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DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Corp. said Thursday that the shaky real estate market convinced the automaker that it was a good time to buy its previously leased headquarters in downtown Detroit’s towering Renaissance Center for $626 million.

GM revealed the May 1 purchase in a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. GM says it paid $626 million cash for the headquarters and $200 million cash for two office properties in nearby Pontiac.

GM moved its headquarters from Midtown Detroit to the Renaissance Center in 1996 and sank $500 million into improvements to the complex, originally built by Ford Motor Co.’s real estate arm in the 1970s.

At the time, GM decided to finance the project with loans and lease the building from the lenders, GM spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Menem said Thursday night. She said the lease expired May 1, and GM decided against renewing it.

“We opted to purchase it outright because of the condition of the real estate market,” Rashid-Menem said.

Rashid-Menem said such leases from banks are “a pretty typical arrangement when someone buys a large piece of property.”

As real estate conditions change, GM would consider reselling the building and entering another lease agreement, she said.

The Renaissance Center opened along the Detroit River in 1977. The $350 million project was spearheaded by Henry Ford II in an attempt to revive downtown Detroit following the 1967 riots. A recent makeover is part of a $1 billion private-public investment in the city’s riverfront.

©2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/24/news/companies/earns_ford.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street on Thursday with a $100 million profit in the first quarter as strong results from Europe and South America helped offset the impact of a slumping U.S. economy that cut car and truck sales in its main market.

The company also said Thursday its latest round of early retirement and buyout offers netted 4,200 hourly workers, fewer than Ford had targeted.

Ford says it earned 5 cents per share in the January-March period. The No. 2 U.S.-based automaker lost $282 million, or 15 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Excluding special items, the company said it made $525 million after taxes, or 20 cents per share. That beat Wall Street’s expectations. Thirteen analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had predicted a loss of 16 cents per share.

It was Ford’s first profitable quarter since the second quarter of 2007 when it made $750 million. Ford reported a full-year loss of $2.7 billion last year, and it cautioned that the rest of this year will be tough.

“The remainder of 2008 will be a challenge but we are cautiously optimistic despite the external challenges,” CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement. “Our plan is working.”

Ford also lowered its industrywide U.S. vehicle sales forecast for the full year to a range of 15.3 million to 15.6 million. In January it had expected full-year sales of 16 million.

The profit came despite a $45 million pretax loss in Ford’s core North American automotive market. That was an improvement over a $613 million loss in the year-ago quarter, driven by $1.2 billion in cost reductions.

Company spokesman Mark Truby said Ford may offer additional buyout and early retirement packages on a plant-by-plant basis to further reduce its blue-collar work force.

Ford (F, Fortune 500) reported first quarter revenue of $39.4 billion, down from $43 billion a year ago due to the sale of its Jaguar-Land Rover and Aston Martin units. Excluding the sale, revenue would have been up slightly, the company said.

Taken from www.ClickOnDetroit.com
What autos are the least fuel efficient? It turns out that the cars that’ll take a bite out of your budget for fuel costs are also likely to catch some stares of admiration as they’re tearing up the road. And those family-focused haulers can also take a chunk out of our income if you find yourself behind the wheel often.Forbes.com has compiled a list of the least fuel efficient autos, based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.If you park a Jeep Grand Cherokee in your garage, you probably spend quite a bit at the local gas station. The V8 version of this auto gets a mere 11 miles per gallon on city streets and only 14 miles per gallon while on the highway.