General Motors’ luxury Cadillac brand is pulling up stakes, moving back to the area of Detroit, Michigan after its being headquartered in New York’s trendy SoHo neighborhood for four years. More precisely, the brand will be relocating to the city of Warren, Michigan – hardly the nicest municipality in the Metro Detroit area, though we’re sure there are boatloads of money to be saved with the move.
But before Cadillac departs from its chic SoHo office, we’ve manage to acquire five crisp photographs of the interior – notable because while the public was welcome to enter Cadillac House on the levels below, not just anyone was allowed into the office space above. They were submitted by a reader, and they grant us a rare glimpse of the Cadillac New York headquarters.
Outfitting the space to suit its purposes reportedly cost Cadillac in the neighborhood of $12.7 million – a drop in the bucket for a gargantuan corporation like General Motors, but a bit more significant next to the revenue pulled in by a brand like Cadillac individually.
Thankfully, the money spent there isn’t quite being tossed out the window with the move back to Michigan; as we reported earlier this month, the Cadillac New York headquarters will maintain some employee presence through 2025. That’s when the brand’s lease on the property is set to run out. Long before that, however, there’s still some question of what will happen to the 110 Cadillac employees that currently work out of the space.
Cadillac is in an interesting state of flux at the moment, having ousted its former leader – Johan de Nysschen – back in April, and later losing BOOK By Cadillac Global Director and previous marketing director Melody Lee in August. Cadillac announced plans to relocate back to Michigan shortly thereafter.
Will the new Warren, Michigan Cadillac headquarters look anything like the brand’s trendy New York space? That remains to be seen. But at the very least, the move will see Cadillac return to the place of its birth 110 years ago – or at least, just down the street.
Stay tuned for all the latest Cadillac news.
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- Cadillac offices in NYC
Comments
Marketing star and Melody Lee used in the same sentence? No!
Thank you to my two fans who gave this comment the “thumbs down.” It’s probably my mom and dad, but I’ll take it.
The new marketing strategy is to be more “customer focused” and less focused on the German brands. What kind of B.S. is that? And when that doesn’t work, what brilliant new strategy will be next? Start making competent, reliable vehicles. The German Brands, and the Japanese ones too, can market technical competence because they make good products. Luxury buyers want technology and sophistication not fake wood and and shiny plastic upgraded Chinese Buicks.
‘Luxury buyers want technology and sophistication not fake wood and and shiny plastic upgraded Chinese Buicks.’ Your response contains flawed info: Save for the outgoing XTS, none of the models sold in China or here share a platform with Buick. What fake wood are you referring to? There’s none of that in the interior. If anything Cadillac has been criticized for using too many materials (carbon fiber, various woods,…) for its interiors.
“In a state of flux….” ROFLMAO
Good luck attracting premium talent to decrepit Detroit.
You haven’t seen Detroit lately have you?
http://www.detroitmovestheworld.com/
Yes it has improved but still a long way off from being a place where someone wants to build a future and feel safe. You can cherry pick sites and make almost anywhere look decent in a video…
Michigan is one of the hidden gems of America. Detroit in a serious comeback and some real creative energy. You wannna spend all your money on rent, taxes while dealing with congestion and traffic….how great can it be working for a car manufacturer in NYC where you can barely drive a car let alone keeping a nice one. There is a better spot that not perfect but has its own cool creative vibe you can’t get anywhere else. Have travelled extensively and Detroit area/Michigan is great.
I don’t understand all the hate toward Detroit. Just like any other major city, they have a fair amount of nice and bad places in them.
I never been to Detroit and don’t have a desire to go unless something catches my eye but I been to other major cities in other states that is no different than Detroit, MI. Haters are bashing it based on bad press and etc.
I could show you plenty of horror pictures of Detroit ,Not just the” Park ave & 5th ave ” of Detroit ! ,(as Thomas has shown) Google DETROIT and see !!! There is NO comparison between N.Y.C. & Detroit!!! Actually, Cadillac was not in the very best part of NYC (the fairly quite part) There are much better area’s!
I don’t see anything that screams ‘only in New York’.
It looks more generic ad-agency hip that could just as easily be in Birmingham, MI, or Orange County.
And I see empty chairs. Lots of them.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it became a GM remote outpost all brands could use when doing business in NY. A lease that runs until 2025 is a long ways away.
(And no, Ms. Lee was not a star. Tireless self-promoter, yes, but not a star).
I’m sad to see that absence DOESN’T make the heart grow fonder, Captain Carl. Because even I (sort of) miss you and my other collection of critics and trolls.
Geez, sorry if that seemed harsh, Mel.
But I don’t think placing a big-ish bet on men’s fashion worked out terribly well (I know – you needed some sort of presence, absent new product).
And Dare Greatly wasn’t a terrible line, but it begs for the product and/or the messaging to live up to the DGr handle. Which it didn’t seem to.
I know there were many other components, and I’m pretty sure you and others were working long, long hours.
In any event, I’m not an ‘anti-‘ troll. I think many of us want to see Cadillac succeed. Most of us have had projects that didn’t like up to our vision. So we keep plugging away.
