Word: forded
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...center's supporters concede that it is too early to call the project a success. Says Ford Financial Expert Stanley Seneker: "We are looking ahead to something like four or five years to make this a reasonable business proposition." Ren Cen, however, was intended not to enrich its backers but to revitalize the city. Here, too, judgment of its effectiveness is premature, but there are already a few stirrings of rebirth downtown. A new riverfront plaza is under construction near by; it boasts an obelisk and a fountain by the noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Part of Woodward Avenue will...
...downtown is not regarded as one of the world's great garden spots. Businesses have been fleeing for years to the northern arid western suburbs, with the result that the city center has become little more than a financial hub by day, a graveyard at night. Fortunately, Henry Ford II decided five years ago to preside over an enviable rebirth on the Detroit River. The big "catalyst," as Ford put it, would be construction of the $337 million Renaissance Center, consisting of shops, offices and the world's tallest hotel, all designed by John Portman, the Atlanta architect...
...Portman.* Few shops and restaurants have opened their doors, since the 350,-000-sq.-ft., tri-level mall housing most of them is still under construction. Ren Cen's four 39-story, octagonal office towers are finished, but only 68% of this is rented-much of that because Ford Motor Co. leased a whole tower for 1,700 employees (many of whom would have preferred to stay in Dearborn, eleven miles from the city center...
...same, Ren Cen is a prodigious accomplishment. Henry Ford is a man of considerable force, and when he talked about business showing a commitment to the salvation of downtown Detroit, other people listened. First he set up the Detroit Downtown Development Corp. as a subsidiary of Ford Motor and assigned top real estate and financial people to staff it. Next he discussed the project with his competitor, Richard C. Gerstenberg, then chairman of General Motors, over lunch at the GM building; by dessert, Gerstenberg had pledged his active support. Four months later, GM announced that it would invest $6 million...
...result: one of the biggest privately financed urban-development deals in history. Ren Cen's first mortgage loan came to $200 million, which Ford and friends say is the largest mortgage ever awarded to a single real estate project. Twenty-eight banks had to share the load for the up-front construction loan that the mortgage will cover. Among them: Chase Manhattan, Morgan Guaranty, First National of Chicago and Bank of America. The 51 Ren Cen partners, for their part, coughed up $114 million in equity, much of it in staggered amounts as costs surged. Said one banking partner...