Question about the push for new office space in downtown Detroit

Everyone in my network keeps talking about how we need more modern office buildings downtown. I just saw a report that said over 30% of the current office space in the city center is empty right now. That number really hit me. Why are we building new when we can't fill what we have? My own company in the Ren Cen downsized our floor last year. We moved to a hybrid model and saved a lot of money. It feels like the old way of thinking, that new buildings will bring big companies. I think we should focus on fixing up the old spaces first. Make them work for today's needs. Has anyone else looked at the empty space rates and thought this was a bad plan?

3 comments

3 Comments

faithf771mo ago

Who's paying for the new buildings?

harper_smith1mo ago

Seriously, where IS that money coming from? Is it more loans that we'll have to pay back later, or did they find some budget surplus they never told us about? The last thing we need is another secret fee hike next semester because of this. They never just give us a straight answer on funding.

zarap148d ago

The $12 million for the new business school building came from a bond measure that the board approved last year. I used to think they were just pulling money from our tuition or some hidden slush fund, but actually I looked into it after the last town hall and it's a separate thing that gets repaid over 30 years through the general budget. That still means we're on the hook for it eventually, just not through a direct fee hike next semester like some people are saying. It's basically the same as taking out a mortgage to buy a house instead of paying cash upfront. But I guess the real question is whether this building was worth borrowing that much for our future payments, right?