JC Reindl Detroit Free Press Michigan Central Station could soon be Detroit's hottest residential address. The automaker said Tuesday that it plans to open several floors of housing in the old depot as part of building's coming top-to-bottom redevelopment, set for completion in 2022. These residential floors will be in addition to office floors and retail space. The total number of residences, as well as their target demographics and location in the building, has yet to be determined, said Ford spokesman Karl Henkel. The 105-year-old train station has never before seen residential use. The station's tower, which rises 15 stories above ground level, was built to hold offices. However, there never were enough tenants to fill the tower, leaving many upper floors forever vacant. Ford also unveiled details Tuesday for how it plans to expand the company's footprint in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood beyond the train station. Read more: Redeveloping Detroit's train depot may be doable Bill Ford: Train depot to be place of possibility The automaker said its Corktown campus will eventually encompass 1.2 million square feet spread across four buildings. Three-quarters of that space is to be split equally between Ford and its partners. The remaining 300,000 square feet will be a mix of retail and residential, according to Ford. About 2,500 Ford employees, most from the mobility team, will work in Corktown by 2022. The campus would have space for up to 2,500 more people in the future. Ford officials did not release details of anticipated development incentives. The four buildings are: Michigan Central Station (600,000 square feet). The Factory at 1907 Michigan Ave., which houses about 200 advanced car technology workers. The vacant Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, adjacent to the depot at 2231 Dalzelle, known as the Roosevelt Warehouse. A former brass factory at 2051 Rosa Parks, a building whose sale is expected to close later this year. "A lot of the tech companies have really wonderful campuses, but none of them have anything like this," Executive Chairman Bill Ford told reporters in the soaring lobby of the train station Tuesday. Additionally, Ford said it has bought 2 acres of vacant land adjacent to the Detroit Police Athletic League complex. Read more: Thief returns stolen Detroit train station clock This is Detroit's biggest comeback moment yet Last fall, months before the Ford deal, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan speculated aloud that high-end lofts could be a good fit for the train depot tower — if it were ever redeveloped. Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.<doc-sep>Yesterday, Ford Motor Company announced its long-rumored plan to buy the abandoned Michigan Central Station and restore it as hub for its future mobility ventures. The news quickly created a sense of awe across metro Detroit. For decades, the dilapidated presence of the once majestic train station stung residents as an ominous reminder of widespread neglect. The 18-story building towers over Michigan Avenue, and while it made for a lucrative set piece on the film Batman v Superman, it represents a deep, complex wound. It is a physical reminder of what the city was, and what it many thought it would never be again. It’s a punchline, a romanticized and ruined tourist destination, and a divisive, unavoidable barrier between the Southwest and Corktown neighborhoods. But all that may soon change. An icon of the past becomes a vision for the future — and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this journey with you, Detroit. #fordetroit pic.twitter.com/UnaVoOQbNV — Ford Motor Company (@Ford) June 20, 2018 Ford’s purchase of the station is a grand, symbolic gesture that seemed unlikely only a few years ago. As its intention materializes to transform the station into a center for autonomous driving and innovation in the next three to four years, it’s a poignant move that resonates deeply in the city and around the state of Michigan. It’s what prompted a thief (née collector) that “acquired” the station’s original antique clock to return it last week. On Tuesday morning, Ford laid out the details and made the purchase official in a public ceremony. The occasion was festive as the automaker threw a giant party ahead of the speeches and invited performers such as the hometown artist Big Sean to the stage, as its leadership presented the scope of its vision. About 2,500 company employees, the majority from its mobility team, will work in the renovated building and surrounding area where Ford has bought additional land and properties, including the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository and a former factory. Projects will range from parking experiments to public transit projects — a once unthinkable business move for a company that subsists on the profits of its trucks and SUVs. Imagine a train that shuttles workers between Ford campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Detroit. “Michigan Central sits at one end of a prime corridor for autonomous vehicle development,” says Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst from Autotrader. “Michigan Avenue connects to Ford’s worldwide headquarters in Dearborn, to the American Center for Mobility, which vows to be the nation’s, if not the world’s, largest, most comprehensive autonomous vehicle testing and validation center. Beyond the ACM is Mcity, an autonomous vehicle testing center already in operation, and then the University of Michigan, where Ford has a robotics center on campus.” The space will also house an additional 2,500 workers in related businesses. No specifics were given on which businesses would move there, but Ford has supported Techstars Mobility, which is based in Detroit and is one potential source for startup tenants. The remainder of the space will house retail, community areas, and residential housing. The auto giant says it