General Motors Co. said Monday it will relocate its corporate headquarters next year to a new real estate development in Detroit.
The automaker will be an anchor tenant at Hudson’s Detroit, a project at the site of a former J.L. Hudson department store. The development is near GM’s current headquarters at downtown Detroit’s Renaissance Center.
Hudson’s Detroit is a 1.5 million-square-foot development with planned office, hotel, retail and residential space. GM and Bedrock, the project’s developer, announced the move at a press conference at Hudson’s Detroit.
GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said the new headquarters “will be our nerve center” while also having “space to display our vehicles.”
Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Bedrock, said his company had intended to attract a major corporate tenant. “Who knew we’d attract the one around the corner?” he said.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Hudson’s Detroit will be the automaker’s fourth headquarters site in Detroit since 1911. With the pending move, GM will lease its headquarters instead of owning it.
GM acquired its current home in 1996. The Renaissance Center was developed in the 1970s by civic leaders, including Henry Ford II, then the CEO of Ford Motor Co., according to a history by the Detroit Historical Society. The idea was to help revive Detroit after riots in 1967. The center consists of six office buildings and a hotel.
GM said it will form a partnership with Bedrock, the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Mich., “to explore redevelopment opportunities” for the Renaissance Center site.