Pulte Reportedly Leaving Detroit While Grandson Tries To Save It

Pulte Homes, the homebuilding giant responsible for tons of love-it-or-hate-it sprawl across the nation, is moving its headquarters from suburban Detroit to Atlanta, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

On paper, Pulte's move from Detroit to Atlanta isn't any different than, say, Kenya Moore. Symbolically and financially, it will strike a blow to metro Detroit's identity and economy.

Pulte has been on the radars of Detroit's booster crowd because of its loose connection to recent efforts in eradicating blight in the city. Bill Pulte, grandson of the firm's founder, has made the media rounds expressing his interest in helping to revitalize Detroit.

Bill Pulte's nonprofit, not connected to the company itself, recently knocked out 10 blocks of blight around Eastern Market and, this week, announced another plan to knock out 1.5-square-miles of blight in a yet-to-be-announced (five bucks says its new-media hotspot Brightmoor) neighborhood.

Alas, like Comerica and Motown before it, Pulte Homes' financial base may be served better elsewhere despite its roots in the Mitten. Detroit may be the place to be right now as Dan Gilbert and co. rehab empty buildings that Pulte can't tear down nor build upon, but the South and Southwest (hello, Texas) still has plenty of undeveloped land waiting to be McMansioned out. That, and the potential ripple effect of a Detroit bankruptcy.

[Photo via AP]