DETROIT _ Automotive seat manufacturer Adient announced Wednesday that it is moving its global headquarters to Detroit.
"This is a really big day for us," Adient chairman and CEO Bruce McDonald said at a news conference held across the street from the building it expects to move into within the next two years. "It's an exciting announcement for both our company, employees and the city of Detroit."
Adient, which was spun off in October from Johnson Controls, purchased the historic Marquette Building in downtown Detroit and will turn it into its new headquarters, bringing about 500 jobs to Detroit. About 100 of them will be new, and the other 400 mostly will be from other Adient offices throughout Michigan.
Adient aims to spend about $50 million _ or more _ to renovate the 10-story, 164,000-square-foot building. The purchase price was not disclosed. Adient also plans to invest another $75 million to $100 million to renovate and consolidate its research offices and labs outside the city.
But the big win for the city, officials said, is that a fourth major corporation _ in addition to General Motors, DTE and Ally Financial _ will call Detroit home.
"We've had a pretty remarkable last seven days," Mayor Mike Duggan said at the news conference announcing the move. He listed recent achievements: "The Pistons returning home after 40 years, the announcement yesterday of the largest new neighborhood built in the city in decades. But in many ways this announcement with Adient is the most extraordinary of all."
Adient has an expected annual revenue of $17 billion next year, not including an additional $15 billion from joint ventures with other companies.
Duggan said that Adient's decision is "a message to every major company in America that Detroit is a place that you want to be."
In wooing Adient from Milwaukee, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. negotiated a $2 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant.
The renovation plans for the Marquette Building have not been finalized, but McDonald promised to "bring it back to its former splendor" _ inside and out, restoring it to the way it originally looked when it was built in 1905. The company also aims to design it to have bright and collaborative workspaces, a showroom, food services, and rooftop terraces.
"It's a landmark building that's going to reflect our image and what we want to be known as," McDonald said.
In addition, he said, Adient also bought an adjacent parking garage.
McDonald said the company will keep most of its workers _ about 80 _ in Milwaukee, where it is currently based.
In addition, he said, the company will remain domiciled in Ireland for tax purposes.
Most of Adient's top executives _ including McDonald _ will work and live in metro Detroit, he said. He said he has not decided if he will live in the city.
"I think people are going to recognize _ like we've recognized _ that this is an exciting place," McDonald said. "One of the big reasons why we decided to move downtown, as opposed to stay in the suburbs, is we recognize that the next generation of employees _ millennials _ they don't want to work in the suburbs. They want to work downtown where the action is."
Another plus for the auto supplier's move is that it will be in the Motor City and based directly across the street from Cobo Center, the home of one of the most important auto shows in the world.
Adient is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company has about 75,000 employees worldwide in 230 offices, labs and manufacturing facilities in 33 countries. In Latin, a spokeswoman for the company said, the name means "to move forward toward a stimulus."
