Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert speaks at the Mackinac Policy Conference on May 29, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
The takeaway from Michigan billionaire Dan Gilbert’s 40-minute appearance Wednesday during the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference was “think big” and “make big bets.”
The Rocket Mortgage founder and philanthropist offered his opinions and thoughts on everything from life after a stroke; what he is most proud of in terms of his financial commitment to Detroit; state policy, which included transportation; corporate responsibility; and Detroit’s economic future more than 10 years after its municipal bankruptcy.
He was interviewed by Dennis Archer Jr., a Detroit Regional Chamber board member, business owner and son of former Detroit Mayor and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Dennis Archer.
Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert speaks at the Mackinac Policy Conference on May 29, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
Forbes magazine estimates that the 62-year-old Gilbert, who was born in Detroit and raised in Southfield, is worth $27.9 billion. His holding owns at least 100 buildings in downtown Detroit. His Gilbert Family Foundation has made multiple investments in Detroit this year, including $15 million to the Strategic Neighborhood Fund and $1.8 million to “Greening of Detroit,” an effort to plant trees in neighborhoods and develop green spaces.
When he was asked about how state government can help business, Gilbert was direct.
“We need both sides of the aisle in the state Legislature to get together and work on economic packages that are long-term,” he said. “We gotta stop doing short-term, year-to-year stuff. That doesn’t work.”
The Legislature is currently controlled by Democrats for the first time in about 40 years. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is also a Democrat.
Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert speaks at the Mackinac Policy Conference on May 29, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
Gilbert talked openly about his stroke in 2019. He said that the stroke was more genetic and not stress-related.
“I’m in the office two or three days a week; I can get around with my cane a little bit,” Gilbert said. “I have a great physical therapy team around me and my family around me. It takes a village, I’ll tell you what.”
When asked about what he was most proud of from a business standpoint, Gilbert was candid.
“I just like building things, building companies and watching all of our people come together as a team and build a building,” Gilbert said. “There’s nothing more exciting than that and deploy that wealth into communities that we live in. … I’m very, very excited about the philanthropy side and the business, as well.”
Gilbert was asked about the importance of public policy cooperation.
“I think the big three things they have to look at are … affordable housing,” he said. “That’s not just for young folks, that’s for everybody. … We need to have vibrant, densely populated urban areas where there is action. The third one is transportation. All transportation. We need transportation to and from the suburbs, to and from the airport, to Ann Arbor, to Chicago, eventually.
GM headquarters, Detroit | Susan J. Demas
“Transportation everywhere. … if you look at any big city, any metropolitan area who doesn’t have some type of regional transportation efforts going on. We are one of the fewest who doesn’t. That’s another reason that we have to think big. But this takes multiple facets of groups, multiple leaders from private foundations, to city [government], business leaders … the federal government needs to be shown that we can get our act together and create funding for transportation.”
And when asked about the future of Detroit’s Renaissance Center, after recent news that General Motors will move its world headquarters out of the iconic skyscraper to his Hudson’s Detroit development downtown that’s being built, Gilbert was optimistic.
“I couldn’t tell you the actual specific uses, but I will tell you that the mayor, and the city government, as well as General Motors, ourselves and the county — everybody’s interested in making sure that that waterfront is redeveloped in a beautiful way, if it is redeveloped,” he said.
“Maybe part of it is converted to some other use,” he added. “But I think that everybody is interested in keeping some very exciting, and promising, development on that property.”
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