Cadillac headquarters plots relocation from New York to Warren

Sep 26, 2018 at 5:02 pm
Carbonatix Pre-Player Loader

Audio By Carbonatix

The Cadillac CTS-V IMSA Championship Edition appeared at the North American International Auto Show at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit in January 2018. - Ed Aldridge via Shutterstock
Ed Aldridge via Shutterstock
The Cadillac CTS-V IMSA Championship Edition appeared at the North American International Auto Show at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit in January 2018.

Cadillac is coming home – or at least this is true of its headquarters.

Nearly four years after the luxury car brand moved its headquarters from Detroit to the fashionable SoHo district in New York, representatives at General Motors have announced that Cadillac will make its move to Warren.

The initial move to New York was made with the intention of creating greater autonomy for the Cadillac brand to operate. However, with thousands of Cadillac employees still based in Michigan, that wasn't so easy. According to the Wall Street Journal, the luxury brand still relied on decisions made by Michigan employees – everything from style designs, vehicle features, and even pricing.

Steve Carlisle, a GM executive who took over the Cadillac brand in April, spoke about the decision to WSJ, saying that decision in part comes down to a necessity to streamline. "We have a huge number of launches ahead of us," Carlisle says, “We’ve got to think about how we take inefficiencies out of the communication process between the Cadillac team and the GM partners.”

This decision comes after the departure of Cadillac's former head, Johan de Nysschen. Mr. de Nysschen who formerly worked Volkswagen AG’s Audi of America was said to not have an aligned vision with Detroit-based GM executives, causing disputes. Under de Nysschen, Cadillac sales began to slump in the U.S., falling behind luxury car competitors like Audi and BMW.

Cadillac's current New York headquarters house roughly 110 employees – mostly executives and marketing personnel. Carlisle says that the new headquarters will be based in a renovated space in Warren, near the GM technical facilities where thousands of Cadillac's engineering and vehicle design employees are already based.


Stay on top of Detroit news and views. Sign up for our weekly issue newsletter delivered each Wednesday.