A major U.S. company is opening its first Canadian office in Windsor.
Quicken Loans has announced it is opening a technology wing in the former fish market building on Chatham St. West at Ferry St.
Mayor Drew Dilkens made the announcement Monday along with building owners Brian Schwab and Dino and Anthony Maggio.
Dilkens says the company will bring 50 good paying jobs to the city with a chance of up to 100 jobs in the future.
He credits the city's downtown community improvement plan, additional parking in the core and the city's joint Amazon bid with Detroit.
Dilkens says one of the sticking points was the need for 75 parking spots.
"Thank god city council made the decision to make the investment in the parking garage at Pelissier St. because we had the available parking," he says. When the employer came calling and said we want to locate here and what we need is 75 parking spots, we were able to give them access to 75 parking spots because of the decision city council has made."
Schwabb says they have been working with Quiken Loans for the last four months.
"They're a great company," he says. "They'll be a super tenant and really when you look at the Dan Gilbert group of companies they've been almost single handily responsible for the revitalization of downtown Detroit and if anybody has ever gone over there in the last little while you see it's a huge huge turnaround story in really unprecedented time."
Schwab adds, the company is bringing good paying jobs to the city.
"They're going to be moving 50 to 100 day one and they want capacity for up to 150 additional jobs," he says. "These are principally software engineers, technology people."
The company is taking the main floor of the building which is approximately 9,000 square feet.
Quicken Loans is expected to open its Windsor office in March 2019.