  Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 915 Registered: 11-2005 |
Goodbye Comerica, hello Bank of America? Bank's chief likes downtown October 2, 2007 TOM WALSH FREE PRESS COLUMNIST Bank of America, which on Monday completed the acquisition that makes it Michigan's largest bank in terms of deposits, is already in discussions with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick about possibly moving its regional headquarters from Troy to downtown Detroit, the Free Press has learned. Kenneth Lewis, chairman and CEO of Bank of America, will meet today with Kilpatrick and pledge a $1-million donation to the mayor's Next Detroit Neighborhood Initiative, which targets city neighborhoods for intensive redevelopment efforts. Read more at: http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll /article?AID=/20071001/COL06/7 1001105 | ||
Spiritofdetroit Member Username: Spiritofdetroit Post Number: 605 Registered: 11-2006 |
would be wonderful | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 946 Registered: 11-2004 |
Kilpatrick certainly isn't waisting any time trying to lure BoA | ||
Thecarl Member Username: Thecarl Post Number: 1044 Registered: 04-2005 |
omg, and everyone knows, boa employees just love cheesecake factory!•• | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 560 Registered: 04-2006 |
bank of america moves downtown, i seriously consider moving my account to BOA | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 3724 Registered: 02-2005 |
Spectacular. If Kilpatrick's persuasion factored into this, then you have to give him major props for getting a new bank tenant downtown after Comerica moved out a good chunk of their employees. No specifics are being talked about, yet, but it's possible downtown could have a net gain of workers at the end of this shuffle. | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 563 Registered: 04-2006 |
bank of america park, bank of america city fest, bank of america tower... i like the sound of this... | ||
Tkelly1986 Member Username: Tkelly1986 Post Number: 414 Registered: 01-2004 |
Would anyone know of or like to estimate the number of employees Bank of American would be moving from Troy? And how many is downtown losing from Comerica? For some reason I though Bank of American already had an office in the burbs before this takeover of LaSalle, and if so, does that mean they would be consolidating? | ||
Mind_field Member Username: Mind_field Post Number: 792 Registered: 10-2003 |
If i had to make an intelligent guess, I would say that overall, with Comerica leaving and BoA coming in, downtown would still take a jobs loss. There are 800 LaSalle employees at the regional hq now in Troy, that number will probably drop significantly after the BoA acquisition. Also, isn't up to the regional president to decide where to locate a regional hq? The guy speaking about downtowns is the CEO of the entire company and i would guess that he is way more worried about the world hq in Charlotte than where a regional hq in a declining state are located. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 6627 Registered: 02-2004 |
Screw Comerica! Let them move to New Redneck City ( Dallas) Bank of America will fill the void the Comerica left. I'll ask all the forum members and their friends to pull your accounts out of Comerica Bank for they screw Detroit and moving on. | ||
Granmontrules Member Username: Granmontrules Post Number: 183 Registered: 01-2007 |
GO MAYOR! Get them down here and their Million Dollars to! If they come down I am closing my account and moving to BOA. | ||
Tkelly1986 Member Username: Tkelly1986 Post Number: 415 Registered: 01-2004 |
If this indeed goes through, I hope there is a domino affect with 5/3, Flagstar and National City all moving their HQ downtown to jockey for Comerica’a position of “hometown” bank. Downtown is where the regional banking industry belongs (sorry, I am bias). | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10304 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Why did the use of waist, instead of waste when discussing KK make me laugh} quote: BoA is already doing that for me by buying all of the companies I already had accounts with. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 1779 Registered: 10-2006 |
Bank of America is basically responsible for revitalizing downtown Charlotte. Through the 60s and 70s, downtown Charlotte was about as exciting as parking lots and an occasional building. Now it is a much different story thanks to B of A moving into downtown. They are located in two high rises and in the process of constructing a third. This has had much spin off impact by encouraging other companies to locate to downtown office space creating a 97% occupancy rate. This has then led to construction of many residential units as well. Obviously there were/are many factors at play, but the point is, that B of A is dedicated to reviving downtowns even in as basic a move as by simply locating their offices in an otherwise somewhat depressed city center. If they go through with a move to downtown Detroit, they should be as applauded as Compuware for moving into the city. | ||
Baliad Member Username: Baliad Post Number: 73 Registered: 08-2005 |
