DDP Touts Successes

Announces $750,000 grant

March 20, 2008
By Robert Ankeny

June 30, 2006

Penske Corp. Chairman Roger Penske, who heads
the Downtown Detroit Partnership, says private-
sector partnerships have brought successful events
to downtown Detroit.
Photo credit: Nathan Skid/Crain's Detroit Business

It’s all about private-sector partnerships, speakers at the Downtown Detroit Partnership told a crowd of more than 850 gathered Monday in the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center for the organization’s annual luncheon meeting.

The Grand Prix on Belle Isle, near to my heart, was only one success,” said Penske Corp. Chairman Roger Penske, who heads the DDP.

Penske said the event last Labor Day weekend attracted 100,000 spectators and raised $5.5 million for improvements to the city’s island park.

Penske said the six-day Detroit River Days and Freedom Festival drew some 700,000 last year. He cited the cooperative efforts of General Motors Corp. the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the Parade Co. and City of Detroit departments.

Other events included the Detroit Winter Blast, Thanksgiving Day Parade, International Jazz Festival, Movement (the electronic music festival) and the North American International Auto Show.

Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said the county’s recent purchase of the Guardian Building makes them downtown’s “latest landlord,” and said that private sector partnerships through groups such as the DDP and Detroit Renaissance Inc. are vital to allowing Detroit and the region to “continue to build.”

Penske also announced that Detroit Renaissance is providing the DDP with a three-year $750,000 grant to promote the downtown area. The first two brochures produced with the funds — a map and guide to downtown and a food and fun brochure — were distributed with the DDP annual report.

My top priority is Downtown Detroit,” Penske said. “It’s the entertainment hub of the region and Detroit’s calling card to the world.”

DDP’s Clean Downtown program, for which Goodwill Industries has been hired, has the support of 40 companies at $2.8 million, cleaning 39 miles of sidewalk and removing 300 tons of trash, he said.

Ann Lang, DDP president and CEO, said Goodwill, which employs about 140 people for the work downtown, is moving from “clean to green” and starting a landscaping division with DDP, one of its first major customers.

Cindy Pasky, president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc. and a DDP board member, reported on first successes last October through December for the group’s 2-1-1 On the Go Program to aid Detroit’s homeless, an arrangement between United Way and the DDP.

© 2008 Crain Communications Inc.

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