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Compuware Corporation founder Peter Karmanos Jr. is moving out of the company headquarters, a development he engineered a decade ago that revitalized the Campus Martius neighborhood and did much to pave the way for downtown's renaissance.
Reasons for the departure are unclear. Karmanos confirmed the move, but declined further comment. Company executives also declined to discuss the matter.
Karmanos stepped down as executive chairman and left the board of directors April 1, the firm’s founding date. He received a consulting agreement with Compuware, and workers recently completed a new office for him on the building’s executive floor.
A native Detroiter who is one of Michigan’s best known businessmen, Karmanos founded Compuware in 1973 with two now-deceased friends. But his relationship with current management appears to have soured after he left an active role.
Last month, plans for a lavish celebration planned by Karmanos’ wife, Danialle, that was to honor his 40 years at the company’s helm, were canceled by Compuware amid pressure to control costs.
Danialle Karmanos complained to the Compuware board of directors in a highly critical letter that was widely circulated in the local media.
Earlier this year, Compuware rejected a purchase offer from Elliott Management, a New York hedge fund, but Elliott continues to demonstrate interest. Two weeks ago, Compuware reported disappointing fourth quarter results.
Karmanos, 70, served as Compuware’s CEO until 2011, when he became executive chairman and Robert Paul became CEO.
Compuware had always been based in Oakland County, and was located on Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills in the late 1990s when Karmanos moved to downtown Detroit. The company erectedt the 15-story building on the site of the old Kern’s department store, vacant more than two decades.
While widely seen as a devoted Detroiter remaining loyal to his beat-up hometown, Karmanos always has insisted that he moved the firm for business reasons – the land was virtually free, and with its freeways and street connections, downtown is easily accessible for employees from across Metro Detroit.
But the move, coming about 14 years after Mike Ilitch moved his Little Caesars company into the renovated Fox Building, ran counter to years of suburban flight.
The influx of a few thousand Compuware workers injected life into the central business district, and Karmanos and the company played a key role in constructing and maintaining the award-winning Campus Martius Park in front of the building.
The Compuware Building has a 15-story water fountain in the lobby and contains shops, restaurants, a company cafeteria, health club and day care. It also houses four floors of employees of Quicken Loans, whose founder, Dan Gilbert, has ignited a new wave of downtown development over the past two years.
Born into a Greek immigrant family, Karmanos grew up working in his father’s diner at Grand River and Lasher. He quit Wayne State University and became interested in main frame computers and data processing in the 1960s, which led to his establishment of Compuware.
The owner of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League and the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, Karmanos also has made his mark in local philanthropy, funding the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, named after his first wife, who died of breast cancer in 1989.
Disclosure: Compuware Ventures provided start-up funds for Deadline Detroit in 2012.
