DETROIT-Matt Cullen is the most connected economic development agent of Detroit, and he’s joined the firm that looks to take his talents to the next level. Cullen, the former head of economic development at General Motors, responsible for bringing the automaker downtown into the iconic Renaissance Center, has joined the new mover-and-shaker in the city, Quicken Loans CEO Dan Gilbert.

Not only did Gilbert also move his entire operation from the suburbs and into the office-vacant downtown, he’s bought up a number of the buildings and has pledged renovation and mixed-use projects that could transform the city.

At the helm of this effort is Cullen, who has had his hands also full as founding chairman of the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy and volunteer CEO of Detroit’s M1 Light Rail project. Cullen isn’t just touching the backbone of the city, he’s at the spine control center of its development and infrastructure improvement. Here he answers questions from GlobeSt.com about his thoughts about a Motor City revival.

GlobeSt.com: Even with the development help of Dan Gilbert, how can the troubled, shrinking city of Detroit revive itself?

Cullen: You need to break it into two buckets. The city as a level of government is struggling, there’s lots of financial challenges, they’re trying to figure out how to get out of this upside-down balance sheet, they can’t continue to cut and get a way out. The positive thing about this is that leadership is finally confronting those issues, and are going to deal with them. It’s analogous to the Big Three’s problems, like a lot of businesses, you have to go through restructuring.

There’s a change, a feeling of not having a choice, that we can’t continue on the way things have gone. There’s the legacy costs, the health care and pensions, but it’s nobody’s fault, it was just a different world back then.

On the other side of the equation, the downtown, in all my years of active efforts, I don’t think the city has ever been better. It’s increasingly vibrant, there’s a lot more people down there now, and we, Rock, are bringing in more than a few. There’s even retail. The city is starting to hum a little bit.

GlobeSt.com: What will be the catalyst to make a revival happen?

Cullen: Dan (Gilbert) describes it in terms of hardware and software. You have buildings downtown trading inexpensively, and we need to work on the infrastructure and connectivity. But we also need to work on the software side, bringing people downtown and working to create business. We’re bringing thouands of employees downtown, and other companies such as Blue Cross are as well. If we could populate some of the areas such as Midtown. If we can employ people, we can build a cool place to work and live.

GlobeSt.com: Do you think the demand is there, that there enough people yet who want to live downtown?

Cullen: When I leave work at 9 p.m. I go outside the building, and see people on bikes, young ladies out jogging. It’s getting better, it’s getting 24/7 downtown. I used to know all the cool new restaurants, and I don’t even know them anymore. There’s a ton of stuff going on downtown, it’s like Barcelona, kids want that today, that urban environment.

I think there’s more people living downtown, there’s the cool office buildings converted into lofts, such as the Whitney and the Broderick. Crime, the police could be better, and it might be best to go to public schools. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting there. There are literally no available units downtown to move into. Now, not every neighborhood is good, we’re a city that once held 2.5 million and now we have 700,000. You can’t operate the plant at 75% efficiency, for another automotive analogy. We just have to be smart about land planning.

GlobeSt.com: Though it’s been a long time coming, when do you think we’ll start seeing the river walk area come to fruition? Will we ever see those promised housing developments and other projects?

Cullen: We’re going to be starting this year to connect the entire riverfront, some 3.5 miles, with amenities such as a pavilion for kids. I agree, the pace has been frustrating. When we started working on it at General Motors, there were a number of multifamily projects with models open, and then the nuclear winter hit the condo market and there was no new construction. I think this is all changing, I think there is pent-up demand for housing along the river. Until then, we are moving forward on the rest, including the new state park, the new port authority terminal, a new math and science high school. There’s just flat out a lot of people back in the game. I think you’ll see a lot of projects on the riverfront in the next five years.

GlobeSt.com: What do you think about the city’s decision to drop plans for a long light rail line from downtown to Eight Mile, and go with a smaller route and rapid-transit buses?

Cullen: I’m not disappointed in losing the long rail line, we’re just back to where we started. The two things that need to be addressed are regional transit, which connects people in the suburbs and the city, and fixing the current structure of the bus systems. We also need a high density connector to move us around downtown. When we started, the 3.4 miles of rail downtown were key. If we can get the rapid-transit system, over time we can get the light rail and expand it.

The way it had been going it got to big, and was becoming a project by committee with all negatives. It was almost a $600 million project and it just stopped at Eight Mile. If it doesn’t even move people into the suburbs, it’s an inelegant animal.

Once we demonstrate to people that we can capture value, it should be easy to extend it out. We had always intended bringing light rail out from the current People Mover, that second part just never happened. Between rapid-transit and light rail, and the People Mover, we should move closer to being able to provide mass transit to the entire area.

GlobeSt.com: What about Gilbert’s plans? Will there be more buying of buildings?

Cullen:There’s no doubt that we’ll continue to buy assets. We think the stock of Detroit is undervalued, and we think we can affect the outcome. We’re cultivating some real exciting retail and residential ideas, and you’ll see some of those manifesting this year.

Instant Insights /

Six Questions for Rock Ventures&#146; Matt Cullen

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