Quicken Loans founder and developer Dan Gilbert has shot back at Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. Patterson accused Gilbert in a speech earlier on Wednesday of luring suburban businesses to Detroit.
"I would actually be more impressed if Brooks had gotten his facts correct," Gilbert said in a statement issued late Wednesday, according to an article by Bill Laitner of the Free Press. "Of the more than 120 technology companies that have opened shop in SE Michigan's leading high-tech corridor along Woodward in downtown Detroit, more than 100 of them were launched right in the heart of the region's urban core."
"However, we did recently 'woo' a large financial institution's regional HQ from the 'fertile vineyards of Oakland County,' " Gilbert added. "In all seriousness, it would be much more productive if we could all work together to grow the region and state, leaving the divisive politics of the past in the past where they belong. Are you listening, Brooks?"
According to a Free Press story, Patterson told an audience from 140 firms at a tech firm's offices in Southfield: "I'll fight to keep you here in Oakland County."
Then he said: "Are you listening Dan?"
"I would be more impressed with Mr. Gilbert's efforts if he were to bring in high-tech companies from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois rather than looking through the fertile vineyards of Oakland County," Patterson said.