Thx – CC
I don’t take umbrage at criticism of the work itself. If you question the efficacy of NYFW: Men’s, Cadillac House, our foray into arts, culture, Dare Greatly, etc., fine. What I do have an issue with is people who think they KNOW me. You seem pretty confident in your assertion that I was a tireless self-promoter. Perhaps that’s how it appeared to you, but it was also just a fact that I was the antithesis of the entire industry — young, female, of color, advocate of change, non-gearhead. That in itself breeds interest. I never once had to ask anyone to cover me or the work we did. Aside from my non-traditional profile, we did work — whether you agree with it or not — that also got interest, because we TRIED DIFFERENT SHIT. We committed to a strategy of building the relevance of the brand in spite of an absence of product. We tried new tactics, partnerships, approaches. It’s not about the hours. It’s not about me being a star or not (and oh my GOD, I do not think I am a star in the slightest). We cared so much the Cadillac brand that here I am, two months after leaving, still reading everything about it and caring too much about the comments section. If you want to see Cadillac succeed, how do you think I feel? So, take me on about our work any day, all day. I’ll cop to the mistakes made along the way. I’ll admit to some naive and cringe-worthy interviews and quotes. But if you want to question me personally, or my motivations, I’ll give you my phone number so you can understand how wrong you are.
I’m sorry you focused on the part that I probably shouldn’t have posted. That’s what my second post/apologia (‘seemed harsh’) was referencing.
And I get, as I said, that – in an effort to stay visible & relevant – you were doing different, inventive things to stay in the market conversation whilst product got sorted.
Do I question things, from the polarizing Cadillac ELR commercial Uwe green-lighted, to Dare Greatly, to Cadillac House in Munich’s Warhol Show, to bespoke copter flights to the Hamptons, to fashion collections featured on discount e-tailer Gilt, ya, I guess I do.
In any event, this game plan (based on the outcome, anyway), didn’t work.
Did Detroit buy in? Did the dealership body buy in? Is Cadillac top of mind in a very competitive category?
It wasn’t for lack of trying. I meant nothing personal about your skills and/or motivations – so let’s please forget that faux pas on my part.
Have a good weekend; sorry for the kerfuffle.
Cheers –
Every photo I’ve seen of this place (including these photos) smack of a museum / library / coffee shop catering to an uppity type person – who then leave and hail a cab.
You’re missing the point. Cadillac didn’t move to NY to sell cars. It moved to NY to sell an experience of luxury to the world.
Mercedes and Lamborghini have dealers in Manhattan, but I guarantee those dealers are loss leaders and hardly sell enough cars to pay the rent. They are there solely for the public presence and promoting their brands’ understanding of luxury.
Mercedes and Lambo didn’t move their HQ to NY !! … yes they have retail showplaces (dealers) there but they aren’t desperate to get Manhattan cred like Caddy was. The company was named after the founder of Detroit Antoine de Cadillac. When Cadillac decides to stop trying to be something they aren’t is when they will find their way. Embrace your roots and succeed.
“Embrace your roots and succeed.”
If Cadillac’s roots are idealized visions of blue-collar retirement rewards, and to perpetually entertain the elderly with vehicles that undercut the competition instead of leading the luxury world into the future, they won’t ever succeed.
Cadillac has to be an object of aspiration and a symbol of status. It can’t do that if it habitually lowers itself below the expectations of the luxury market.
Tradition doesn’t make a luxury car an enviable object of desire, and it never has. You’ll notice that there aren’t any retro luxury vehicles, and there never will be. Not even Rolls does that, as each generation of their cars shows whats the future will be, not how (as you would like Cadillac to do) the past was better than what the offer now.
Being on the cutting edge is far more important than tradition, and that’s what a luxury product is all about: having the best right now and not upholding the past as a better standard than today.
How do you become a leader with a 1.5% world market share?
By not retreating into the arms of past glories just because it is easy to do, but by showing the world what the future will look like because it is a challenge everyone on Earth will want to see fulfilled.
“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.”
Charles F. Kettering – fmr. head of research, General Motors
“Cadillac leading the luxury world / industry”?…those are seriously delusional thoughts you have there.
No – my assessment of the museum stands!…plus Mercedes Benz and Lamborghini are in a completely different league…and they didn’t move their Headquarters to NY.
The whole NYC is the “only place” to be is passé… NYC is great but a predictably mainstream ad agency yuppie kind of safe. Detroit is gritty, hip, cool, mean and inclusive all at the same time … Detroit is “real” and the people there are “real” … Cadillac wants to forge their own way, they should have had the cojones to put themselves in the middle of a creative movement that is currently Detroit. It would have suited them perfectly. Detroit really impressed me last time I was there. It seems to reflect what so many cities/regions are going through … and is maybe a bit ahead of the curve or finding a new way than most places. To go from the bottom to where they are at so quickly is amazing.
Irregardless of where corporate may be or not, at the end of the day it’s the product that will succeed or fail. We can market all sorts of videos, hip and cool stuff, latest this, retro that, blah, blah…… But what you have in your driveway, is something that goes beyond the last minute passing trend, but is rather something you value and enjoy driving. An automobile, sedan, crossover that reminds you each and everyday as you get behind the wheel that you made a great decision. An automobile dealership that offer you a service bay with knowledgeable and friendly staff/mechanics. All this other “stuff” is just BS that has no bearing (in the long view) on why you wish to own and spend your hard earned money on a Cadillac or regret that decision you made.