Billionaire Dan Gilbert wants an extension on his promise to create jobs at his partially public-funded Hudson’s development in downtown Detroit, a request that comes just a month after a $250 million ask from taxpayers to renovate the Renaissance Center.

In 2017, Gilbert secured a $618 million Transformational Brownfield tax incentive for four downtown developments led his firm Bedrock Detroit that includes a 681-foot skyscraper known as Hudson’s Detroit.

The agreement allows the billionaire to capture multiple streams of future local and state tax revenues generated by the buildings, including 50% of state income taxes paid by each General Motors employee that’s slated to move to the Hudson’s building, and 100% of state income taxes paid by future condo residents, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Originally slated for completion in 2022 at a cost of $900 million, the project was expected to create nearly 2,000 full-time jobs. Fast forward to 2024 and the cost has swelled to $1.4 billion. Gilbert now faces a Dec. 31 deadline to make good on his jobs promise, after securing a previous 2-year extension in 2022 to push it back.

“The precise reasons for the project’s lengthy construction has been unclear,” the Free Press reports. “Bedrock didn’t respond Thursday to a request for comment on its new deadline extension request.”

Bedrock co-owns the Detroit Renaissance Center with General Motors, the only announced tenant for the Hudson’s development. The skyscraper is expected to include a 210-room ultraluxury EDITION Hotel, as well as dozens of high-end condos dubbed The Residences at The Detroit EDITION.

A spokesperson for the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority told the Free Press the Downtown Development Authority will consider Gilbert’s request for an extension at a January board meeting. The tax incentive agreement includes provisions to allow for extension if the development “has been proceeding in good faith.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

That agreement is in addition to another approved by the Detroit City Council in 2022 that allows Bedrock to avoid $60 million in local taxes over a decade.

The extension request comes about a month after Bedrock and GM unveiled plans to redevelop the nearly 50-year-old Renaissance Center and 27 nearby acres that involves renovating three of the site’s five towers and demolishing two.

Those plans assumed Michigan taxpayers would cover $350 million of the $1.6 billion project – $250 million from the state and $100 million from Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority.

The repeated delays with the Hudson’s development could add resistance from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who are already pushing back on taxpayer funding for the Renaissance Center.

“Dan Gilbert has a net worth of $25b. Someone making $50,000 a year would have to work for 500,000 years (saving every penny) to amass that fortune,” state Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, posted to X. “GM is making record profits. Yet they have the nerve to ask for a $250 million handout.”

“No more corporate handouts,” he wrote in another post. “Hard pass.”

“This is chutzpah,” state Rep. Betsy Coffia, D-Traverse City, posted to X in response to a Crain’s Detroit Business article on the plans. “No.”

Coffia’s post linked to a story detailing GM’s recent layoff of 1,000 employees, including 507 from its Global Technology Center in Warren.

“GM is way up there, billions of dollars in profit, but they want $250 million from us to tear down the Renaissance Center as they’ve left Detroit and just laid off 1,000 people in Warren,” Michigan House Speaker-elect Rep. Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., said at a press conference.

“Does GM need it more, or does your local county need it more?” he said. “That’s the question we have to make and answer to very soon.”

Voters in November ended Democrats’ first government trifecta in 40 years, flipping the state House to a 58-52 Republican majority that will take control on Jan. 8.

Lansing lawmakers, however, aren’t the only ones questioning the return on investment for taxpayers.

DDA board member Austin Black II told The Detroit News GM relied on state tax credits in 2009 to keep employees at the Renaissance Center.

“(Fifteen) years later, the majority of those employees have shifted to Warren,” he said.

“For me, especially in terms of the tax credits they’re asking for … I think more information is needed in terms of one – what is it going to be used for?” Black said. “How close to what is proposed is actually going to happen?”