Nice article on Detroit's real estate boom in the WSJ (link)

Having working in downtown at the Renaissance Center in the 1980s, this kind of thing was talked about and dreamed above, but I don't know anyone who really believed it was possible.

The new Gordie Howe bridge is almost complete (and that alone cleaned up so much just south of downtown). Younger folks are moving into the city. Construction everywhere downtown. It is not where it needs to be but this is an amazing start.

Question for current Detroiters (I go back time to time and have family there, but not plugged in anymore): With the auto industry probably never getting back to what it was, what new industries are driving the growth. Is it just shifting from the Suburbs to City and no net gain? (This is the story of Chicago the last 25 years) or is the area developing new companies, new industries, that can sustain the growth for the next 30 years as auto seems likely to ever thrive again like it once did up until say the mid-1960s. Something else - other industries - have to drove the organic growth and drive local GDP. I know you have this weird thing with Rocket and United Wholesale Mortgage (Detroit as mortgage capital of the US??? The Motor City >> The Mortgage City). What else? Note: The new bridge could be transformational in terms of logistics.

Real estate needs growth. New York got Finance/PE/Hedge Funds the last 30 years. SF had Tech (until now). Austin has Tech. Houston has Energy. Seattle has MSFT and AMZN (not to mention COST and SBUX). Miami has sun. Washington DC has been driven by the government growth. Boston has had Biotech and Asset Mgmt. You need a bell cow industry or hot companies to drive local growth and GDP and auto can't be it anymore. Thus I fear this is more temporal and driven by cannibalizing your own suburbs.

Click here for link at https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/reversing-the-rea