CNN Money: Detroit's Stealth Business Boom

detroit jobs
Construction workers working on a combination office and residential tower in downtown Detroit last year.

The nation's hottest downtown is in America's most troubled city -- bankrupt Detroit.

Detroit is struggling with the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation's history, which was brought on in part by the flight of both residents and businesses in recent decades. But Detroit's downtown area is enjoying rapid growth. The busy, 7.2-square-mile area stands in sharp contrast to the stretches of abandoned homes, closed factories and urban decay that dominate most of the city.

"It seems like a paradox -- services are so bad but the demand for space keeps going up up up," said John DeGroot, vice president of research for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, which tracks office vacancy rates nationwide. He said the office vacancy rate in Detroit is still high by national standards - about 27.1% in the second quarter, but that's down from 33% two years ago.

"Usually you see a percentage point drop here or there," he said. "It's phenomenal."

Affordable office space is driving the trend - downtown rents can be 7% to 25% lower than rates in some nearby suburbs. And so jobs from the suburbs are are returning to the city, and it's not the resurgent auto industry leading the charge. Quicken Loans, Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield and utility DTE Energy (DTE, Fortune 500) have all moved locations from the suburbs to downtown.

"One reason we believe this [revival] will have legs is it goes across multiple industries," said Cindy Pasky, president of the firm Strategic Staffing Solutions and the chairman of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.

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