USA TODAY US Edition

Penske’s stamp all over Detroit’s recovery

- Brant James @brantjames USA TODAY Sports

Roger Penske might not be a name that comes to mind outside of Detroit when talking about key sports figures in the Motor City.

But the billionair­e businessma­n, motor sports team owner and philanthro­pist, 80, who is the mastermind behind this weekend’s Verizon IndyCar Series doublehead­er on Belle Isle, celebrated another milestone in his contributi­ons to the city’s renaissanc­e three weeks ago.

Penske had been waiting since 2006 for the opening of the QLine, a 3.3-mile light rail that runs along Woodward Avenue in the heart of downtown, so another 90 minutes didn’t bother him much, although he detests dead time in his daily schedule.

He had offered his money and time, but more important, say those associated with the QLine, he leveraged his sizable influence in a city and region M-1 Rail President and CEO Matt Cullen says often is hobbled by its “Balkanized relationsh­ips.” So Penske stood this May morning, greeting scores of politician­s

and business power brokers who filled this staging room in the lobby of the David Whitney Building, a historic former diamond exchange that four years ago had pigeons flying through its vaulted atrium.

“Roger is the gold standard,” Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnershi­p, told USA TODAY Sports. “He is truly our community’s elder statesman. ... If you don’t have someone people think will do the right thing every time, there’s an issue. It’s very difficult to navigate that. And Roger was that voice that people could rely on.”

As the inaugural car to ply the line glided to a halt behind the stage on Woodward Avenue, Dan Gilbert, who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, is a Detroit native and founded Quicken Loans, concluded his remarks. Gilbert’s donation had been the largest, granting him naming rights. But Gilbert asserted that among the many Ps responsibl­e for the $150 million QLine — “public, private, partnershi­p” — Penske was the most important.

Penske laughed. But his credential­s as a philanthro­pist had been establishe­d before he began to pull levers of power within the city and state, Cullen said. NOT ABOUT SELF-INTEREST In addition to helping the city land Super Bowl XL in 2006 as head of the host committee, he also founded the Clean Downtown program to employ the disadvanta­ged to tidy streets and solicited a group of business leaders to help purchase 100 police cars and 23 emergency medical service units for the city at a cost of $8 million.

As he formulated a plan to return an IndyCar race to Belle Isle on the Detroit River, he was approached by a group championin­g the nascent effort for what became the QLine. The tangle of bureaucrac­y included navigating the terms of multiple governors, mayors and city council members of varying political stripes, the loss of public funding for the project and the decision to organize a group of private backers to proceed.

That Penske has rebuffed overtures to draft him to run for Detroit mayor or U.S. Senate helps his sway, Larson said, as “often, but not always, people do something mostly because it’s the right thing to do at the time, but also because it may be for future gain.”

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan told USA TODAY Sports, “His money was important, but what was far more important was the power of his personalit­y. He convinced us that this was the right thing to do. Once he did, it was just a matter of getting it done.”

Preferably, for Penske, discreetly.

“You can literally go through every major event in the city and Roger has had his fingerprin­ts on it in one way or another,” Larson said, “but not in a sort of a forward-facing way.”

Penske was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, but is very much a Detroiter. He moved to town in 1970 to sell Chevrolets at his dealership in Southfield and in 1972 purchased Michigan Internatio­nal Speedway, though he sold it to Internatio­nal Speedway Corp. in 1999. Penske moved east when he acquired the distributo­r rights to Detroit Diesel in the New York area but bought the company in 1988 and relocated to the Detroit area permanentl­y. Penske Corp.’s business and motor sports headquarte­rs are perched in a nondescrip­t office building in Bloomfield Hills, north of downtown. Part of Penske’s affinity for Detroit is a life-long love of the grunt of a motor, harkening to his teen years selling cars he had repaired.

As for Penske’s civic efforts, Ford Performanc­e global director Dave Pericak told USA TODAY Sports: “Roger really loves an underdog story.”

Penske agrees, but there is business pragmatism, too.

“You have some success, and this is a great way to give back,” Penske told USA TODAY Sports. “You could give it to your college, you could give it to your high school, but I think this city is so important, and it’s in our business. This is the auto capital. Why wouldn’t you get involved?” NO PLANS TO SLOW DOWN The QLine’s route terminates downtown, near where the mas- sive bronze embodiment of Joe Louis’ right arm brandishes a fist across the river toward Windsor, Ontario. It’s close to the GM Renaissanc­e Center, a glass megastruct­ure with an ironic name when Detroit’s economic decay culminated in 2013 as the largest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy. At the steps of the hotel and office structure stretches the Detroit Riverwalk, which traces along the Detroit River to Gabriel Richard Park and the lone bridge to Belle Isle.

Penske sees the Detroit Grand Prix as the same kind of investment and infusion of civic identity to Detroit as the light rail, which he hopes eventually will link statewide, to the airport and beyond. The park on the 982-acre island has fluctuated with the city, and Penske undertook returning the Detroit GP to the IndyCar schedule in 2007 with his customary demand for detail and presentati­on.

“I remember when we cut the trees and we started pruning out the whole island on the western end, you didn’t even know there was water on the other side,” Penske said, slowing his black SUV on the island’s Riverbank Drive to gesture toward the yacht club. “We pulled all the dead pilings out. There must have been 250 pilings sticking up and we spent the money to pull it out.”

Pleased with the pace of track constructi­on for the upcoming doublehead­er, Penske begins to accelerate when he notices the first green grass shoots of spring protruding through cracks in the curbs. “Get that cleaned up,” he instructs a race employee.

The Detroit Grand Prix returned to Belle Isle but went dormant again from 2009 to 2011, as the auto industry, and therefore Detroit, convulsed.

Penske Corp. has spent in excess of $13 million in refurbishi­ng the island — now the most visited state park in Michigan — but claims a yearly $45 million in economic impact and in excess of 90,000 attendees in four of the last five installmen­ts of the doublehead­er weekend.

In 2015, the Grand Prix raised $1.1 million for the Belle Isle Conservanc­y through its Grand Prixmiere charity event. The money funded the renewal of the iconic Scott Fountain and other refurbishm­ents.

But as with the QLine, there has been some local resistance as various groups vie for their vision of Detroit’s attempted comeback. The city remains a disparate place, blooming in some areas downtown while geese wander through vacant lots near new apartments on Atwater Street. A group of a dozen or so protesters disapprove­d of the QLine not yet servicing an area greater than the downtown core.

A bicycle rider with leaflets protesting the race tried to interrupt Penske as he prepared for a television interview on pit road of the 2.35-mile course, saying the race had no right to use public land, while money derived from it has paid for improvemen­ts. Penske is contracted with the city to promote the race through 2018.

“There’s always been the pushback on Belle Isle,” Penske said. “Some don’t like the noise. Some don’t like the racing; they don’t like cars. It kind of goes along with the traffic, but we’re nine weeks from the time we start on the island. We only have it closed down for one weekend, and still people can get access.

“There’s always someone on the other side.”

Cullen hopes that Penske will be amenable to whatever civic need is on the other side of the QLine.

“He talks like he’s going to slow down in that regard a little bit, but I don’t really see any signs of it,” he said. “I see the passion. He’s interestin­g in the sense of he wants to get stuff done. ... I’m looking to see what I can find.”

Expect Penske to be ready.

 ?? MANDI WRIGHT, DETROIT FREE PRESS ?? Since moving to the Detroit area in 1970, Roger Penske has been a champion of the community.
MANDI WRIGHT, DETROIT FREE PRESS Since moving to the Detroit area in 1970, Roger Penske has been a champion of the community.

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