DETROIT - Quicken Loans is relocating its corporate offices and 4,000 jobs from the suburbs to Detroit, a move the online mortgage company hopes will help revive downtown by attracting housing, stores and other businesses.
Tuesday's announcement was hailed by elected officials and others as another step in the right direction for the economically distressed city.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called it a "fantastic" deal for Detroit.
"Having it go to Detroit will have a phenomenal ripple effect," she said. "It's not just symbolic. It's a real boost to the city and certainly to the state."
Quicken's move to the east from suburban Livonia comes on the heels of other recent high-profile Detroit development over the past decade, including the opening of three casinos, baseball's Comerica Park, football's Ford Field, and the world headquarters of software company Compuware Corp.
Quicken has one year to consider two possible headquarters sites and 18 months to two years more to develop a construction plan.
"This isn't just about us saying, 'Let's just go to Detroit because it's right thing to do.' We do think it is the right thing to do, but we also think it's the smart thing to do," said Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert.
Quicken Loans is paperless: Every transaction is processed electronically in an office where a vast computer network handles 175,000 phone calls and 2.4 million internal e-mails a day.
Forbes magazine says Gilbert is worth about $1.2 billion. He turned a $5,000 investment in the mid-1980s into an online mortgage empire and bought the Cleveland Cavaliers for $375 million in early 2005. Quicken Loans includes Michigan mortgage company Rock Financial.
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