DETROIT, MI - Just after he had announced

major plans for revitalizing the inner core of Detroit

, a reporter asked Dan Gilbert what he thought about the city he was investing in getting an emergency financial manager.

Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans and one of the largest owners of commercial real estate in downtown Detroit, said the city government’s current system “was not going to produce an outcome that was beneficial to the city,” and said appointing the special position to manage the city’s financials was a kind of necessary evil.

“As hard as it is to suspend democracy for a short period of time I think it’s in the best interest of everyone,” he said.

Kevyn Orr was named to the post by Gov. Rick Snyder last month, and took office amid mild protests last week Monday.

While that process was moving forward, the city’s financial “woes” were repeated ad infinitum: it has some $14 billion in long-term debt and faces an annual budget deficit of $327 million.

Orr, who appears to have sweeping powers over the city, will step down after 18 months on the job so long as the city is put back on sound footing. Bankruptcy has not been ruled out.

All the while, Gilbert and company have been moving forward with long-term plans to improve the city.

Not only will cynics note that Gilbert has a major horse in the game, so to speak, as he now owns 17 buildings and about 3 million square feet of commercial space downtown, but Gilbert himself will acknowledge this. It's why, he said, his group's plans for revitalization cannot fail.

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He told the media after an unveiling of his "A Placemaking Vision For Downtown Detroit" that he and his partners have an "operating business," here, and the plan does not stem from a sole investor. That is, Rock Ventures, his umbrella company, has about 7,000 workers in the city. He knows he has a massive stake in this, he was saying, that's why it has to work; it is not a gamble.

“There is no Plan B, because it would distract from Plan A," a slide at last Thursday’s presentation read.

Rock Ventures partnered with Downtown Detroit Partnership and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation in hiring four different urban planning firms to help compile the plans for the area of downtown from the Detroit River to Grand Circus Park.

In forthcoming posts, we’ll have more details on each section of those plans, which call for new retail, opened-up spaces and other strategies to increase foot traffic in the area.

A lot of the plans will physically begin this Summer, and continue through 2015. But many of them had been underway already, emergency financial manager or no.