Local Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
Ford is out here this week making a big deal out of its new office complex, which is reborn out of Detroit’s long-abandoned Michigan Central Station.
Partly, this is because Ford is extremely proud of this achievement. It also feels like Ford probably needs to explain why it spent so much money on a building when no one wants to go into an office anymore.
Almost 120 years later, Ford is still here, although the automotive industry is in yet another upheaval. Ford is celebrating by opening up a new ‘Culture And Tech Hub’ built out of the once derelict Michigan Central Station in Detroit.
The abandoned 18-story building, and an adjacent building/campus, were redone at a cost of about $950 million and will, eventually, host about 2,500 employees.
Here’s Ford Chairman Bill Ford explaining why the company did this:
Michigan Central means a great deal to us all. In many ways, this building tells the story of our city. This Station was our Ellis Island – a place where dreamers in search of new jobs and new opportunities first set foot in Detroit. But once the last train pulled out, it became a place where hope left.
“In 2018, I decided it was time to change that by reimagining this station as a place of possibility again. Over the past six years, Ford Motor Company and teams of forward thinkers, designers, community leaders, and more than 3,000 skilled tradespeople have worked to bring this landmark back to life.”
Bill Ford decided to purchase the dilapidated building after years of trips to Silicon Valley for his Fontinalis venture capital firm and during his tenure as a member of the eBay board of directors. He’s long been outspoken about the need for the traditional automotive industry to compete with newer tech companies in both product and talent acquisition.
Ref: Why Ford Spent $950 Million On A New Building For About 2,500 Employees (theautopian)
