Commercial real estate report shows that despite government bankruptcy, city of Detroit is alive and well

Daniel J. Loepp

| 2 min read

Daniel J. Loepp is President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Mr. Loepp has directed sweeping initiatives and innovations that have led to a historic transformation of BCBSM and health care in Michigan. He played a major role in modernizing the state’s health care delivery system in a process that led to enactment of new laws that transformed BCBSM to become a nonprofit mutual insurance company in January 2014. Mr. Loepp has led BCBSM initiatives to improve health care quality and slow cost increases, saving nearly $1.5 billion through several programs that have garnered national attention and served as models implemented across the country. Under his leadership, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is helping to revitalize and strengthen Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing. In 2011 and 2012, Blue Cross moved 3,000 BCBSM employees into downtown Detroit and the company is one of the largest employers in the city’s Central Business District. In Lansing, BCBSM subsidiary AF Group transformed a long abandoned power plant into a national headquarters. Mr. Loepp has stood by a commitment that BCBSM should be a driving force for good in Michigan’s core cities. It is reflected in BCBSM’s workforce diversity and inclusion efforts, supplier partnerships and community initiatives. In his tenure, BCBSM has been named Corporation of the Year in Finance and Insurance Services nine times by the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council. The company has also been named one of America’s Top Organizations for Multi-Cultural Business Opportunities by DiversityBusiness.com and ranked five consecutive years as one of the top 10 Regional Companies for diversity by DiversityInc magazine, including being ranked No. 1 for consecutive years in 2015 and 2016. Mr. Loepp was honored as a 2016 recipient of the Edward N. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award. He was selected as Michiganian of the Year by The Detroit News in 2013. Mr. Loepp joined Blue Cross in 2000. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, he served as board chair of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), an organization that includes all 36 Blue Cross plans and provides health coverage to more than 106 million Americans.

In the wake of Detroit’s historic Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing last week, the national response has perpetuated an image of a city short on hope. But a new report that flew largely under the radar shows that, on the ground far below the financial storm clouds, the city is being revitalized. While city government undergoes a painful but necessary restructuring, private enterprise is voting with its money and investing heavily in Detroit. MLive reported this week that the central business district is comparatively thriving, according to commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. The story included this snippet of Newmark’s most recent report:
"Once again, the Detroit CBD is luring tenants from the suburbs into office space downtown. Since 2011, the Detroit CBD has been the dominant submarket in Southeast Michigan with large and small tenants alike migrating downtown. The trend began with Blue Cross Blue Shield, DTE Energy and Quicken Loans in 2011 leasing over a combined 750,000 square feet. Then in 2012, companies such as Title Source, Chrysler, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Metro-West Appraisal Co and Agency 720 leased just under a half million square feet combined.”
MLive notes that advertising agency Campbell Ewald will soon join the ranks by moving its headquarters and 600 employees to space it is renovating at Ford Field. And left unsaid is the fact that Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert has been on a building-buying spree and is lining up office and retail tenants for many of his properties. A new passenger light-rail line called M-1 Rail will soon begin construction. And on July 24, the state of Michigan voted for Detroit by authorizing hundreds of millions in bonds to allow for the construction of a new downtown arena and entertainment district. Clearly, there’s a palpable increase in buzz, investment and economic activity in downtown Detroit and bordering parts of the city in recent years, and frankly I find a host of new reasons to be optimistic every day. So as the financial storm clouds swirl over city government, it would be helpful for the nation to fly below them and see for itself the very real restoration of one of America’s greatest cities happening at street level. Because it really is remarkable. Daniel J. Loepp is president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.

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2 Comments

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Angela T. Jones

Aug 2, 2013 at 2:41pm

I've lived in Detroit my entire life. I consider myself a true native because I've never lived outside the city limits. Although I have not lost faith in the fact that Detroit will rebound (which in all honesty it has been rebounding for years already, people just didn't notice), I have personal and professional goals that may at some point require that I move away so that I can also prosper. Having worked in different industries in Detroit from banking, health care and entertainment, I have seen a lot of the challenges and potential. Detroit residents have to stop relying so much on the cooperation of the government and start supporting each other more. The majority if growth hasn't been because of support from city government, it has been because of the determination of the people who are willing to invest in the city with their own finances and ideas, and they don't do it all just to make profits. They do it because they see opportunities that can help others now with profits coming down the road. More people should think that way instead of only looking out for themselves and thinking about short term profits that don't net long term impact.

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Kimberly Ingram

Jul 26, 2013 at 6:57pm

I am very happy to hear the confidence in the city rebounding, I totally agree. I hope that with the new companies moving into the city, they would be interested in having another incentive program for people to move back into the city.

MI Blues Perspectives is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit, independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association