I'd say snubbed. The Detroit-Ann Arbor corridor and metro area is 5-ish million, with a strong tech scene, quite a bit of airport capacity (DTW, and if they wanted to use it, Willow Run). Cheap (and I mean cheap) housing, active and growing downtown, etc.
This is not the Detroit I went to grad school in, (mumble) 20+ years ago. Very different place, lots of investment. Ann Arbor is a dense tech mecca. East Lansing (90 miles away) less so, but between Wayne State, UofM's, MSU, Central Mich, MTU, and some of the smaller schools, there is a very strong engineering and computing culture. One that is frequently overlooked.
One thing I will note is a paucity of investment capital in the region, and a strong reluctance on the part of costal VCs to invest in fly over country.
However ... cost to hire/retain people here is very low compared to the coasts. Given how much the percentage of cost is in people, this should be a factor in any companies calculation on where to move.
Land/facilities are cheap. Transportation is ok ... we still have to work on local transit, as decades of mismanagement if not worse, have left the public transportation options in terrible shape. However, there are strong pushes from Dan Gilbert, the Illich family, and many others for modern regional transport. There are light and heavy rail all over here.
And, not for nothing ... we have 4 real seasons. Though, in my first few weeks out here (mumble) 30 something years ago, I surprised how they could all be on the same day ...
Detroit should be in the mix. As a leading contender. All of the rust belt should be.
This is not the Detroit I went to grad school in, (mumble) 20+ years ago. Very different place, lots of investment. Ann Arbor is a dense tech mecca. East Lansing (90 miles away) less so, but between Wayne State, UofM's, MSU, Central Mich, MTU, and some of the smaller schools, there is a very strong engineering and computing culture. One that is frequently overlooked.
One thing I will note is a paucity of investment capital in the region, and a strong reluctance on the part of costal VCs to invest in fly over country.
However ... cost to hire/retain people here is very low compared to the coasts. Given how much the percentage of cost is in people, this should be a factor in any companies calculation on where to move.
Land/facilities are cheap. Transportation is ok ... we still have to work on local transit, as decades of mismanagement if not worse, have left the public transportation options in terrible shape. However, there are strong pushes from Dan Gilbert, the Illich family, and many others for modern regional transport. There are light and heavy rail all over here.
And, not for nothing ... we have 4 real seasons. Though, in my first few weeks out here (mumble) 30 something years ago, I surprised how they could all be on the same day ...
Detroit should be in the mix. As a leading contender. All of the rust belt should be.