"Clearly, with nearly $13 billion of economic development activity occurring inside Detroit and another $4 billion on the drawing board, people are taking notice of the strides we are making as a city," Archer says. "We've come a long way from the days of double-digit deficits and poor investment in our community. We still have challenges to face, we are making long strides in the right direction."

In the past, local communities practiced the politics of diminishing resources by concentrating most of their economic development efforts on luring one company from a neighboring community to theirs. Opportunities for real growth were lost as local communities engaged in a shell game of simply moving one company and its tax base from one community to another.

Having companies move to Detroit is a chief priority for the city. However, if a new company moved to a neighboring suburb instead, Archer's view is it would still benefit the city by giving it that second chance to acquire the employees and their families of that new company as homeowners, shoppers or visitors.