Google is moving more than 100 jobs to downtown Detroit. They’ve signed a lease for nearly 30,000 square feet in the new District Detroit as part of Little Caesars Arena.
The office, at 52 Henry Street, will open in 2018.
The workers coming down will be mostly sales and customer service folks. Not to mention, they will have very visible sign frontage on the recently completed arena that is home to the Detroit Red Wings, the Detroit Pistons, and numerous concerts.
“The city of Detroit has a rich history of culture and innovation, and we’re excited to be a part of its world class talent and world class companies. Our new space will not only provide room for future growth, but will also give us the opportunity to contribute to the dynamic economic and community activity happening in Detroit,” said Danielle Russell and Guy Schueller, Co-Site Leads for Google Birmingham.
In a follow up with Daily Detroit, we were told that as far as Google goes, no tax incentives from the city were involved and Google did not ask for any.
Elsewhere in Michigan, Google has a large Ann Arbor presence. That is where most of their technology work happens in the state with more than 450 employees. They just expanded their footprint there in September.
PR, Revenue Win: This is more of a public relations and revenue win for the city of Detroit than a win for the region as this is just a shift between localities in the same area. Having a big “Google” sign downtown is an attractive thing to most.
On the revenue side, the tax rate for non-residents is 1.2% and many of these jobs are high paying, so at $90,000 or so a year with bonuses with 100 employees, the city could be pocketing an extra $100,000 annually (or more, depending on number of city residents who pay double that rate, etc.) in additional income taxes.
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