For years now, I and many of my business colleagues have been saying that there's enormous value to be found in Detroit. Today we got a major endorsement of that message when Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's chairman and CEO, announced a $100 million investment to boost economic development in the city.
The investment, made official during a luncheon in Detroit with Mayor Mike Duggan and Gov. Rick Snyder, would spread the money over five years for things like economic development loans, entrepreneurship and workforce training, blight removal and home loans and the M-1 Rail project. It builds on a $20 million initiative from fellow Wall Street heavyweights Goldman Sachs and Warren Buffett, announced last fall, to aid small businesses in Detroit.
Blue Cross has been a resident of downtown Detroit for 75 years, and we've never been more confident about the city's future, despite the difficulties of Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
JPMorgan Chase, which already has a large presence in this market, is putting its money on a Detroit comeback. Watch an interview with Dimon about the investment on the Today Show in the video below.
Daniel J. Loepp is president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.