Penske elected Chairman of DDP

Southeastern Michigan business leader Robert Penske was elected Chairman of the Downtown Detroit Partnership on Monday, May 8. Penske plans to utilize his position to ensure that Downtown continues with the positive momentum, cleanliness and level of activity that it garnered at the Super Bowl.

DDP’s top agenda item is the establishment of a formal Business Improvement District, a mechanism through which property assessments are used to fund services such as sidewalk sweeping, graffiti removal, banners, holiday decorations, trash and snow removal and the like. BIDs have been the foundation of the renaissances of many a downtown and neighborhood commercial corridor across the country, but currently, only volunteer BIDs exist in Detroit—with Downtown poised to become the first formal BID and Southwest Detroit’s West Vernor preparing to become the second.

DDP also announced the kick-off of a two-year initiative to be called Next Detroit: Clean Downtown, which will endeavor to carry on many of the functions of the BID prior to its formalization. This initiative was crafted by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and Penske, then working on behalf of Detroit Renaissance. Penske replaces outgoing Chairman Matt Cullen of General Motors, who will now be serving as DDP’s Vice-Chair.