GM's challenge: Dealing with RenCen's future

BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST 

OCT. 6, 2009

Over and over since the U.S. government rescued General Motors Co. and installed Fritz Henderson as the new chief executive, Henderson has repeated the mantra that GM must go “faster and deeper” in resizing itself to survive without government support.
For Detroit’s sake, GM and Henderson now must show more of that speed and urgency in dealing with the future of the Renaissance Center.

GM expects to complete its review of metro Detroit office facilities by the end of this year. Any major movement of employees to or from the RenCen would likely take place in 2010.

The city wants to help GM keep occupancy of the RenCen as high as possible. The city and state are exploring incentives to help make GM make improvements to attract tenants.

The RenCen has at least 550,000 to 600,000 square feet of vacant office space now — the equivalent of one of its four main office towers. And Hewlett-Packard, which bought former GM subsidiary Electronic Data Systems last year, is expected to significantly downsize its presence in RenCen Tower 500, where EDS moved 1,500 people from the Detroit suburbs in 2002.