Mayor Jackson says he's against communities using tax breaks and other subsidies to raid each other's good jobs.
Does that apply to Livonia, Michigan?
In the glow of yesterday's announcement that Quicken Loans' promised 300-employee mortgage center will go into the M.K. Ferguson Plaza, owner Dan Gilbert threw some steaming red meat on the table:
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is dangling the prospect of Cleveland as a potential site for a new national headquarters for his 3,500-employee Quicken Loans.A high-priced factor, he didn't need to add. Quicken sought and got almost $5 million in subsidies for just 300 jobs in its new mortgage center:
In announcing the April 3 opening of a mortgage office with 300 to 350 new $85,000-a-year jobs in Tower City Center, Gilbert on Thursday also said he wants to build a new national headquarters to replace his spread-out operations in Livonia, Mich., a Detroit suburb. The office leases there end in 2009. While that might seem a long time off, if the company is going to build, it needs to get started in the next year or so.
Quicken, for now, is considering moving only to areas where it already has operations, said Gilbert, Quicken's chairman and founder.
"Cleveland, because of the other businesses we have there now, is certainly a place we would look at," Gilbert, who bought Cleveland's NBA franchise for $375 million a year ago, said in a phone interview. "We're always open to talking."
The company is likely to make a decision in three to six months, he said.
However, the challenges of relocating 3,500 employees to a new state would be a factor in any decision, Gilbert said.
The Ohio Department of Development is providing a 60 percent Job Creation Tax Credit for a 10-year term, which is valued at up to $4.5 million.What do you suppose the price tag might be for 3,500 high-tech headquarters jobs at "Forbes Magazine's 13th Best Employer"? But that won't stop our regional economic salivary glands from juicing up over Gilbert's dangling prime cut. After all, he's willing to look at us! He's open to talking!
It is also providing a $300,000 Ohio Investment in Training Program grant. Ohio was in competition with Arizona, Nevada and Michigan.
So what does this story look like in Livonia, where all those happy employees work and pay taxes now? From the Detroit News, Friday, February 24:
Livonia, state woo Quicken Loans(Notice that the headquarters Quicken needs to replace has 1,700 employees -- 3,500 is the company's total Michigan workforce. But the bigger number is the one Gilbert "dangled" in front of the PD.)
Officials work to save jobs, keep the company's headquarters in the city once its lease is up in 4 years.
LIVONIA -- City and state officials are working to ensure the headquarters of Quicken Loans Inc./Rock Financial, one of the city's largest employers, does not leave the city, or Michigan, once its lease is up in four years.
"We're working very aggressively to keep Quicken here," said Jeff Bryant, Livonia's economic development director. "It's definitely a top priority."
Bryant, Mayor Jack Engebretson and former Mayor Jack Kirksey have had informal meetings with representatives of the company to urge them to stay.
The company confirmed in November it may need a larger headquarters when its 10-year lease at the complex on Victor Parkway, just east of Interstate-275, expires at the end of 2009.
With about 1,700 employees at its headquarters, local businesses would be affected if the company left, Kirksey said.
"Every time there's a closing of a plant or something dramatic happens, you realize you've lost some economic base," he said.
Quicken Loans is in discussions with a local real estate company to possibly purchase 35 acres at 39000 W. Seven Mile, the former site of Technicolor Home Entertainment Services, said Keith Pillow, spokesman for Thomson, SA, the parent company of Technicolor.
Elizabeth Jones, spokeswoman for Rock Financial, declined to comment on specific locations and would not confirm any meetings with government officials.
"We are still quite a ways from making any decisions, so we are not prepared to comment on any particular site that may or may not be under consideration," she said.
The company has 3,500 employees and is one of the fastest-growing companies in Metro Detroit, hiring 200 employees a month. Rock Financial has additional locations in Auburn Hills, Farmington Hills and Troy.
State Sen. Laura Toy, R-Livonia, who met with company representatives this week, said she is looking into possible tax incentives to convince the company to stay in her district, and at least in the state.
"We're trying to see where we could help them out," she said.
In 2000, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. gave the company a $6.1 million state tax credit over seven years after it revealed plans to expand and possibly move to Virginia.
The city kicked in its own 50 percent tax abatement over three years, amounting to a break of just less than $40,000, said Bryant.
Gilbert is clearly a world-class gamesman -- and I'm not talking about basketball.
Is the Jackson Administration ready to be played?