Will Ford relocate back from Dearborn to Detroit? (Highland Park, Grosse Pointe: house, transfer)

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Would it help them build better cars? (I didn't think so.) Their job is to build cars, not to help a city revive its image. Moving a headquarters is a huge expense that doesn't help their business. Just ask GM!

Funny you should say that, because in their bankruptcy GM wanted to move their headquarters from the RenCen to their tech center in Warren to save money. Obama said no.

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

Funny you should say that, because in their bankruptcy GM wanted to move their headquarters from the RenCen to their tech center in Warren to save money. Obama said no.

Oh? I think that was the Mayor of Warren that proposed they move.
(...to save money on taxes in Detroit.)

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

It was interim CEO Fritz Henderson's idea. It's all laid out in auto czar Steven Rattner's book.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

Ford's World Headquarters has been in Dearborn since 1956. The Rouge factory has operated in Dearborn since 1917. The R&E Center has been in Dearborn since the Eisenhower administration.

Henry Ford was born and raised in Dearborn. Yes, Ford has had offices and factories in and around Detroit, but it has been a Dearborn-based company for many, many years.

THe current headquarters was built in 1958, but i am pretty sure the prior headquarters - the one that burned down (on Schaefer I think) was also in Dearborn. They moved in there in 1928. I am not sure where they were based from 1903 - 1928, maybe they were in Detroit that whole time.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

THe current headquarters was built in 1958, but i am pretty sure the prior headquarters - the one that burned down (on Schaefer I think) was also in Dearborn. They moved in there in 1928. I am not sure where they were based from 1903 - 1928, maybe they were in Detroit that whole time.

Ford's headquarters was a part of the Model-T Plant in Highland Park before relocating to Dearborn (I thought all Detroiters knew that).

The old offices still face Woodward north of Manchester.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Would it help them build better cars? (I didn't think so.) Their job is to build cars, not to help a city revive its image. Moving a headquarters is a huge expense that doesn't help their business. Just ask GM!

I guessing it's been a very long time since you've driven a Ford vehicle.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

It was interim CEO Fritz Henderson's idea. It's all laid out in auto czar Steven Rattner's book.

That's true.

As a result of the possibility, the city of Detroit gave GM an unlimited reprieve from its property taxes.

[Retroit]

Warren offers GM a 30-year tax inducement | Metro Detroit | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

I wouldn't believe one damn thing that Steven Rattner said.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

Ford's headquarters was a part of the Model-T Plant in Highland Park before relocating to Dearborn (I thought all Detroiters knew that).

The old offices still face Woodward north of Manchester.

Not too many Detroiters were around in 1928.

When did they move into the Modet T plant in Highland park? Obviosly, it wa some time between the wagon factory in 1903 and dearborn in 1928.

[new2mass]

The Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit in 1903. The first factory was located within an old wagon factory on Mack Avenue. In 1904, Ford built its first plant on Piquette Avenue and moved all operations there. The Piquette factory is still standing there in the Milwaukee Junction area, which was the prime manufacturing area of the city in the early 20th century. Then Ford built the Highland Park plant in 1910 and moved all of its operations there, including its administrative offices. The old administration building is still sitting there on Woodward Avenue in Highland Park. So Ford moved out of Detroit in 1910 and has not been headquartered in Detroit since then.

Construction started on the Rouge plant in 1917 and marked Ford's move to Dearborn. Ford slowly transitioned from Highland Park to Dearborn between 1917 and 1932, when the major buildings of the Rouge plant were completed. The administration building at the Rouge (also called the Central Office Building) was built around 1928 and the offices were shifted from Highland Park to Dearborn then. The second Central Office Building (now known as Ford World Headquarters) was built in Dearborn in 1956.

Throughout this whole period, Ford owned and invested in numerous real estate ventures within the city of Detroit. In 1915, Ford (the company and the man) financed the final construction of Detroit's first public hospital, bought it, renamed it Henry Ford Hospital, and operated it first as a factory hospital, then later as a public hospital for the city. Ford financed the construction of Oakman Boulevard in order to connect the Highland Park plant to the Rouge. Ford was behind much of the investment for building the New Center area in the 1910s and 20s. Ford invested in the "Center for Arts and Letters" in the 1930s, which is now the Cultural Center, namely the DIA and the DPL. And, as other have mentioned, the Ren Cen was proposed and financed by Henry Ford II. So up until the building of the Ren Cen, Ford had made some major investments in the city while still being headquartered in Dearborn. But there has never been a formal financial relationship between Ford and Detroit (such as the city getting tax revenue from the corporation), at least not since before 1910.