And forty! It was December 24, 2013, Christmas Eve, Bedrock Real Estates announced the acquisition of a building in the center of Detroit (Michigan), the capital of the American automobile, today bankrupt. Another real estate transaction? Not only. Behind Bedrock, there is a man, Dan Gilbert, 126th fortune of the United States, according to Forbes. His wealth is estimated at 3.9 billion dollars (2.8 billion euros).
After this purchase, this affable 52-year-old man got his hands on a quarter of the properties in downtown Detroit. ” And it’s not over ! Even if for the moment we are digesting what we have acquired over the past three years”he confided to the World. In the immediate future, he is in discussion with the municipality of Detroit to buy the half-built site of a prison near the center. In bankruptcy, the city no longer has the means to finance the site, Dan Gilbert would like to transform it into a leisure center because it is next to his casino.
The Detroit tycoon has the ambition of a demiurge: to resurrect the city that saw him born in 1962, while enriching himself along the way. “My goal is to build something, not to make money, he specifies. I want to see the Detroit that my grandfather and my father knew. » Still, Dan Gilbert is not a philanthropist, he is above all a businessman who smells good veins.
THE CITY IS TODAY DOWN
Detroit is now on the ground and therefore can only bounce back, whether with or without the automobile industry that has always sustained it. Dan Gilbert thinks he can above all influence the neighborhoods of downtown and midtown, in the heart of the city. “These two neighborhoods are now experiencing a real estate boomhe assures. To connect them, we are going to equip them with a tramway. » 11 km long, this line is financed by foundations, the federal state and a few businessmen including Dan Gilbert, but not by the city.
“I am not alone in this adventure, it is a collective project carried out with my partners, my teams and my employees”, assures this father of five children. His father owned a bar when he went into business at the age of 12. He sold pizzas, which his brother delivered by bicycle. “But the city’s hygiene services have put a stop to this project…”he laughs again.
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