All told, Gilbert has invested $1.3 billion in mostly commercial real estate, represented by more than 60 properties in the city’s central business district. One of the private sector pioneers in remaking the city is Detroit native Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers professional basketball team and chief executive officer of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures, the umbrella entity encompassing Gilbert’s business and real estate enterprises. Remaking Detroit is an enormous undertaking. Public art and games such as this giant chess set on Michigan Avenue inject whimsy and spontaneity into Detroit’s efforts at place making. The operations center is also one of the frontiers in a massive and historic revitalization effort underway in Detroit-a city that has yet to emerge from an $18 billion bankruptcy filed in July 2013, and that has $850 million worth of blighted structures and vacant lots to rehabilitate, according to the White House–commissioned Detroit Blight Removal Task Force. Welcome to the Quicken Loans operations center, where these bankers rake in roughly $7 billion in home loan sales per month, making Quicken the largest retailer of online mortgages in the United States. Cheers and high-fives occasionally punctuate the atmosphere of the room, drowning out the hum of conversation and background music. Still others roam around with their headsets on. All the desks can be adjusted for height, so some bankers sit while others stand in front of multiple computer screens displaying real-time data. Photos of top sellers decorate the room’s perimeter. Each banker has an enlarged selfie attached to his or her desk. Walls in the building now called the Qube (and formerly known as Chase Tower) are painted lime green, magenta, and bright orange. The room resembles the buzzing hive of a trading floor, but with more whimsy and color. In downtown Detroit at 611 Woodward Avenue-a building designed in the late 1950s by noted industrial architect Albert Kahn-dozens of Quicken Loans mortgage bankers are talking a mile a minute into their headsets. Quicken Loans occupies several floors of the Qube, shown at center, formerly known as the Chase Tower. Local businessman Dan Gilbert bought dozens of vacant and underused commercial properties in downtown Detroit to set up his family of companies.
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