Dominic Mazoch posted:I have seen too many building boom/bust cycles. Once the rose is off and people get over the newness........
Plus, why do one need an art scene to attract workers. I would be more concerned about low cost of living, low taxes, and good infrastructure.
Is this one of the cases of putting the caboose before the horse.
Boom/bust cycles tend to happen because of poor policy decisions and bubble economies based on those poor policies (for example, the housing 'boom' in places like Las Vegas and Tampa based in idiotic lending and the 'flip' mentality that outran any kind of jobs to support those prices).
As far as putting the caboose before the horse, sometimes you need to do that, doing things that seem out there to jumpstart something. For example, if Ford's vision is they want Detroit to become a high tech hub that benefits themselves and others *hypothetically*), it can take risks to get it going. I can only speculate on Ford's motives or strategy for doing this project, but something like this could be a prime the pump kind of thing.
As far as where a company locates, that depends a lot on what they are planning to do and who they need to do it, as well as factors like availability of space, cost of space, taxes and of course infrastructure. It is very different if you are planning to put up a factory to manufacture widgets then it is some sort of start up in high tech. A widget factory might look at a location because it has low taxes, easy access to shipping, low cost electrical power, a low cost of living or a place where there is a relatively large employment pool of people.
High tech companies operate differently. They tend to locate in areas that have close proximity to research universities and other pools of talent and research, and they are looking for people with the kind of skill sets they need, which generally tends to be well educated and also trends younger. Generally when you have an arts scene (and that isn't just art galleries and the like, it is music, visual arts, etc) it also spawns other things, like nightlife, cafes and restaurants. It is why more than a few attempts to establish high tech corridors in more rural or exurban areas have failed, because of what potential employees want from the area they live in.
A factory manufacturing widgets on the other hand will generally have people who might be looking for things like good schools, a house with a bit of property and the like, because they have families and have different needs...and this would/could include both line workers and the managers and engineers, needs change as you get older and want to settle down .
One thing I do know, bold moves are generally required to create change, and those waiting let's say for Detroit to gentrify and become "safe", could very well be on the tail end of things *shrug*.
