove mall builder A. Alfred Taubman by the site as work was just getting underway.
Taubman could sense a boondoggle in the making, Gallagher writes, and advised Ford to walk away from the project, telling him “Henry, fill up the hole!”
Gallagher concludes:
As the saying has it, Henry Ford II was still fighting the last war when he built the Renaissance Center. And today, as Detroit and the RenCen’s current owner, General Motors, prepare to demolish at least part of it, let’s take a moment to ask whether Detroit would have been even better off if Ford had heeded Taubman’s advice: To fill up the hole, and walk away.
Also Read
