Detroit — General Motors Co.’s downsized new corporate headquarters at Hudson’s Detroit highlights the automaker’s priorities: converging where talent is, being nimble and keeping roots in the Motor City.
After deciding to leave the “confusing, maze-like mall” that is the Renaissance Center, GM’s David Massaron said the automaker needed a space “that would honor our heritage” and affirm Detroit as the company’s global headquarters.
“We wanted to have a headquarters that would allow us to function seamlessly with as little friction as possible, and the most collaboration as possible,” said Massaron, vice president of infrastructure and corporate citizenship.
Hudson’s Detroit is GM’s fourth headquarters in the city and comes under the leadership of two Metro Detroit natives: CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss.
The pared-down space on Woodward Avenue places executives near Detroit decision-makers while embracing Barra’s workforce strategy to meet people where they are, as the company did with GM’s Silicon Valley site, Mountain View Technical Center in California.
Maintaining a presence in Detroit, even with a smaller footprint, “continues the tradition of the Motor City,” said former GM executive Warren Browne.
But the more important move, Browne said, happened over the past several years as the company shifted staff to the 600-acre Warren Technical Center. Roughly 25,000 engineers, designers and other employees are now based in Warren, making it the company’s largest campus.
Massaron described GM’s footprint as a multisite campus across southeast Michigan, including the Tech Center and the Milford Proving Ground.
“They’re all part of one campus, and they function together,” Massaron said. “And people really do shift from place to place.”
The Tech Center’s importance to GM is apparent in its design influence on the company’s new headquarters in downtown Detroit. Ties span the overall midcentury modern tone to architectural drawings of Warren’s Design Auditorium.
“Vehicles get made and designed at the Tech Center,” said Browne, now an auto supplier consultant. “They don’t get made and designed at central office.”
Consolidating talent promotes teamwork and communication, Browne said: “(There’s) nothing like having purchasing people right next to the people building cars and trucks.” He likened GM’s exodus to Warren to Ford Motor Co.’s November headquarters crosstown move in Dearborn from the 1956 Glass House to “the Hub.” Both moves, Browne said, help build a critical mass of workers for collaboration.
GM’s space in Hudson’s Detroit, the former site of the iconic J.L. Hudson Department Store, spans about 200,000 square feet of the 1.5 million-square-foot development. That’s about a third of the more than 614,000 square feet of Tower 300 that GM occupied shortly after announcing its planned departure from the RenCen in April 2024, according to CoStar reports at the time. Spokesperson Kevin Kelly said GM offices spread into other towers as well.
GM “just didn’t need the space” it had at the RenCen, Browne said.
A look inside GM’s space in the Hudson’s building
A tour of the new GM’s space in the Hudson’s building in Detroit.
The automaker has declined to provide details on the number of staff who will work at Hudson’s, which intentionally houses only four permanent offices for top GM executives: Barra, Reuss, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson and Grant Dixton, the executive vice president and chief legal and public policy officer.
“We have a tremendous amount of flexibility built into the space,” Massaron said. “So we can bring people in and out depending on the function that’s needed and the decisions that the company are making that day. There are no other assigned offices here.”
Unassigned office space is available primarily for staff in corporate strategy, finance, legal, marketing, human resources and communications, making the building GM’s “central nervous system,” Massaron said.
GM’s move comes after Bedrock announced late last year that the 12-story office building at Hudson’s Detroit was complete and ready for tenants, nearly a decade after construction began on the former department store site on Woodward Avenue.
In addition to GM, announced office tenants as of January include JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Ven Johnson Law, ROCK (the Gilbert family office) and the Gilbert Family Foundation. Retail tenants open at the development are ALO and Tecovas. The building also has an event space, The Department at Hudson’s. Bedrock has not revealed the tenant occupancy rates, but has said the building is significantly leased.
Between the two buildings sits Nick Gilbert Way, which opened in November in honor of Nick Gilbert, son of Dan and Jennifer Gilbert, who died at the age of 26 in 2023 from neurofibromatosis.
Hudson’s Detroit is pitching Nick Gilbert Way as a community plaza, and glitzed up the alleyway with lights, a hot cocoa vendor and photo-op settings for the holidays. Community events, art and a vehicle showroom are also planned for GM’s “Entrance One,” a public-facing space abutting the walkway.
“This space is going to be really about community collaboration,” said Rebecca Waldmeir, GM’s architecture and experience design manager. “We’re partnered with Bedrock. We will be partnering with local facilities (and) things that are happening around in Detroit and bringing that in to tell stories, but also to really showcase our world-class product, our innovation.”
GM’s first home in Detroit was at 127-129 Woodward Ave., on the west side of the street between Fort and Congress. The company was there from 1911 to 1923. GM then moved to the Albert Kahn-designed General Motors Building, now called Cadillac Place, at 3044 West Grand Blvd. GM purchased the Renaissance Center along the Detroit River downtown in 1996.
“GM’s DNA is inextricably linked to Detroit, and this is a site that is steeped in history,” Massaron said. “We love the ability to honor that history and be part of that, because the heritage of who GM is helps inform what our products are and helps our products connect with people.”
