Detroit Turning Into High-Tech Hub

DETROIT—In the face of municipal bankruptcy and population loss, the Detroit office market, especially in the CBD, has shown surprising strength. Even the suburbs have started to emerge from recessionary doldrums. But one aspect of this revival that could play an even bigger role in the future is the expansion of local high-tech firms.

“Automobiles are fast becoming high-tech pieces of equipment,” AJ Weiner, executive vice president of JLL in the Detroit metro area, tells GlobeSt.com. Modern cars need far more powerful computers than even in the recent past, and amenities such as GPS satellite tracking are becoming standard. Therefore, as the auto industry continues to recover from its own financial crisis, the Big Three automakers and their suppliers have been beefing up the tech sector.