Barry Gordy borrowed capital from his family and founded his Motown music firm in the converted home that is now recognized as the Hitsville Motown Museum on West Grand Boulevard. As his business prospered he turned Motown Records into a production line industry. Eventually, I believe, he purchased at least a dozen of the large homes that faced West Grand Boulevard to serve as offices and production suites for his business.

By 1968, Motown Music was cramped in the various homes they occupied so Barry Gordy purchased the Donovan Building at Woodward and I-75 for their home offices. By this time, Motown Music has become the world’s largest black-owned and operated corporation. Apparently, many of the artists who created the wealth for Motown found the Donovan Building too professional and bureaucratic. It lacked soul. They preferred the informality of the many homes along West Grand. Apparently, after moving to the Donovan Building, Barry Gordy held many of his most important meetings at the Ponchatrain Hotel on West Jefferson rather than at the Donovan Building, further separating himself from the artists who helped create his wealth.

In 1972, Barry Gordy moved his Motown business to Hollywood seeking greater financial success by locating in the entertainment center of the world. He also hoped to shift from the production of music into the production of films. He more or less moved to Los Angeles under cover of darkness since he told few of his artists or colleagues about his intentions to the leave the Motor City. Needless to say, many Detroit African Americans admired Barry Gordy since he succeeded at rivaling whites in capitalist ntrepreneurship. They felt a great loss when Gordy spurned Detroit for the presumably greater riches of California. Perhaps many of the artists who were not invited to come to Hollywood still bear animus toward Barry Gordy.

In many ways, Motown Industries best years were behind them when Gordy moved his business to Hollywood. He hoped to move from music into movies but produced, I believe, only one highly successfully film - The Lady Sings the Blues. Tastes in music also changed and by the 1970s, the Motown sound lost its popularity. In the 1990s, Gordy sold his interests in Motown Industries and the firm passed through several international conglomerates.

This building at 2457 Woodward remains owned by one of the international firms that purchased the successor firms of Motown Industries. The building is located very close to Detroit’s prosperous downtown entertainment districts—The Fox Theater, Comerica Park, Ford Field and the Gem Theater. On January 6, 2003; the owners of the former Detroit headquarters of Motown Music announced a $28 million redevelopment of the structure. The lower floors would be remodeled to create a large museum of Motown Music, its stars, its entrepreneurs and its sounds. The upper floors of the Donovan Building would be converted into attractive apartments or condos appealing to the young people who worked nearby in downtown Detroit. As of February, 2004, there was little evidence of the reinvigoration of this building. The building has not been used since 1972 when Barry Gordy moved his highly successful and popular firm to Hollywood.

The Donovan Building, later occupied by Motown Records, abandoned for decades, was demolished as part of Detroit's beautification plan before the Super Bowl in 2006.

Source: Detroit 1701 | Wikipedia

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Buildings of Detroit (Demolition Photos)
Detroit 1701 - Donovan Building
Detroitblog - Donovan Building Demolition and History
Detroit News - Donovan Demolition