Penske to clean Detroit streets

As chairman of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, he'll oversee privately funded, seven-day-a-week cleanup effort.

Lisa M. Collins / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Billionaire Roger Penske will lead a coalition of civic and corporate leaders committed to improving downtown Detroit, and his first chore is to clean up the city's business district.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick called his new partnership with Penske, announced Monday, "historic." Penske, who chaired the Super Bowl Host committee, promised a seven-day-a-week cleanup effort that will be paid by private donations, not tax dollars.

His new position as chairman of the Downtown Detroit Partnership signals a greater role in the city's development for Penske, 69.

The organization formed last year as a merger of downtown groups that had spearheaded such high-profile projects as Campus Martius park and the lower Woodward corridor development. It managed cleanup for Super Bowl XL.

Matt Cullen, a General Motors Corp. executive highly active in downtown economic development for the corporation, was the group's president; he'll now be its vice chairman, under Penske.

Cullen said it is hoped that the Downtown Detroit Partnership will allow downtown businesses to speak "in a unified voice" and to join the city in Detroit's development and cleanup.

"With Roger Penske heading up the Downtown Detroit Partnership, now we're really positioned to build on the foundation of the Super Bowl," Cullen said.

Said Penske: "It's a chance for me to give something back. We want to have the reputation as a clean, safe city. This is bigger than the Super Bowl, as far as I'm concerned."

Penske, of Birmingham, will oversee the cleanup of the downtown area -- bounded by Jefferson and Adams and Beaubien and Cass -- with private funding of $1.2 million this year and $1.5 million next year. Starting in June, workers from Goodwill Industries will scour streets from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, and for four hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays. They'll power wash sidewalks, clear trash and remove graffiti.

"The groundwork was really set during Super Bowl, and I think it's a natural transition for me to set new deadlines and achieve new successes for the city of Detroit," Penske said.

Penske said he's raised half the money for the cleanup, which is his first public effort since the Super Bowl Host Committee.

Penske said he hopes the city soon will establish a Business Improvement District to take over the cleanup. Used by cities around the country, a BID would require downtown businesses to pool special taxes for improvements and cleanup.

Such a district was proposed several years ago, but rejected by the City Council because the business community was split on the issue. Some businesses felt the fee would be too onerous; others protested caps on the financial obligations of GM and other businesses.

Kilpatrick said a neighborhood cleanup is next.

"Downtown is easy," Kilpatrick said. "To find strategies for the neighborhoods is more difficult."

Penske is best known as the owner of an auto racing team that has won the Indianapolis 500 13 times. His privately held Penske Corp. also includes a controlling stake in United Auto Group Inc., the second-largest publicly traded dealership chain after AutoNation Inc.; Penske Automotive Group Inc., another dealership chain; Penske Truck Leasing, a transportation and logistics company and a joint venture with General Electric Co.; and other transportation-related businesses.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. You can reach Lisa M. Collins at (313) 222-2072 or lcollins@detnews.com.

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