- What was the idea behind this project?

What did you hope to accomplish with it?

What's its purpose?

- Today was what Dan hoped to accomplish with this building, where we have hundreds of people from all across the region coming to downtown Detroit, gathering in downtown Detroit, supporting the economy of downtown Detroit.

It's a multi-use building.

So we have retail on the first floor, 'cause you need your shopping and your restaurants.

The middle part of the building is this event space.

And Dan is very focused on bringing people from all over the world to Detroit.

And that's why we have this world class event space.

And then office space above it, which helped keep the General Motors Corporation in the city of Detroit, a big deal, right next to it.

The tower is gonna have a five star edition hotel, critical for us to be able to attract conventions.

And, you know, the largest conventions in the world.

You need hotels like that Final Four.

And 96 condos above it.

If you'd like one, we have one with your name on it.

- There you go.

Is it filling up?

- It is.

The office space is 93% leased.

The department has, you know, event after event.

You see with the retail, you have Aloe, you have DaKovas, you have General Motors display space.

There's no question that we built it and Dan built it and people came.

- Filling that vacant Hudson's spot, and we were talking earlier about when it came down and I was standing a few blocks from here.

- Yes.

Yes.

- And watched the building just disappear.

- Yes.

And it stayed disappeared for a lot of years.

- 20 years.

- What do you expect the impact on the city as a whole because of this project.

- What makes Dan such a visionary is, first of all, he saw this hole.

And literally we say in the heart of the city, we mean that both literally and figuratively.

A hole in the heart.

When Hudson's came down.

And Dan saw that hole and he saw this incredible building in its place, and he wanted it to be really a symbol of Detroit's rise and inspiration about what's possible, what's happening, but also very practically an economic engine for the city.

And that's why you see the expensive to build it.

But the multi-use components, retail, event space, office, hotel, condos, public space are bringing all those elements together you truly get an economic engine.

And we're seeing it with all these hundreds of people here.

And this is happening all the time.

- The next challenge on your list is the Renaissance Center.

- Yes.

- Where does the redevelopment of that site stand?

Yeah, I think it's useful to think about the downside and then the upside when it comes to the Renaissance Center.

It is the tallest and most iconic building in the state of Michigan.

You go ChatGPT, gimme an image of Michigan, you're gonna get the Renaissance Center.

And there's enormous downside if that building is blighted and deteriorating, that's a symbol of our city and our state.

On the upside is if we turn it into an icon for the next generation, not only is it back to life, but we will go from there and redevelop the 40 acres of the riverfront next to it to create the best waterfront district in the country.

So hundreds of housing units, major entertainment destinations, bars, restaurants, another economic engine, just like this is on an even bigger scale.

We're talking 48 acres of the riverfront.

And as I talked about in my speech today, we need to attract young talent to the state of Michigan.

The economy, if you want higher wages, more prosperity, you need talent.

Businesses want to be where talent is.

Talent wants place, just like we've done down here.

If we build an extraordinary riverfront an incredible place will attract the talent and get the virtuous cycle of growth.

- So you all have a billion dollars in that project?

- Yes.

- GM's got consider above.... - 250 million.

Yes.

- And you've got another 250 from local... - And that's really what we're waiting on.

We're waiting on a little bit of partnership from the state of Michigan through the Brownfield Program.

And the beauty of the Brownfield program is, and Mike Duggan actually talked about this today, nobody's writing you a check.

The Renaissance Center today is empty generating no revenue.

Once we have this massive redevelopment, it generates all this new revenue, new tax revenue by rebating a portion of that new tax revenue back into the project to make the math work.

It's the ultimate win-win.

That bill passed the Senate.

It's sitting in the house.

And we listen, the proof is in the pudding.

This program has been around since Governor Snyder created in 2017.

There's been 11 of them transformational projects across the state.

It's really redeveloping Grand Rapids entire riverfront right now.

We just need that to pass that partnership from the state and we will do incredible things.

- So the Brownfield credit was part of your three-point plan today for making taxation policy work to encourage growth?

Go over those three pieces.

- Yeah, so I outlined a three pronged plan for tax reform.

Number one, to tax vacant land held by speculators higher in order to lower the tax on homeowners and people who want to build in the city.

Number two, to do an excise tax on our central city where you have so many tourists and visitors.

So instead of your martini being $16, it's $16 and 16 cents.

It's not gonna change anybody's behavior, but it's gonna raise money for the city, use that to lower property taxes.

And then tax abatement reform, because our taxes are so high right now, every project has an abatement that basically says, you don't pay much at all.

Our proposal is make those abatements half as generous, twice as long.

The math is the same, but the city then gets revenue on the front end for those 10 years, uses that revenue with these other things to lower property taxes and create a pro-growth environment for the city.

(crowd murmuring)