LaSalle has a sizeable branch in the Guardian Building, no??? if BoA moves downtown into Comerica Tower, will that close the Guardian location of LaSalle (eventually BoA)??? might BoA take up whatever remaining space there is in the Guardian??? | ||
Jz_detroit Member Username: Jz_detroit Post Number: 32 Registered: 12-2005 |
Has anyone here seen the negative comments from the readers on the Freep's site? This is why our region is so screwed up. No one ever wants to accept change! I can understand why the readers do not want this but this kind of change will help the whole region. | ||
Miketoronto Member Username: Miketoronto Post Number: 671 Registered: 07-2004 |
Downtown Charlotte is no that exciting, even with Bank of America. Either way though it is a good step to get more high profile companies downtown. Detroit is creating that cluster economy again by getting so many companies to move downtown again. Keep that up and it could be a selling point to getting more companies downtown, as a lot of cities have lost clustered downtown economies. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 711 Registered: 08-2007 |
Financial District returns! Wouldn't that be great? | ||
Umcs Member Username: Umcs Post Number: 67 Registered: 06-2007 |
Frankly, I've worked in Troy and Southfield and I've worked downtown. It's actually quite nice downtown because there are some things you can walk to instead of always having to take a car. I'd recommend working in Detroit to anyone who asks (except that whole City Income Tax thing and the delays in getting a refund). | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 1781 Registered: 10-2006 |
"Downtown Charlotte is no [sic] that exciting, even with Bank of America." That's a subject for different thread. | ||
Kslice Member Username: Kslice Post Number: 169 Registered: 04-2007 |
Damn, I wanted to be the one to start this thread so I could call it "Detroit close to snagging BOA". haha. If we could get Quicken and BOA wouldn't that just be great. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 1723 Registered: 04-2006 |
Since BoA didn't already have a presence in s/e Michigan, they can't really be getting rid of that many employees, right? Isn't I hope they do move downtown. (Message edited by iheartthed on October 02, 2007) | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 1724 Registered: 04-2006 |
And I guess no one has a problem with a rather large and possibly soon to be empty class A building in Troy. I have more of a problem with the dozens of empty skyscrapers in the central city. | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 3396 Registered: 10-2003 |
Woo hoo! I can withdraw cash without paying fees when I come visit! | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 3726 Registered: 02-2005 |
Mind_field, I don't think so. We can do some fact checking, but Comerica only moved it's brass out of the city. Just about all other employees are still there. I doubt that the white collar jobs they shipped to Dallas amounts to 800. LaSalle has 800 employees in Troy, and 4,000 statewide. Although BoA plans to downsize this, if they really did it up big downtown, you could see a decent proportion of that statewide workforce consolidated downtown (i.e. virtually all white collar workers). BoA had basically no presence in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois before Monday. And I'd say that if the Pres. and CEO is saying these things about moving to downtown, AND meeting with Kilpatrick today, then that's a pretty good sign. I'm sure any regional president would have to follow the directives of the company president. | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 2274 Registered: 06-2006 |
Awesome news...let's hope this trend continues... Not really Kilpatrick's doing though, but its amusing seeing people giving him credit for it : ) | ||
Umcs Member Username: Umcs Post Number: 70 Registered: 06-2007 |
Heh, ideally we get them to move their Chicago HQ here because the CoL is much lower and the real estate costs are so much lower for office space. | ||
Sharmaal Member Username: Sharmaal Post Number: 1220 Registered: 09-2004 |
"Not really Kilpatrick's doing though, but its amusing seeing people giving him credit for it : )" Well, they haven't exactly committed to anything yet. Who was responsible for the start of the conversation? | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 3727 Registered: 02-2005 |
TJ, they wouldn't have given $1 mil the neighborhood initiative fund if they didn't know about it. Who do you think told them? Kilpatrick is meeting with the CEO today; it's an already-interested CEO, yes, but Kilpatrick's persuasion will probably factor into any positive outcome. Umcs, now that's being ambitious. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10315 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Care to elaborate? This is typical that when something bad happens it is the city/mayor's fault when something good may potnetially happen it is in spite of him. The Mayor and his team will still need to work very closely with BoA if this is to happen and if the move happens the city administration deserves some credit. Is there anything that KK has done in your opinion? |
