Missing GM sign is no reason to panic

Normally, routine sign maintenance wouldn't cause much of a stir.

But when the sign being maintained is atop Detroit's tallest building, and the owner of that building — General Motors — is often rumored to be itching for a move to the suburbs, such work has the potential to cause a minor panic in the Motor City.

So when Crain's Detroit Business, an affiliate of Automotive News, noticed the sign that projects GM's glowing logo into downtown had been removed from its Renaissance Center headquarters, it began asking questions. The answers should be somewhat reassuring to anyone worried that GM is about to cut bait on its hometown.

Per Tara Stewart Kuhnen, director of corporate news for GM, the signs are being replaced one by one for maintenance, with the project wrapping up around wintertime. There are two other such signs on the RenCen's central 727-foot hotel tower: one facing east, the other facing west.

Last summer, GM CEO Mary Barra told the Associated Press that GM's headquarters would remain in the RenCen. Still, there has long been speculation about the complex's future, even before the COVID-19 pandemic topsy-turvied the way companies use office space.

There had been talks that the RenCen would be sold during GM's bankruptcy, and Detroit mortgage billionaire Dan Gilbert at one point had conversations about buying it that went nowhere, for example.

Even just a few years ago, a couple of the seven towers — including one that GM does not own — were less than two-thirds leased.

Questions continued in the pandemic, particularly as GM, which created a flexible remote-work policy dubbed "Work Appropriately," went back and forth on return-to-office mandates. (Stewart Kuhnen said the policy remains unchanged, and occupancy in the complex varies each day.)

But at least for the time being, it seems as though it's mostly business as usual in the towers on the Detroit riverfront — minus the sign replacement.