Mike Duggan, Dan Gilbert chat about downtown Detroit and what Bill Clinton saw in 1991
'You can't be just book smart being a mayor, you've got to be street smart — which you've proven," Dan Gilbert, the billionaire businessman, told Detroit mayor and 2026 gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan on Thursday, May 29, as they shared a stage at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
For about 40 minutes, the two leaders had a formal one-on-one, focusing mostly on Detroit and the improvements in the city since Duggan took office as mayor in January 2014.
Their chat touched on an array of Detroit subjects, including the controversial Renaissance Center redevelopment plan, the expected future downtown Apple Store and the surprise discovery about the city that future U.S. President Bill Clinton made during an early 1990s visit.
The mayor gave Gilbert credit for his firm's numerous investments that helped to dramatically revive downtown, attracting many new visitors and new residents.
Duggan recalled how on weekdays in downtown Detroit in the 1980s, people would arrive at 8:30 a.m. to start work, and by 5:30 p.m., nearly everyone was heading back out for home.
'If you were still on the streets at 6 o'clock, it was empty ― I am not exaggerating," Duggan said.
Duggan said he was part of a group in fall 1991 that welcomed Bill Clinton to the city for a presidential campaign visit. The event ended around 5:30 p.m., and the gregarious Clinton, who was then still just an Arkansas governor, was adamant on going out to walk around downtown and shake hands and introduce himself to people.
'I said, Governor, that's not really going to work," Duggan recalled. "He said, 'Oh no, you haven't seen me work. I can do this anywhere.' I said 'Oh no, you really don't understand.'
"He said, 'What's your Main Street. I said Woodward. He says, 'We're going.' '
Clinton ended up outside near the vacant yet then-still-standing J.H. Hudson department store. It didn't take long for the future president to realize that his Detroit hosts weren't exaggerating about downtown's desolation.
"And he's on the street — 'I'm Bill Clinton. I'm running for president,' " Duggan said. "And people walked around him like he's a homeless guy. He looks up and down the street and says, 'Nobody is here.' And I said 'I was trying to explain this to you.' "
More: Duggan's $4.5B education plan includes firing unsuccessful principals, superintendents
In 2025, downtown Detroit is a different story.
'You come downtown today, there are more people on the street and weekends than there are at noon at lunchtime. It is a completely transformed city," said Duggan, a Democratic mayor who is running for governor as an independent.
Duggan marveled to Gilbert about the influx of new retailers to downtown in recent years, many of them tenants in Gilbert's Bedrock-owned buildings, including Nike, Gucci and the athleisure brand Alo, which is set to open this summer in the new Hudson's Detroit development.
'What's amazing now is we get calls from retailers all over the country," Gilbert said. 'It used to be us calling them and begging them.'
Duggan asked Gilbert whether there has been a formal announcement yet for one of the worst-kept secrets in Detroit: the expected opening of an Apple Store on Woodward Avenue, just north of the Shinola Hotel. (Also in a Bedrock-owned building.)
Gilbert stopped short of offering any confirmation for an Apple Store coming to 1426-1434 Woodward. He did say, however, "it's not us, they want to announce it themselves."
The conversation soon turned to the city's riverfront, and how it, too, once had few visitors, but thanks to years of investments and improvements, the RiverWalk is now an incredibly popular destination for Detroiters and city visitors from all walks of life.
Then Duggan added: "And if we could just get somebody to take down two towers of the Renaissance Center and build Navy Pier sitting in that hole in the middle, it would be perfect.'
Bedrock and General Motors are collaborating on that $1.6 billion redevelopment proposal for the RenCen that calls for demolishing the complex's massive concrete podium and two of the five original 1977 towers, and then using the vacated space to create a park and entertainment district around the site that would be comparable to Chicago's Millennium Park and Navy Pier.
The proposal was first unveiled late last year, but hinges on some $250 million to $350 million of potential public incentives, most of which would require state-level approvals that haven't yet been forthcoming.
Responding to Duggan's reference to the RenCen redevelopment, Gilbert said, "If we get a governor that can support us in that, that would be great, too."
Dugan: 'The good news is I think you already have a governor who supports you."
Gilbert: 'She does."
Duggan: "We just got to get a few legislators on your side.'
Near the end of their chat, Gilbert said people from all over the country have been calling up Bedrock to tour downtown Detroit and get pointers on urban planning and "placemaking." That includes members of the family behind the retail giant Walmart, he said, who recently visited for possible ideas for the corporation's hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.
'You've done so many amazing things," Duggan told Gilbert. "I will say this. I think, at the end of the day, what you are doing on the riverfront with the Renaissance Center, if you pull that off, it will be the biggest accomplishment for the city."
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Duggan, Gilbert chat about Detroit and what Bill Clinton saw in '91
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