DETROIT — The landmark Michigan Central Station, undergoing revival by the Ford Motor Co. as a technology hub, could also become the home of a hotel, the Detroit Free Press reports.
A spokesman for the Ford subsidiary overseeing the station’s redevelopment said Monday that the company is seeking a zoning change from the current heavy industrial use to one that would allow a hotel on the top two or three floors of the 15-story tower. Future details, including the brand of hotel, would be announced at a later date.
The company had previously indicated an interest in having a hotel as part of the facility, but said the COVID-19 pandemic had affected those plans.
“We have to get the right one in,” Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford said last year, according to the Free Press. “… We want to make sure we have the right one that fits with the vibe of what we want there, and that we think has the longevity to stay there.”
Ford bought the long-derelict building in 2018 for a reported $90 million and renovations have been underway since; it took six months just to seal and begin drying out the building after years of decay [see “Masonry, steel structure focus in second phase of Michigan Central Station revival,” Trains News Wire, May 24, 2019].
All the years of neglect yet its still standing says a lot. Unlike buildings & homes built in recent history which will be rotted out in less than 50 yrs!
Come see the 1920 Ford Assembly plant here in Charlotte. Now called Camp North End it’s a great venue for restaurants and entertainment.
Interesting. We just spent a great night at the Ford Hotel in Oklahoma City. It is a repurposed Model T factory-distributorship and it was hopping in the middle of the week. The family that owned it took a leap of faith and, now, one of the chains has purchased it. A class act in all regards and it is working.
Ford, known for its sometimes remedial level of bean counting when it comes to the construction of cars has been feeling pretty frisky as of late with their excess cash.
Becoming a primary real estate owner/developer of a building like this is not the same as managing an assembly plant of corporate HQ.
I have watched several cities across the US work to get their classical, older style tower buildings reinvested for office/hotel use and the success rate is mixed at best. Some cities can’t even get developers to take an interest without huge amounts of public funding or heavily discounted loans. Some cities are going all out with enterprise like zones or special taxing districts to get the needed funds lined up.
The biggest hangup is the banks, they are passing over many of these projects outright as high risk and it forces many to use those….ahem…margin sharks, aka hedge funds.
This is why I am scratching my head on this Ford/Michigan Central project. Obviously they are self financing with some healthy tax incentives from Michigan but the marketplace is just not as excited about it. I think Jacksonville, Florida has been working for nearly 10 years to get their Laura Trio redeveloped into a Marriott Classic and its still a work in progress due to finances. So the building stays stripped and empty all the way to the top floor.
When does Ford fall into another deficit globally and stop this work because they can’t afford it?
To add to your post, John, Ford has been demolishing some of its buildings at its existing Dearborn/ Allen Park tech center. All of them way newer than 1913.
With computerized global corporations no longer need to be in one place. GE Medical, for example, designs medical imaging technologies with engineering teams communicating with each other from Norway, Israel and Wisconsin. So I can see how Ford can scatter its Metro Detroit engineering staff as between Michigan Central and the existing Dearborn/ Allen Park campus, several miles apart. Even so, I never believed in that project. Once past the soaring train station lobby, Michigan Central is a crappy old slum. To get anything to work there – elevators, plumbing, fire sprinklers, fire-resistant structural elements, electrical —- is many times the cost per square foot of an all-new building. And what does Ford get out of it? Basically, office space. It’s not suitable for prototype construction etc.
I’d be interested in a few examples of a “remedial level of bean counting when it comes to the construction of cars.” I suppose “remedial” means something like reading on the third grade level in the twelfth grade. I suppose “known for” means this sets Ford apart from the efforts of other car makers, which are different. I am recalling when GM and Chrysler went bust in “arranged bankruptcies,” and Ford did not. Lotsa folks got screwed there. Just asking.
Remedial simply means someone who is not able to keep up with their contemporaries. Watch a tear down video of the latest EV, the Mach-E.
Ford didn’t get a overnight BK because they put the entire company in hock including the Ford logo not long before the economy went south and credit went tight and required the rest to go to the Feds hat in hand.
So now today they are cash rich, that is what I meant by “being frisky” with their capital. Losing money on EV’s, announcing a large e-Ford plant in TN, buying Michigan Central Building. Is it the best use of Ford’s cash is my question?
They took a big risk back then and came out ahead of the game, but where is the money going now?
As long as the platforms see passenger use, go for it.
Turn that dump into a hotel? The only thing that building was ever good for was a train station. As a regional office for New York Central and Penn Central, it was terrible.
Now let’s go back to yesterday’s discussion. Under an article about CPKC’s finances, there were comments about a possible new tunnel Detroit to Windsor. The current tunnel dates to 1913 and has limited clearances. The tunnel location is why Michigan Central in 1913 closed its downtown station in favor of this megastructure in Corktown. I believe New York Central owned the tunnel when built but today’s traffic is all CPKC.
I have to wonder if CPKC’s willingness for passenger trains has to do with getting the passenger carriers to pay a big part of the cost of a new tunnel. In any event, a new tunnel will be years in the future, when we don’t know what Amtrak or VIA Rail will look like or even if they will exist.
Passenger trains Detroit to Windsor brings up the obvious question, what to do for a station in Detroit. Amtrak New Center is in a great location for Pontiac trains. It has one platform, which suffices for the three train pairs now existing. For new trains to Toronto, New Center would both be inadequate and mislocated. Which brings us back to Michigan Central. Perfect location for trains to Canada and obviously large enough. But has Ford Motor Company made any provisions in its redevelopment scheme?