In a bid to attract younger employees, more companies are moving out of the 'burbs and back in to cities.
FORTUNE -- Like many companies, Michigan-based Quicken Loans once thought a suburban location made a lot of sense. Space in office parks was reasonably priced, and employees could buy new single-family homes with yards and access to good schools.
But a few years ago, the online mortgage lender began to think about a move to the city. For a technology company, "there is an opportunity cost of not being in an urban environment," says CEO Bill Emerson. "The youth of America, when they graduate, they're looking to go to an urban environment." Top recruits wanted somewhere they could work, live and play and meet other young people. "An asphalt parking lot is not necessarily the best way to do that."
Lured in part by dirt-cheap real estate costs, Quicken Loans moved 1,700 employees from the suburbs into Detroit last year. It plans to move 2,000 more by March 2012, and is developing the whole downtown Woodward Avenue area with the hopes of luring more tech-friendly companies.
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2 comments:
They can't do that in Salisbury. Employees would have to leave their desks every 20 minutes to feed the meter...
Yep and they will be moving again in a few months after they get tired of their employees being held up at gunpoint in the parking lot.There is a reason businesses and people are leaving Detroit.
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