Warren makes its pitch for GM headquarters

The mayor of Warren has made his long-awaited pitch to General Motors to entice them to move their corporate headquarters from the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and the deal he offered may be too sweet to turn down. The Detroit Free Press reports:

Calling it an “unprecedented proposal,” Warren Mayor Jim Fouts this morning offered General Motors Corp. long-term tax incentives to move its headquarters from the Renaissance Center in Detroit to the GM Tech Center in Warren.

The six-page letter hand delivered to GM CEO Fritz Henderson proposes a 30-year personal property tax break, the longest ever offered in the state and three times longer than Warren has ever proposed, Fouts said.

With other tax breaks and incentives, Fouts said GM could save tens of millions of dollars as it slashes costs on the eve of an expected bankruptcy filing.

The Free Press’ Tom Walsh writes that if GM takes the offer, regardless of how much it would save the company, the result for the city of Detroit would be devastating.

Rip Rapson, president of the Troy-based Kresge Foundation, puts it apocalyptically.

“We are dead,” he said, “if the region decentralizes into the Warrens and the Southfields.”

Moving GM’s headquarters out of Detroit is “an indescribably bad idea,” said Rapson, whose foundation has pledged $50 million to the massive Detroit riverfront redevelopment and is a major backer of a proposed light-rail line along Woodward Avenue downtown.

“This is a time to assemble critical mass in the city core, not disassemble,” he added.

I can’t imagine Obama’s auto taskforce giving the green light for such a move.