DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. paid $90 million for the derelict Michigan Central Depot, which it will turn into a campus for development of new technologies, according to a report in the Automotive News.
The figure comes from government records. It means the company paid $150 per foot for the 104-year-old, 600,000-square-foot building, which will be the centerpiece of its new facility to develop electric and autonomous vehicles.
Ford is seeking more than $230 million in tax credits for the project, a 1.2-million-square-foot development which will include residential, commercial, and event space. [See “Ford seeks more than $230 in aid for Michigan Central project,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 12, 2108.] It announced the purchase of the Detroit landmark in June. [See “New life for Detroit’s Michigan Central Station,” Trains News Wire, June 11, 2018.
What Ford got for its $90 million is land, concrete building core, exterior and new windows. The interior will be gutted right back to the concrete and bricks. Any structural issues will be corrected and the building will get completely new electrical, plumbing, HVAC, safety systems, communications, elevators and internal walls.
I have been involved with a project like this myself and the results can be really impressive. The historic building exterior is preserved while the interior is completely modern. For Detroit, the vote of confidence from Ford and the high tech jobs will help the city rebuild and attract further investment.
Mr. Bob M.,
Detroit got worse after you were there. One of our locations was on 9 mile and did a lot of sales & service with food distributor businesses in various parts of Detroit. You just didn’t go alone if you wanted anything left in your truck at the end of the day. Now, in the central core downtown, north, north west and even north east, the transformation is most impressive. The change is moving west and southwest wit ‘Cork Town’ district showing good growth momentum. So, in 1978, you may have been lucky to get out alive, now it’s party time! Fantastic turn around! Had dinner at Slo’s BBQ recently, they’re across from the MC depot/FoMoCo offices, Had to walk a block, no concerns at all.
Mr. Bob W.
Thanks Roger. Being one of those who fled Motown in ’63 to outs-state as a teen-ager, I LOVED my experiences in Big “D” from 1952-1967, when the riot destroyed the dream for many. Implosion of many Detroit landmarks, while salvation of others (the Bock, Fox Theater, Music Hall, Penobscott, Fischer Building complex, etc.) makes MC an ideal candidate for re-birth as you’ve noted. Save the shell & hardened interior structures, the rest will be a modern update.
Bravo, Ford. Thanks for remembering your roots in Cork Town!
Downtown Detroit must have changed considerably from when i was last there in 1978. I remember not wanting to get off the bus from Windsor, Ont. and walking a couple of blocks to my hotel. I was panhandled twice in the same block – by the same guy. I stayed one night in what had obviously been a beautiful hotel back in the day but was now nothing more than a crumbling dump. I never left the building that night based on warnings from the hotel staff and the next morning with no cabs available outside the hotel walked from the hotel through a deserted, scary looking neighborhood with almost every building either boarded up or burned down. I was surprised that I arrived at Michigan Central Station unscathed. From there I took Amtrak east across southern Ontario to NYC and home on Metro North. To have Ford Motor Company invest $90,000,000 in that building in that derelict environment makes me think that someone should have their head candled. Either that or things have changed dramatically in the intervening 40 years.
Edward Rizzo: I see your point. No one, not even me, wants to see this derelict historic eyesore demolished. The question is, how is this financial ruination the responsibility of FoMoCo shareholders? The answer to my rhetorical question is, that FoMoCo shareholders have taken on this project in the expectation of endless bailout by the taxpayers, a bailout whose final cost cannot now be known. Compare this project to other massive corporate welfare schemes such as the egregious subsidy of Foxconn in Racine County, Wisconsin. As a taxpayer and voter in Wisconsin I despise the Foxconn deal. But at least Foxconn is building the most modern, safe, state of the art energy-efficient campus at the least cost. The FoMoCo deal in Detroit is quite the opposite.
Nice to see someone step up to rescue this historic building, regardless of the shape it is in.
Bob Withorn asks me why the hatred of the Michigan Central deal. Answer: because I know the building. The location is great. Corktown is clearly the next growth area, after the spectacular comeback of Midtown (f/k/a Cass Corridor) to Corktown’s north. It didn’t happen for Corktown in the 20th Century but will happen in the 21st. The concept is great. The building stinks. Michigan Central’s design and construction, over a century ago, predates anything resembling modern construction and safety standards. So if at its best the building would be a bottomless money pit for FoMoCo. As we all should know, the building is not at its best. Fifty years ago, it was badly neglected. Forty years ago it was a wreck. The building has deteriorated significantly in the years since. Forty years is considered the cycle between major upgrades of a building, that is, if it has had reasonable maintenance during those forty years. Michigan Central in the past forty years has had nothing except ruination. Bob, would you buy a house that has sat empty and vandalized with no maintenance for forty years? I wouldn’t. Or, if I did (going back to my first post) I wouldn’t pay anything for it, I might take it for free.
Charles, why the hatred of the Michigan Central Depot deal?
FoMoCo overpaid by $90,000,000. The company should have asked to buy the wreck for nothing.
Charles Landey,
You do know that all of the windows had been replaced in the MC, don’t you? As well as some minor maintenance? I’m pretty sure Ford has enough information on the building to know what it will take to turn it into what they’re planning. Also, $230 million in tax credits will easily be made up by the taxes from all of the other new sources that will eventually spring up around the site. You really should stop being so negative all the time, you’ll live a healthier life.
Mr. Narita. Then it was whatever company or agency that was running what is Metro North today. Probably Conrail?
Mr McGuire, Metro North did not start operations until several years after your trip.