DETROIT– The once-ruined monolithic Michigan Central train station — a symbol of Detroit’s decline for decades — has been given new life after a massive six-year, multi-million dollar renovation to create a hub for mobility projects in the rebirth of the Motor City.
The hulking, windowless, scavenger-ravaged building that ominously overshadowed the city’s Corktown neighborhood is now home to Ford Motor Co. and the centerpiece of an extensive 12-hectare mobility innovation district.
The building’s first tenant, Google’s computer science education program Code Next Detroit, is expected to move in at the end of June. The grand opening ceremonies include an outdoor concert on Thursday, with public tours starting Friday.
“The train station… it may be the most powerful story in Michigan about the power of historic renovation,” said Sandy Baruah, president and chief executive of the Detroit Regional Chamber. “To take something that was a blight and turn it into something that is hugely attractive and an anchor rather than a deficit is huge.”
The restoration effort – part of the automaker’s more than $900 million project to create a place where new transportation and mobility ideas are nurtured and developed – matched the size of the more than century-old, 500,000 square meter (46,000 square feet) building. -square meters) building.
In numbers:
__ More than 3,100 workers spent approximately 1.7 million hours working at the station and surrounding public areas
__ 29,000 Gustavino tiles were restored in the Great Hall
__ Eight million miles of new grout were applied over the 1,951-square-foot ceiling
__ 8 million bricks, 2,138 square meters of marble floors and 8,361 square meters of decorative plaster have been restored or replicated
__ 13.2 million liters of water were pumped from the basement
__ Installation of 300 miles (482 kilometers) of electrical cables and wiring and 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) of plumbing
The train station’s history reflects the city’s fortunes during its heyday as the world’s auto capital and its later setbacks as thousands of auto workers and other residents fled Detroit for a life in the suburbs.
Michigan Central Railroad began purchasing land in Corktown, the city’s oldest neighborhood, for the new train station around 1908. according to HistoricDetroit.org. The depot was opened at the end of 1913. But as rail travel gave way to commuting and as more Americans chose to use the nation’s highways, the number of people passing through Michigan Central steadily declined.
The last train left in 1988 and for years the building fell into disrepair, neglect and abandonment. It became a destination for curious and urban adventurers looking for such places. Other buildings in Detroit, especially factories, suffered the same or similar fate, but Michigan Central’s size made it a symbol of the city’s decline.
Redevelopment by the former owner never got off the ground. Then, in 2018, Ford announced it would purchase the 18-story building and adjacent buildings as part of plans for a 1 million-plus-square-foot campus focused on autonomous vehicles.
“There’s a lot of innovation happening here,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley. “The future of the company will largely be housed here and on campus. It represents our future revenue.”
It was also the vision of Bill Ford, company chairman and great-grandson of legendary founder Henry Ford, that a revamped Michigan Central would be something the community could enjoy, he added.
“And as employees, we are so proud that Ford stuck its neck out to make this project a reality,” said Farley.
The project is expected to create thousands of technology-related jobs. Restaurants, new hotels and other service industry businesses are already moving to and near Corktown.
In December, state officials announced three proposed housing development efforts intended to address housing needs around Michigan Central and the Innovation District.
Michigan Central and several other efforts around Detroit are expected to accelerate the innovation economy in southeastern Michigan, said Baruah, who added that the building and surrounding campus will help attract the best and most innovative minds to the area.
“It really is an attraction game. It’s about talent,” he said.
The train station’s reopening also comes as Detroit has apparently turned the corner from national joke to national attraction. Nearly a decade after its embarrassing bankruptcy, the Motor City has stabilized its finances, improved city services, reversed the population loss that has displaced more than a million people since the 1950s and made progress in cleaning up the blight across its 210 sq. kilometers.
Detroit is now a destination for conventions and meetings. Detroit happened last month an attendance record for the NFL draft after more than 775,000 fans poured into downtown last month for the three-day event.
The significance of Michigan Central’s rebirth is not lost on Mayor Mike Duggan, whose administration has guided Detroit back to respectability since the city’s exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in 2014.
“I’ve been waiting 40 years for this day and I’ve been watching Detroiters for a long time, so it’s going to be very special,” Duggan said last week. “It’s going to be a very emotional day.”
“The abandoned train station was the national symbol of Detroit’s decline and bankruptcy,” he explained. “It was on the cover of Time Magazine under the headline ‘bankruptcy.’ So the fact that not only has the city come back, but the train station has come back in such a spectacular way and the place where we’re going to design the cars of the future. Now it’s about the future, not the past.”
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Associated Press reporter Joey Cappelletti on Mackinac Island, Michigan, contributed to this story.