will restore the grand lobby, the station’s staple space, for public use. It’s an ambitious endeavor and in doing so, Ford makes a formidable commitment to tie its future to the city of Detroit, steeped in the company’s indelible relationship with its history. In an interview with The Verge, Ford chairman Bill Ford said he was touched by the multigenerational crowd that turned up at Tuesday’s ceremony. He recalled how his grandmother traveled from the station by train to New York City. And he expressed his personal frustration with its disrepair. “As somebody from this area, for years when I traveled, I would see this station as the poster child for the decay of Detroit.” “I would see this station as the poster child for the decay of Detroit” But now that version of a fading Detroit is starting to seem outdated. Over the past several years, a narrative of transformation has overtaken the city. Ford began to see the possibilities in a lucrative urban environment that aligned with the company’s vision to become more than a carmaker. When he first imagined the feel of a restored station, Bill Ford drew inspiration from San Francisco, a source for coveted talent. “The Ferry Station in San Francisco is the template in my head,” he says. If the gamble pays off, locals as well as top talent from Silicon Valley will see Detroit as a viable and inviting city to work and live in. “The tech companies don’t have anything like this building,” he says. In order to keep pace with the industry, Ford needs to draw in outside talent, says Krebs. “The kind of talent Ford needs in the future is the same kind of talent that not only its auto-making competitors are going after, but also every other industry. Software engineers, data scientists, electrical engineers are in high demand not only in the auto industry but virtually every other industry. In addition to all of the other aspects of hiring, Ford must create a work environment in a location that is attractive to young workers who prefer to be in a hip urban area to cubicles in the suburbs.” Detroit’s comeback story is part of its appeal to newcomers. It began to take hold after the city’s economic situation hit rock bottom preceding bankruptcy in 2013. As word got out about cheap real estate, people from all over the world have been moving to Detroit, buying up properties. (See Curbed Detroit for the eye candy.) That interest began to build the narrative of makers and doers coming to Detroit to launch businesses. Detroit’s comeback story is part of its appeal to newcomers But to date, much of its makeover has been in pockets. Corktown has been one of these pockets, where restaurants and boutiques have opened in the past several years, anchored by cobblestone streets on Michigan Avenue. It’s easy to see the appeal of Corktown, the oldest Detroit neighborhood. It was originally settled by Irish immigrants, from County Cork, a point that Bill Ford emphasized to me. (He regularly visits County Cork in Ireland, where the Ford family has its roots.) A few miles from Corktown, his great grandfather Henry Ford ushered in the first moving automobile assembly line in 1913. Michigan Central Station opened that same year. The rise of Detroit, the metropolis, throughout the 20th century mirrored the economic success of the thriving local car industry. But as the auto industry began to slowly decline in the 1960s and ‘70s, car company companies shifted away from being a driving force for the city. Painful politics of racial divide, white flight, inequity, and lack of investment became Detroit’s public dominant narrative, no longer its vehicles. In 1988, the year the train station closed, both Ford and General Motors posted record profits. The long term effects of Detroit’s struggle has not helped the image of the local car industry. Detroit is still a long way away from a thriving city. Its school system is underfunded and abandoned properties are rife. It’s never regained the population it lost when it was a city of over a million people in the early 1990s. Its comeback is predicated on further growth and it has yet to attract another major employer to relocate downtown. The state unemployment rate has declined, but in December the rate was 8.7 percent in Detroit according to an NPR report. That’s why Ford’s move to double down on Detroit is stirring. It’s not a sure bet, but it’s a hopeful vote of confidence. Much of the particulars still need to be determined and the company plans on tapping into the community for ideas. Ford also has to contend with its crosstown neighbor General Motors that maintains its world headquarters in downtown Detroit. And Ford is not going at Detroit nor autonomous driving alone. Ford is a long way from catching Waymo’s self driving test efforts. But competition in this sports-minded town has always been a motivator, and Ford has now upped the stakes.<doc-sep>The Ford Motor Company now owns one of Detroit’s iconic buildings in the Michigan Central Station. The monumental building looms over Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. It’s long been a symbol of Detroit’s decay, and now it could become the symbol of Detroit’s revival, and Ford’s along with it. The building is set to become the anchor of Ford’s 1.2 million-square-foot campus in the Detroit neighborhood. The Michigan Central Station will house more than just Ford employees, though. The auto company says it will be a mixed-use facility with facilities for up to 5,000 office workers and space for shops, restaurants and maybe even residential housing. Ford has a substantial undertaking before employees and businesses move into the building. The Michigan Central Station is nearly literally a shell of its former self. The station was built in 1913 by the same firm responsible for New York’s Grand Central Terminal. In its day, the 21-story building stood proudly with marble floors under an arched 65-foot ceiling. It was the tallest train station in the world when