Outlook 'Promising' for Detroit Region

DETROIT-Detroit area economic experts are calling for a good year in 2004. That includes a promising outlook for the construction and commercial real estate market, according to a local building trades executive.

Bill McCarthy, chairman-elect of the Greater Detroit Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, said that a number of large-scale projects, such as the new North Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport, Visteon’s new world headquarters in Van Buren Township, a new Federal Reserve Bank in Detroit and the $300 million renovation of Detroit’s Marathon/Ashland refinery, along with housing starts, will add up to a “promising” construction outlook for 2004. McCarthy made his comments at the Detroit Economic Club’s annual economic forecast luncheon.

In other positive indicators for the Detroit region, Allan Gilmour, vice chairman of Ford Motor Co., predicted that the auto sector will improve as the global economy shows continued improvement in 2004.

Dick Wade, president of Bank One of Michigan, said that the economy is “poised to move beyond stable and recovery to robust.”