Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan says it’s planning to move more than 1,400 employees from Tower 500 of the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit to its other buildings in the area starting this fall. The move was reported first by the Detroit Free Press.
Blue Cross’ neighboring downtown buildings are its headquarters at 600 E. Lafayette and its Jefferson Building at 441 E. Jefferson.
Blue Cross is the last major office space tenant in the RenCen following the move of General Motors Co. headquarters to Hudson’s Detroit north on Woodward Avenue.
The health insurer wasn’t required to make the move since Towers 500 and 600 — the pair of shorter, 21-story towers just east of the main RenCen complex — aren’t part of GM’s and Bedrock’s $1.6 billion redevelopment plan. That is expected to result in the razing of the two original towers closest to the Detroit River and transforming the remaining three into a blend of housing, office, and hotel space.
According to the Free Press, Blue Cross spokesperson Meghan O’Brien said the decision to relocated from Tower 500 was a “workplace strategy decision.”
GM has owned the original five RenCen towers since 1996, when it moved from its headquarters there from its historic building on West Grand Boulevard in the New Center area. Tower 500 is owned by Florida-based Kawa Private Investments and Tower 600 is owed by an investment group led by Oakland County physician Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hadidi.
The original five towers of the Renaissance Center were built by a consortium led by Ford Motor Co. in the 1970s as an urban renewal project following the 1967 Detroit riot. Towers 500 and 600 were added in 1981.
