New Center
Detroit
In the mid 1990's General Motors was planning to move from its historic headquarters in New Center in a unique collection of iconic buildings by Albert Kahn on the outskirts of Downtown Detroit to the downtown riverfront. Having played a lead role in stewardship of the local neighborhood in a troubled area of the city, General Motors and its neighbors were anxious to ensure that this transition not provoke a damaging decline. Ken Greenberg, then a partner in Berridge Lewinberg Greenberg Dark Gabor, led a mulit-disciplinary team effort by the combined stakeholders including GM and the Henry Ford Health Center as well as small businesses and residents to prepare a Development Plan and Strategy for this transition, allowing New Center to redefine itself and introduce new uses and activities within and surrounding its extraordinary building ensemble. The Plan was composed of three parts - a conceptual framework to guide future development, a series of strategic initiatives designed to jump start economic investment, and a description of the implementation mechanisms necessary to promote and guide future development.