The holiday season is in full swing in Detroit and Downtown has not glowed this brightly in years. This year’s Holiday Aglow was a testament to the positive spirit and vibrancy evident Downtown these days from the gorgeous holiday décor and lighting to the exciting new popup retail options complete with Quicken Loans-sponsored trolley service for lunchtime shoppers along Woodward.
After a beautiful and wonderfully crowded Tree Lighting on Nov. 16 in Campus Martius Park, nearly 600 Downtown supporters gathered to eat turkey and talk turkey while raising money to keep Downtown safe, clean and inviting.
As DDP Board Chair and Strategic Solutions founder and CEO Cindy Pasky and DDP CEO Dave Blaszkiewicz noted 2012 was a good year in Detroit’s core district. Accomplishments included:
- – More than 10,000 new employees working Downtown
- – Residential occupancy at a record high 97%
- – New significant projects coming online including the just completed Broderick that was fully leased within a week of its opening as well as the David Whitney and Capitol Park that will be in full swing next spring
- – Plans already underway to transform the CBD’s retail corridor
- – The long anticipated M1- Rail running along Woodward is just around the corner
- – More coordinated Downtown private and public safety efforts due to projects such as Project Lighthouse
Highlights from this year’s Aglow included a performance by the choir from the Detroit Friends School, slides of some of Downtown glowing moments from the 2012 and an exciting announcement from the Chevy Belle Isle Grand Prix that Quicken Loans has signed on as a major sponsor for the 2013 race. The funniest line of the evening was when Quicken’s Dan Gilbert quipped Penske race car driver “Helio Castroneves is the only person in the room with more product in his hair than me.”
Both the 2012 Tree Lighting Ceremony and 29th Annual Detroit Aglow event were made possible by the generosity of presenting sponsor the DTE Foundation.
Other sponsors for Detroit Aglow included Strategic Staffing Solutions, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Detroit Thermal, SmithGroup, PVS Chemicals, Cooper Standard, Chase, Comerica Bank, Henry Ford Health Systems, DMC, Walbridge, Brickman/Torre, Walbridge, The Ferchill Group, Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, Quicken Loans, Blumz, Inland Press and Epiphany.
Maura Campbell, Dig Downtown Blog.
