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Cavaliers' Gilbert Seeking Payoff From Investments In Cleveland, Detroit Revivals

Cavaliers Owner DAN GILBERT, who "owns about 100 companies, multiple casinos and hotels, and much of downtown Detroit," is "the business face of 'rust belt chic,'" according to a profile by Matthew Kaminski of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Gilbert "can take more than a little credit for the improved look of Cleveland and especially Detroit, where many people now refer to downtown as Gilbertville." He "claims no altruistic motives and is looking to make his ventures pay off." The question that "hangs over it all: Is the nascent renaissance hype or the real thing?" Gilbert said that both cities "have a way to go, but he is 'sure it’s bottomed' in both places and 'momentum breeds momentum breeds momentum.'" The "business case is that young, educated workers want to work and live in a vibrant urban core." Gilbert said that "with this 'underlying macro trend,' companies in the suburbs will have to adjust or suffer." Gilbert: "Now the question will be: Do these Midwest cities take that trend and either screw it up and don’t take advantage of other things that would complete all that, or do they? Never before did you have that kind of opportunity as you do now." Kaminski noted the trend "could mean big profits" as a real-estate bet for Gilbert. He said, "It’s not charity. You’ve got to have investors believe it’s going to return." Kaminski wrote young people who choose to live in Cleveland or Detroit "insist they are heading in the right direction, touting them as places of opportunity and dynamism." Gilbert said, "We so easily let our kids leave. ... How would you not want them here, getting great educations and keeping them here? Give them a job that makes sense in the new economy and an urban core and they’re back" (WSJ.com, 11/1).

CITY SELF-PITY? Under Armour Founder, Chair & CEO KEVIN PLANK said that Baltimore, where the company's HQ are located, "needs to shed its collective self-image as a second-string city." Plank: "I want Baltimore to be the coolest city in the world. Why can't we make it great?" (BALTIMORESUN.com, 10/31).

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