its colossal bronze doors first opened to the public. Since its closure in the ’80s the building sat empty, eventually losing nearly everything to looters and nature. The windows disappeared, graffiti covers much of the brickwork, and the ornamental ceiling is crumbling. Barbed-wire fence eventually encircled the structure, attempting to keep people out. But they don’t. The lure of the station is too strong. Detroit, The Mobility City The Michigan Central Station is set to be the center of a large Ford campus centered around forward-looking automotive technology research and design. Ford sees 2,500 employees occupying the buildings by 2022. The focus is on the future of mobility including electric and autonomous vehicles, and everything from connected vehicles to roads and parking. Ford held a large event today announcing its intentions for the campus and Michigan Central Station. CEO Jim Hackett points to the advancing revolution where, as he says, artificial intelligence and big data that will be even more disruptive than the industrial revolution. “What Rouge was to Ford in the industrial age, Corktown can be for Ford in the information age,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Hackett said in a released statement. “It will be the proving ground where Ford and our partners design and test the services and solutions for the way people are going to live and get around tomorrow, creating a Southeast Michigan mobility corridor that spans west from Dearborn to Ann Arbor, and east to Detroit.” The plan calls for Ford to occupy at least three buildings in the area as part of a mobility corridor Ford intends to build spanning Detroit to Ann Arbor to Ford’s home in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford says it will redesign its Dearborn campus alongside Corktown campus. Hackett was clear on this point: The plans for the Corktown campus will not compete or replace Ford’s Dearborn campus. He stressed that it’s part of the same system. “It’s actually one whole system,” Hackett said. “In fact, if anything it guarantees the future of Dearborn. Our Dearborn redesign [and] our Corktown revitalization are just steps in the strategy to keep moving forward.” Ford largely operates outside the city of Detroit. The company’s headquarters, main development operations and Ford River Rouge Complex are located in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. This move into Corktown is more than symbolic; it’s significant. The big three automakers, along with countless automotive suppliers located in Michigan, are increasingly fighting with Silicon Valley for talent. Rightfully so, prospective employees are looking for employers that can offer a compelling work/life balance, with that, comes the place of employment. I’ve been through Ford’s Dearborn’s facilities. From an outsider’s perspective, some of these facilities feel like an aging office complex that could crush your soul at any moment. Silicon Valley offers engineering talent a unique opportunity previously largely unavailable for such jobs. It’s likely why GM let its self-driving startup, Cruise, continue to operate in the Bay Area. Moving engineering teams into a Corktown campus will place these employees in the middle of a historic city on the upswing. By the time Ford moves employees into the facility by 2022, Corktown should be packed with upstart restaurants, bars and shops, ready to take the money of Ford engineers. [gallery ids="1659119,1659121,1659164,1659161,1659162,1659140,1659130,1659129,1659125"] From Trains to Self-Driving Cars The Detroit News explains how the deal unfolded. Along the way, the structure was inspected and deemed sound enough for redevelopment. Apparently since concrete encases the steel girders, the structure of the building has fared better than its ornamental adornments. The station was in a state of decay before the last Amtrak train left the station in 1988 and was never an overwhelming success on its own. The station is located outside of the downtown core and relied on Detroit’s trolleys to bring riders to the station. The station also lacked a large parking facility, which became problematic after the rise of the automobile caused the trolley system to age and shut down. The station’s interior is stunning even in its decayed state. The general waiting room reminds of a Roman bathhouse with soaring arched ceilings covered in Guastavino tile that speak to Detroit’s glorious past. Light pours through the tall windows and glass ceiling. Pillars are throughout the lobby. The arches continue in a lovely arcade that once housed shops and service stalls. Space for 500 offices occupied the floors above the station, though the top floor of the station remained unfinished and unused through the building’s history. The station lacked windows for years and nature did its best to reclaim the station. Water damage is visible everywhere. Tiles are falling off the arches, revealing the terra cotta backing. Stagnant water is found throughout the lower levels. Historic Detroit states ridership peaked following World War 1 with 200 trains leaving the station daily but started to dwindle quickly in the 1950s. Amtrak took over the station from the bankrupt Penn Central in 1971, the year it was founded. The corporation spent $1 million updating the station but couldn’t save it, and the last train departed the station in 1988 heading to Chicago. The year Amtrak unveiled the updated station, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This designation didn’t increase riders, but it did save the building from being demolished after Amtrak moved out. Since its closure, the building has traded hands several times with each owner unveiling grand plans for the building: a casino and hotel, a rail yard, an international trade center, even a police station. The Moroun family purchased the building in 1992 and left it untouched until just a few years ago when it started landscaping the park