On his first day as mayor of Detroit, former basketball great and entrepreneur Dave Bing said that the city will work hard to retain one of its largest employers and tax revenue generators, General Motors. Bing also said that he would re-open talks to expand the city’s convention center, site of the dwindling North American International Auto Show.
Bing said that he talked with “one of the top execs” at GM to attempt to convince the company to stay in Detroit. Earlier this week, GM CEO Fritz Henderson had indicated that the automaker would be open to moving its headquarters to suburban Warren, Michigan, if there was a significant monetary advantage. GM currently pays about $6 million annually in taxes on its Renaissance Center headquarters.
“The response has been, ‘We are in Detroit,’ ” Bing said of his discussion. “What I can say from a leadership standpoint is that Detroit will do everything in its power to make sure they’re competitive so that whatever decisions that will be made by any business, we can retain.”
Bing also said that he plans to meet soon with L. Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County (Michigan) Executive who has been attempting to lure the North American International Auto Show to Novi, a suburb of Detroit, by expanding the city’s Rock Financial Showplace convention hall.
In addition, Bing has said that he is attempting to reopen the stalled talks to expand Cobo Hall, the current location of what was the most important new car show in North America until recently.
