The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved.
By Eriic Starkman
Even by General Motors’ audacious standards of spin, its professed unwavering commitment to Detroit takes unabashed chutzpa. That the Freep and Detroit News allowed the claim to go unchallenged was an egregious dereliction of journalistic responsibility.
The Marriott logo now adorns the Renaissance Center, a building that GM once called home but abandoned three months ago. The RenCen is effectively shut, and GM allowed Marriott to plaster its logo where the automaker’s logo was once proudly placed.
“As part of our move into our new headquarters at Hudson’s Detroit earlier this year, we updated the exterior signage at the Renaissance Center, with the Detroit Marriott now being the featured logo on the building,” GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said in an emailed statement to the Detroit Free Press. “Even with this change, General Motors’ commitment to Detroit and to the city’s riverfront and downtown remains as strong as ever.”
As strong as ever?
GM still owns the RenCen but opted to rent four floors in Dan Gilbert’s taxpayer-subsidized Hudson’s Detroit building. Whereas GM once had at least 4,000 headquarters jobs in the RenCen, the company notably won’t say how many employees are permanently assigned to its rental property.
At the opening, GM boasted the four floors include 14 large conference rooms, 52 huddle rooms, and 63 phone rooms. Only four executives have assigned offices, and GM notably avoided claiming they would be working from the building permanently and paying Detroit’s nonresident taxes on the millions they are paid.
As the Freep and Detroit News discovered about two weeks after the fact, GM in mid-March idled Factory Zero on the Detroit/Hamtramck border for a month, supposedly to align product with demand for its costly electric trucks and SUVs.
Factory Zero was a showcase for GM’s commitment to electric vehicles. It’s where President Biden five years ago hailed CEO Mary Barra for leading America’s EV transformation. The factory once employed 4,000 workers.
GM laid off more than half of them, and the remaining 1,300 workers were laid off for a month on March 16. It speaks to the disconnect the Freep and Detroit News have with union auto workers that it took about two weeks for both publications to report the shutdown. One might have expected the UAW would have called public attention to the closure.
Off The Hook
Adding insult to injury, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allowed GM off the hook to maintain 4,000 headquarters jobs the automaker agreed to as part of billions in tax breaks the company previously mooched from the state. Whitmer traded 4,000 salaried headquarters jobs for roughly the same number of factory jobs that GM wasn’t obligated to maintain.
GM has a storied history of idling plants on a supposedly temporary basis that somehow never reopen. That the legacy media regards Whitmer as a worthy 2028 presidential candidate boggles the mind.
Here are GM’s first-quarter EV sales stats:
Cadillac Lyriq sales dropped 21.6%. The Chevy Blazer EV plunged 83%, while Silverado EV fell 41%. GM Escalade IQ and IQL sales declined 26.7%. Equinox EV, one of GM’s supposed volume plays, declined 7%.
GM delivered just 25,900 EVs in the quarter, roughly 4% of total sales, down from a peak of nearly 7%.
GM CEO Mary Barra
Barra’s legion of apologists will argue that the RenCen was an antiquated building and too costly to operate. That’s a legitimate argument, but GM could have opted to build a new headquarters building in Detroit. Hudson’s Detroit ultimately cost $1.4 billion to build, a drop in the bucket for GM, which has spent some $23 billion in the past three years on stock buybacks to boost its share price.
Companies that are committed to their cities walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Ford spent more than $1 billion building its modern campus in Dearborn and invested another roughly $900 million renovating the Michigan Central Station campus in Detroit's Corktown.
Other Corporate Headquarters
Walmart spent billions on its showcase 350-acre campus in Bentonville, Arkansas. JPMorganChase spent $4 billion on its fortress in midtown Manhattan. Citadel is spending $2.5 billion on its new headquarters tower in Miami. American Express has announced plans to build a new headquarters building in Manhattan.
The headquarters of GM, a company that last year reported $185 billion in revenue? Four rental floors in a building it shares with a law firm and a consulting outfit.
Ford can legitimately claim it’s committed to Detroit. In addition to spending nearly $2 billion on capital commitments, CEO Jim Farley for years has been volunteering at the Pope Francis Homeless Shelter he financially supports.
Ford is the only company I’m aware of that has the public blessings of Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of the Archdiocese of Detroit.
“May Almighty God, who inspires every good work, graciously bless Mr. Farley, his family, the men and women at Ford Motor Company who contributed to this generous and uniquely American gift, and may our Lord uphold Pope Leo with the grace and fortitude befitting the ministry entrusted to him,” Archbishop Weisenburger said after Farley donated a custom-built Ford Explorer to Pope Leo that he paid for out of his own pocket.
The undeniable truth is that GM under Barra is hightailing it out of Detroit and quietly relocating headquarters operations to the Bay Area, where she says all the best technology talent is located.
This isn’t incidental. It’s a pattern.
In addition to GM’s software operations being centered there, so is Dr. Sterling Anderson, GM’s head of product development. GM’s new deputy CFO, Claudia Gast, is based in the Bay Area, as is Lin-Hua Wu, who oversees GM’s marketing and PR and recently hired David Mogensen, a longtime Bay Area resident who most recently worked for Uber, to oversee Cadillac’s marketing.
For now, GM can arguably claim its headquarters is in Warren, where the company still has about 22,000 employees.
Kevin Kelly (LinkedIn photo)
I sent an email to GM spokesman Kevin Kelly asking if Mogensen would be relocating to GM’s “headquarters,” but he hasn’t responded.
Perhaps Michael Moore in a few years will make a sequel to Roger & Me, his documentary about the devastation GM caused Flint under the leadership of former CEO Roger Smith. Mary & Me could capture the harm GM is causing Detroit under Barra.
How ironic that GM just announced it will expand its Flint Assembly plant to a six-day-per-week operating schedule beginning this June to build more of its gas-guzzling Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks.
Barra can get away with her electric vehicle “north star” claims because the Freep, the News, and the rest of the auto media have their heads in the clouds when it comes to covering the truth about GM under Barra’s leadership.
Zero emissions? Selling more EVs than Tesla by the end of 2025? Commitment to Detroit?
GM and Barra will one day have their day of reckoning. Just not today.
