Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan plans to move 3,000 employees downtown, helping fill out a couple of towers of the Renaissance Center and doubling its employee count in the Motor City. The 3,000 employees moving to downtown Detroit are coming from the nonprofit's Southfield campus.
"Southfield is 15 miles from here, but from a corporate culture standpoint it might as well be 1,500 miles away," says Daniel Loepp, president and CEO of
Blue Cross Blue Shield. He added that Blue Cross Blue Shield started in Detroit "seven decades ago and we're invested here now more than ever," and has no plans of leaving.
Blue Cross Blue Shield has been revamping and improving its downtown campus area just south of Greektown in recent years, building an ultra-green parking garage and creating an elegant green space along Congress, among other projects. It will now occupy the 500 and most of the 600 towers of the
Ren Cen, which are the two shorter towers next to the complex's iconic main towers, as part of a 15-year lease. It also helps the new leaner, meaner General Motors fill space in its massive downtown headquarters.
"We need great American cities like Detroit to thrive," says Ed Whitacre, CEO of
General Motors. "Today's announcement shows that Blue Cross Blue Shield believes that, too."
Blue Cross Blue Shield has also created a partnership with the People Mover to help connect the main campus and its Ren Cen offices. Employees will have free unlimited passed for the first year after the move and 50 percent off the second year.
The centralization of Blue Cross Blue Shield's workforce downtown is expected to create about $35 million in savings over 15 years thanks to incentives and cost avoidance. It also plans to maintain its Blue Care Network presence in Southfield and is working to line up a tenant/buyer for the space it is vacating, a move that will put that office space back on the tax roles.
Source: Daniel Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield; Ed Whitacre, CEO of General Motors
Writer: Jon Zemke
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