GM moves its global headquarters to Hudson's Detroit

General Motors began moving its global headquarters into Hudson's Detroit on January 12, 2026, ending a roughly three-decade run inside the Renaissance Center and bringing the automaker back to Woodward Avenue. In its own announcement marking the move, GM framed the relocation as a homecoming, saying Detroit has been the company's center since its first Woodward Avenue home opened in 1911 and calling the move a return to that street and the start of "a bold new era for the company."

The new headquarters fills roughly 200,000 square feet across four floors of Hudson's Detroit, the mixed-use development Bedrock built on the site of the old J.L. Hudson department store. GM is the anchor tenant in the project's 12-story office building, under an initial 15-year lease that also gives it street-level showcase space for its vehicles, per Bedrock. The decision was first announced on April 15, 2024.

The main lobby is named Entrance One, a nod to the historic employee entrance at the J.L. Hudson store, and it opens onto a rotating display of new Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles. The architecture leans on the midcentury design language of Eero Saarinen's GM Technical Center in Warren and folds in work from contemporary artists.

The move leaves the Renaissance Center largely empty after more than a year of tenants drifting out. The riverfront complex runs to about 5.5 million square feet, and only a thin roster of office and retail tenants remained by late 2025. The food court emptied out over the fall, and two Tower 400 restaurants, Joe Muer Seafood and Andiamo Detroit Riverfront, face relocation ahead of the work to come.

What comes next is a $1.6 billion redevelopment by GM and Bedrock that would shrink the complex rather than preserve it whole. The plan calls for demolishing the riverfront-facing Towers 300 and 400 along with the retail-and-showroom podium, removing roughly 1.25 million square feet and opening about six acres of riverfront to public use. The central 73-story tower would stay a Marriott but cut its hotel rooms to about 850 from 1,200, with upper floors converted to apartments. Tower 100 would become residential and Tower 200 would keep its offices.

The money behind it splits across private and public sources, per the partners and city filings. Bedrock founder Dan Gilbert has committed about $1 billion and GM has pledged $250 million, while Bedrock is seeking at least $250 million in public support, including a $75 million package already approved by the Downtown Development Authority. Demolition is not expected to begin until the spring of 2027, after Detroit hosts the NCAA Men's Final Four in early April that year and the Marriott's rooms are no longer needed for the crowds.

The Renaissance Center was conceived by Henry Ford II in 1971 and opened in 1977, and GM bought the bulk of it in the mid-1990s. For most of the years since, the GM logo was the defining mark on the riverfront skyline. That era is closing as the company settles in a few blocks north on Woodward.

1240 Woodward Ave., Detroit