{"id":5210,"date":"2024-06-04T12:30:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T12:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/04\/see-inside-fords-new-tech-campus-a-century-old-detroit-train-station-restored-for-950-million\/"},"modified":"2024-06-04T12:30:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T12:30:55","slug":"see-inside-fords-new-tech-campus-a-century-old-detroit-train-station-restored-for-950-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/04\/see-inside-fords-new-tech-campus-a-century-old-detroit-train-station-restored-for-950-million\/","title":{"rendered":"See inside Ford\u2019s new tech campus, a century-old Detroit train station restored for $950 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014\u00a0Ford\u2019s\u00a0latest project out of the Motor City\u00a0<\/strong>is the restoration and reopening of an abandoned train station, for decades a symbol of Detroit\u2019s downfall and now the automaker\u2019s new technology campus.<\/p>\n

The $950 million project encompasses the 18-story former train station called\u00a0Michigan Central Station\u00a0\u2014 once the state\u2019s marquee transit building \u2014 an adjacent 270,000-square-foot building and other, supporting facilities.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The 30-acre \u201cMichigan Central\u201d\u00a0campus and station\u00a0was initially announced in 2018 and slated to open by 2022. However, the coronavirus pandemic and the extensive work needed to renovate the station delayed its reopening.\u00a0Ford is\u00a0celebrating the restoration\u00a0of the century-old train station on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Following the event Thursday, the ground floor of the train station building will be open to the public through June 16, before the first commercial occupants begin moving in this fall.<\/p>\n

The new campus comes at a precarious time for\u00a0Ford investors\u00a0as the company continues to restructure its business. It also comes as many companies attempt to downsize office space and fill their current buildings with employees who grew accustomed to working from home during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

A photo of Michigan Central\u2019s main concourse prior to its renovation sits in the newly restored room toward the back of the building.<\/span>Michael Wayland \/ CNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically in Detroit, a stark juxtaposition has emerged: In April, Ford\u2019s crosstown rival\u00a0General Motors\u00a0announced it would be downsizing from its towering\u00a0Renaissance Center\u00a0headquarters along the city\u2019s riverfront to two floors in a nearby building that\u2019s under construction.<\/p>\n

Yet\u00a0Ford Chair Bill Ford Jr.\u00a0said he believes the investment made in the historic train station is a crucial part of the automaker\u2019s future, including in aspects of talent acquisition and retention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a war for talent, our industry and our company,\u201d Ford, who spearheaded the project, told CNBC. \u201cAnd you need to give talent two things: You need to give them, first, really interesting problems to solve, and then you have to give them a great place to work. With Michigan Central, we checked both those boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Ford decided to purchase the dilapidated building after years of trips to Silicon Valley for his\u00a0Fontinalis\u00a0venture capital firm and during his tenure as a member of the\u00a0eBay\u00a0board of directors. He\u2019s long been outspoken about the need for the traditional automotive industry to compete with newer tech companies in both product and talent acquisition.<\/p>\n

Ford said attracting top talent to Detroit is \u201cgetting better\u201d but noted that \u201cit\u2019s a tall order\u201d to convince workers from California or the East Coast to relocate to Detroit and work for Ford.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can show them a place like Michigan Central, not just in its beauty, which alone is incredible, but then talk about the kind of things that will be going on there, then it becomes, I think, a really valuable resource for the company going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Michigan Central campus is located southwest of Detroit\u2019s main business district in a trendy neighborhood\u00a0known as Corktown.\u00a0It\u2019s about 10 miles down the road from Ford\u2019s world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.<\/p>\n

The Michigan Central campus in total spans 1.2 million square feet of commercial space, including retail, restaurants and hospitality. It was awarded $300 million in state, local and historic rehabilitation tax incentives, according to officials.<\/p>\n

The restored grand waiting room inside Ford\u2019s Michigan Central Station in Detroit.<\/span>Michael Wayland \/ CNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

Ford officials went to great lengths to restore the station to its original glory after decades of vandalism and decay. The project involved 3D-scanning the rooms, matching materials and referencing historical photos to recreate parts of the building.<\/p>\n

This was especially true for the first floor of the train station, where a grand room features massive windows, an arcade and a large concourse full of marble and terrazzo flooring, Mankato stone and other unique materials.<\/p>\n

Architects and designers opted to leave some graffiti on walls to represent the station\u2019s dormant years after closing in 1988.<\/p>\n

As one measure of Ford\u2019s determination, officials traced the facility\u2019s original limestone to a quarry in Indiana only to find out it had since closed. Michigan Central worked with the owners to reopen the quarry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been painstakingly and lovingly restored to, wherever possible, to its original condition,\u201d said Josh Sirefman, Michigan Central CEO, during a tour of the project. \u201cBefore we start activating it with lots of things, it\u2019s probably in its most pristine condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some graffiti from when Michigan Central sat dormant for more than 30 years was purposely preserved to represent that part of the station\u2019s history.<\/span>Michael Wayland \/ CNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

Amid national commercial real estate challenges, about two-thirds of the tower has scheduled tenants or planned use cases, officials said. That includes an unnamed restaurant and hotel, pending rezoning approval.<\/p>\n

The adjacent building, known as the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, already houses more than 600 employees from nearly 100 startup companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is the beginning of the ecosystem that I want to create,\u201d Bill Ford said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of experimentation taking place down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford plans to house\u00a0at least 2,500 employees\u00a0in the building, primarily members of the company\u2019s electric vehicle and connected services teams. Roughly 1,000 of those employees are expected to move into the station\u2019s tower by the end of this year, Ford said.<\/p>\n

Other building occupants could include local universities, other businesses and a restaurant. However, officials declined to release a full list of expected tenants.\u00a0Google, a founding partner of the project, runs its\u00a0\u201cCode Next\u201d program, which teaches students how to code, from the Book Depository building.<\/p>\n

Ford said he expects future automaker employees to be able to collaborate with other occupants of the station\u2019s tower as well as the startups occupying the Book Depository building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michigan Central\u2019s main concourse newly restored room.<\/span>Michael Wayland \/ CNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

Resurrecting the train station and surrounding campus is the latest project Bill Ford, a great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, has undertaken in the Motor City.<\/p>\n

He was instrumental in moving the\u00a0Ford family-owned Detroit Lions\u00a0from suburban Pontiac to a new stadium, appropriately named Ford Field, in downtown Detroit in 2002. He also was part of the team that brought the Super Bowl to the city in 2006.<\/p>\n

And he redeveloped the company\u2019s River Rouge Assembly plant into a \u201cgreen\u201d production facility amid calls to close it. It\u2019s now a tourist destination for the production of the Ford F-150 full-size pickup.<\/p>\n

The renovated \u201creading room\u201d off of the grand waiting room at Ford\u2019s Michigan Central Station in Detroit.<\/span>Michael Wayland \/ CNBC<\/span><\/p>\n

Ford, who served as CEO of the automaker from 2001 to 2006, described Michigan Central as a continuation of such projects. He called the effort a \u201clegacy project\u201d for himself as well as for those who have been able to work on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of both of those [prior projects], but I think this is going to kind of 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 to come,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014\u00a0Ford\u2019s\u00a0latest project out of the Motor City\u00a0is the restoration and reopening of an abandoned train station, for decades a symbol of Detroit\u2019s downfall and now the automaker\u2019s new technology campus. The $950 million project encompasses the 18-story former train station called\u00a0Michigan Central Station\u00a0\u2014 once the state\u2019s marquee transit building \u2014 an adjacent 270,000-square-foot building […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}