Photo: From left, Michael, David, Shery, Jon and Sean Cotton.
The Grosse Pointe family that partnered with billionaire Dan Gilbert to buy and share a landmark downtown building also shares a penchant for spending millions to revive real estate and fight crime, Louis Aguilar reports in The Detroit News.
Neither would say Tuesday whether it means the two influential entities will be closer partners in various efforts such as the Detroit Crime Commission or the Blight Task Force.
Separately, according to Aguilar, the Cottons and Gilbert fund major initiatives in helping fight crime and dealing with blight.
Three years ago the Cottons started the private nonprofit Detroit Crime Commission, which is intended to chase the kind of crimes that cash-strapped law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to fully pursue.
The crime commission has busted check fraud rings, provided witness protection and investigated human trafficking and public corruption.
"My dad always wanted to be in the CIA," said Jon Cotton during his presentation at the Detroit Homecoming event this summer.
Gilbert has spent millions in private security downtown, where he has more than 65 properties. His company has installed visible security cameras and has a state-of-the art surveillance room in the Chase building. That monitoring room has been shown to very few media. Last year, local ABC affiliate WXYZ did gain access.
It's a "high tech, multimillion-dollar security control room," according to the report. It has dozens of computer monitors watching Gilbert's properties and also streets and sidewalks surrounding Gilbert's holdings in other states. Of the 1,000 security cameras installed, more than 300 are in Metro Detroit, according to WXYZ.
