Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert’s passion for downtown Detroit seems to be infectious. Gilbert not only moved Quicken Loans downtown in 2010, but he’s been buying up real estate left and right and encouraging other companies to do the same.
Now, in what locals are calling the “Dan Gilbert effect,” investors are developing more housing downtown to meet demand from workers — Detroit officials estimate residential occupancy in the downtown area at 97 percent.
“The projects show that some real estate investors are looking beyond the bankruptcy to an eventual rebound in Detroit,” The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Dolan reports. “They are hoping that property values and rents will rise due to the region’s resurgent automotive industry and the expansion of its medical community and nascent technology industry.” Source: online.wsj.com
