Ford Motor is transforming an abandoned train station that served for decades as an infamous symbol of Detroit’s decline and decay into a new technology campus for the automaker and a mixed-use property for the city.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
DETROIT – Fords latest project from the Motor City is the restoration and reopening of an abandoned train station that was a symbol of Detroit’s decline for decades and is now the automaker’s new technology campus.
The $950 million project includes the 18-story former Michigan Central Station — once the state’s primary transit building — an adjacent 25,000-square-foot building and other supporting facilities.
The 30-acre Michigan Central campus and train station was originally announced in 2018 and is expected to open by 2022. However, the coronavirus pandemic and extensive work to renovate the station delayed its reopening. Ford is celebrating the restoration of the century-old train station on Thursday.
Following Thursday’s event, the ground floor of the station building will be open to the public until June 16 before the first commercial residents move in in the fall.
The new campus comes at a precarious time Ford investors as the company continues to restructure its business. On top of that, many companies are trying to downsize their office space and fill their current buildings with employees who have become accustomed to working from home during the pandemic.
A photograph of Michigan Central’s main hall before renovation is located in the newly restored space at the rear of the building.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
A stark juxtaposition has emerged, especially in Detroit: Ford’s crosstown rival launched in April General Motors announced that the company would downsize its towering headquarters in the city’s riverfront Renaissance Center to two stories in a nearby building under construction.
Still, Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said he believes the investment in the historic train station is a crucial part of the automaker’s future, including in aspects of talent acquisition and retention.
“We are in a war for talent, our industry and our company,” Ford, who led the project, told CNBC. “And you have to offer talent two things: first, you have to give them really interesting problems to solve, and then you have to offer them a great place to work. With Michigan Central, we met both criteria.”
Bill Ford decided to buy the dilapidated building after years of traveling to Silicon Valley for his venture capital firm Fontinalis and during his tenure as a member of the Ebay Board. He has long been clear about the need for the traditional automotive industry to compete with newer technology companies in both product acquisition and talent acquisition.
Ford Motor released this image of Chairman Bill Ford, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, when the automaker announced it would purchase Michigan Central Station in June 2018.
ford
Ford said it is “getting better” at attracting top talent to Detroit, but noted that it is “a big challenge” to convince workers from California or the East Coast to move to Detroit and work for Ford .
“If you can show them a place like Michigan Central, not just for its beauty, which is incredible in itself, but then talk about what’s going to happen there, I think that becomes a really valuable resource in the future.” of the company,” he said.
Station campus
The Michigan Central Campus is located southwest of Detroit’s main business district in a trendy neighborhood called Corktown. It’s about 10 miles down the road from Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
The Michigan Central Campus includes a total of 1.2 million square feet of commercial space, including retail, restaurants and hospitality. Officials said $300 million in state, local and historic redevelopment tax incentives were awarded.
The restored large waiting room at the Ford Michigan Central Station in Detroit.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
Ford officials went to great lengths to restore the station to its original glory after decades of vandalism and dilapidation. The project involved 3D scanning the spaces, adapting materials and referencing historical photos to recreate parts of the building.
This was especially true on the first floor of the station, where a large room features huge windows, an arcade, and a large hall full of marble and terrazzo floors, Mankato stone, and other unique materials.
Architects and designers decided to leave some graffiti on the walls to represent the station’s dormant years after its closure in 1988.
Ford’s determination was demonstrated, among other things, by officials tracing the plant’s original limestone to a quarry in Indiana, only to find that it had since closed. Michigan Central worked with the owners to reopen the quarry.
Some graffiti from when Michigan Central was inactive for more than 30 years was intentionally preserved to represent this part of the station’s history.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
“It has been carefully and lovingly restored to its original condition wherever possible,” Michigan Central CEO Josh Sirefman said during a tour of the project. “Before we start activating it with a lot of things, it’s probably in its most pristine condition.”
Given commercial real estate challenges nationwide, about two-thirds of the tower has established tenants or planned uses, officials said. This also includes an unnamed restaurant and hotel whose rezoning approval is still pending.
The adjacent building, known as the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, already houses more than 600 employees from nearly 100 startup companies.
“It’s really the beginning of the ecosystem I want to create,” Bill Ford said. “There’s going to be a lot of experimentation down there.”
Ford plans to house at least 2,500 employees in the building, primarily members of the company’s electric vehicle and connected services teams. About 1,000 of those employees are expected to move into the station’s tower by the end of this year, Ford said.
Other building users could include local universities, other businesses and a restaurant. However, authorities declined to release a full list of expected tenants. Googlea founding partner of the project, runs its “Code Next” program, which teaches students to code, from the Book Depository building.
Ford said he expects future employees of the automaker to be able to work with other Station Tower residents as well as the startups in the Book Depository building.
A photo of Michigan Central’s arcade before renovation is located in the newly restored space at the east end of the building.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
“Legacy Project”
The revitalization of the station and surrounding campus is the latest project undertaken in the Motor City by Bill Ford, a great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford.
He was instrumental in moving the Ford family-owned Detroit Lions from suburban Pontiac to a new stadium, aptly named Ford Field, in downtown Detroit in 2002. He was also part of the team that brought the Super Bowl to the city in 2006.
And he converted the company’s River Rouge assembly plant into a “green” manufacturing facility, despite calls for its closure. Today it is a tourist destination for the production of the Ford F-150 full-size pickup truck.
Ford, who served as the automaker’s CEO from 2001 to 2006, called Michigan Central a continuation of such projects. He described the project as a “legacy project” both for himself and for those who were able to work on it.
“I am very proud of both [prior projects]but I think this will put an exclamation point on it because this will be a wonderful place to work, but it will also be a wonderful place for the public,” Ford said.
The renovated “reading room” next to the large waiting room at the Ford Michigan Central Station in Detroit.
Michael Waylans/CNBC
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2024-06-03 21:02:00
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