in front of the station. The family then installed windows throughout the building. It’s unclear if this was to prepare the building for sale or other purposes. The station sits just blocks from the former Tiger Stadium that was built in 1911 and torn down in 2008. It’s a mostly residential neighborhood, sitting just outside the downtown area. Corktown has yet to see the redevelopment boom found elsewhere in Detroit. Though not ideal when the Michigan Central Station was built, its location is likely what brought Ford to the table. The area has easy access to major highways and is just far enough away from downtown Detroit to mostly avoid the traffic congestion. Real estate opportunities seem ample, too. Amazon turned down Detroit Last year Detroit enlisted the help of real estate mogul Dan Gilbert to help win Amazon’s bid for a second headquarters. It didn’t work out. The city of Detroit and State of Michigan reportedly offered Amazon a massive tax incentive but Amazon didn’t take the bait. The deal would have changed Detroit, but not necessarily for the better. Had Amazon picked Detroit, the city would have had to adjust physically and mentally to handle the supposed increase of 30,000 workers within the city limit. Ford seems like a good fit for today’s Detroit. The company is restoring an eyesore and essentially extending the border of the downtown area. Instead of adding tens of thousands of workers like Amazon would, Ford is adding thousands of workers.<doc-sep>
Ford Motor Co. intends to make a renovated Michigan Central Station "the next great anchor in Detroit's comeback" and the center that restores Detroit's place as the "mobility capital of the world." The train station, long a symbol of the city's demise, will be transformed to be a symbol that "Detroit is open for business for good," company Chairman Bill Ford said Tuesday as thousands gathered for Ford's celebration of its purchase of the iconic building at the west edge of Corktown. "For 76 years, the train station was our Ellis Island," Bill Ford said in assessing the importance of the depot to Detroit. "Once the last train pulled out, it became the symbol that hope left. ... It's time to remake the station into a place of possibility again." He added: “Michigan Central Station is a place that in many ways tells the story of Detroit over the past century. We at Ford want to help write the next chapter, working together in Corktown with the best startups, the smartest talent and the thinkers, engineers and problem-solvers who see things differently — all to shape the future of mobility and transportation.” Ford's big Corktown footprint The acquisition of Michigan Central Station comes alongside the company’s purchase of the former Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, 2 acres of vacant land, the site of an old brass factory and the previous purchase of a refurbished former factory in Corktown, now home to Ford’s electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle business teams, a company statement said. Ford tech workers' move to Corktown is today This is Detroit's biggest comeback moment yet The release said Ford plans to have at least 1.2 million square feet of space in Corktown, three-quarters of which will be split between the company and its partners. “We want this to be a community space," Bill Ford said. "We want to bring in local shops and restaurants, entrepreneurs and small businesses. We want everyone to be involved.” But the business function of the station, besides its branding and recruiting value, will be as the hub of a campus for advanced automotive technology. “What Rouge was to Ford in the industrial age, Corktown can be for Ford in the information age,” according to Ford President and CEO Jim Hackett's prepared remarks. “It will be the proving ground where Ford and our partners design and test the services and solutions for the way people are going to live and get around tomorrow, creating a Southeast Michigan mobility corridor that spans west from Dearborn to Ann Arbor, and east to Detroit.” Bill Ford's vision for train station, Corktown It's official: Morouns sell Detroit's Michigan Central train station to Ford Watch live: Ford's Detroit train station party Entertainment included Detroit rapper Big Sean and the Detroit Children's Choir. Big Sean noted that the train station has been enclosed his whole life and expressed pride that the renovation marks Detroit's comeback pushing good jobs into the city's neighborhoods. The event also included an announcement that the History Channel is preparing a documentary called "Detroit: Comeback City" to debut July 1. The event included a trailer for the documentary featuring the Michigan Central Station and quoting a Free Press John Gallagher column headlined, "Detroit train station is city's biggest comeback moment yet." The depot, a towering ruin closed in 1988 that came to symbolize the city's dramatic fall, was sold to Ford earlier this month. Matthew Moroun, whose family enterprise had owned the empty 18-story station since 1995, announced the sale June 11. He declined to reveal the sale price. The Beaux Arts-style train station, designed by the same architectural firms as Grand Central Terminal in New York, opened in 1913 as the tallest train station in the world. Word of Ford's plans has prompted an outpouring of emotion in the community, with onlookers streaming by the station, sharing stories of the past and present and one even returning a clock that was stolen from the building. The building fell into deep disrepair and was the target of vandals and trespassers. Ford has said it expects the remodel to be finished by 2022. Ford said it would continue with its Dearborn Campus Transformation plan, which started in 2016. It has said, though, that the train station project fit within its existing capital budget. Ford will hold an open house this weekend to give the public a chance to tour the building prior to renovation.