Michigan Central, a historic Detroit train station, is reopening its doors to the public after sitting vacant for more than three decades.
“Anyone who walked into this building during its three decades plus of abandonment would have said, ‘No way, there's no way that anyone could bring this building back,’” Dan Austin, Director of Communications for Michigan Central, said. “And I think today, Michigan Central proves that where there's a will, there most certainly is a way.”
Michigan Central Station originally opened in 1913. A key point of entry to Detroit, it once welcomed over 4,000 rail passengers to the city every day. Michigan Central is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, and its restoration has been no small task.
A renovation of massive proportions
According to Josh Sirefman, CEO of Michigan Central, thousands have had their hands on the renovation effort, including 3,100 construction workers, and hundreds of architects and researchers. The team recovered all but two pages of the original building plan.
When Ford first acquired the building, Sirefman said, the ceiling was on the verge of collapse. Much of the building’s deterioration was the result of water damage. 3.2 million gallons of water were pumped from the building over the course of 18 months. The building’s heating and cooling system, whose original mechanics had disintegrated, was replaced with a modern system.
“The first three years [the restoration team] spent, they were either freezing or overheating, because there was no air conditioning. There was no heating. So much was open to the elements,” Sirefman said. “And so, [they did an] incredible job of enduring and creative problem-solving throughout every step of the way.”
While the original marble floors remain, most everything else has been recreated. Decorative florets in the windows were recreated by a 3D scanning and printing team at Ford Engineering. Eight miles of grout hold together 29,000 Guastavino ceiling tiles, all of which are restorations or replacements.
The first time Austin set foot in the building after its restoration, he said, he teared up. The success of the project far exceeded his “wildest hopes and dreams.”
“Seeing things like the original chandeliers recreated from the original blueprints, and their original scale and grandeur, seeing all of the plaster elements that were missing. I had only seen this building in historical photos look this way,” Austin said. “And I think it's so important for folks to look at those before photos to realize what was accomplished here.”
A historic landmark
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Detroit’s auto industry saw a boom that was felt not just by the primary auto manufacturers, but by suppliers, law firms, real estate offices, and other adjacent industries. According to Jamon Jordan, official historian for the city, waves of migrants came to the city to stay and build a life.
“And so you get all of these roads converging to the city of Detroit, and many of these people are coming via train…” Jordan said. “Their first appearance, their first welcoming to the city of Detroit, is at the Michigan Central Train Station.
The station symbolized a point of convergence for folks coming from all walks of life. Famous figures like Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera were known to have passed through.
“Let's say you're an artist like Frida Kahlo or Diego Rivera, and you see that 55 foot ceiling in that bold art style. . . That's definitely powerful for an artist, but it's even powerful for people who aren't inclined to do art,” Jordan said. “And when you're seeing that, it basically presents to you that this is a land of opportunity. This Detroit is where I'm going to make my life meaningful.”
But as Detroit’s population peaked in the 1950s, the city and its train station declined in parallel. The construction of highways not only destroyed parts of the city, but made it easier for folks to move to the suburbs. Train travel went out of fashion as more and more households acquired personal vehicles.
By the time Jordan was growing up, much of Michigan Central Station’s original glory had faded, save for a ticket window and a popcorn vendor booth.
“But even as a child, I could see that at one point this place was a magnificent place,” he said.
Creating space for new innovators
A portion of the building that was once the Detroit Public Schools’ Book Depository is now the home of Newlab, a startup “ecosystem” that Sirefman says is so much more than a coworking space.
“It's literally an environment where, on any given day, you can use the shops to build sophisticated prototypes with all kinds of equipment. You can run into people from government, to potential customers. We also have a community of venture capital firms that have investors sitting in the building,” Sirefman said. “You never know who you might run into.”
Newlab was launched in April 2023, and the growth has been “extraordinary,” Sirefman said. Almost 100 companies have space in the building, with over 600 employees combined. All the companies at Newlab are focused on what Sirefman described as “the intersection of mobility and society.”
“And the work that they're doing is really state-of-the-art in mobility innovation, in the implications of electrification, alternative energies, what we call advanced aerial material sciences, you name it.”
Electreon Wireless Ltd., an Israel-based company, has a presence in the building. One of their products includes the first public road in the country with in-pavement charging capability. The electrified segment of 14th Street sits just outside the building.
Companies do not have to have a relationship with Ford in order to hold space in the building, Sirefman said. Some even have Ford as a customer.
“It's about building a talent ecosystem that can really help position Detroit once again as a global leader and the epicenter of mobility innovation.”
The payoff
The renovation of Michigan Central, including the Newlab building and adjacent park, called for a $949 million investment from Ford. According to Sirefman, the property tax abatement is estimated to be around $240 million, and historic preservation tax credits are an estimated $60 million.
The large tax incentives, he said, are not enough for someone to invest in such a large renovation. But Michigan Central is “not a typical real estate project.” Sirefeman believes the cost will be worth it.
“I think the impact for the city and the region will be considerable financially. I think the impact on creating opportunity will be considerable. It already is,” Sirefman said.
!["Seeing [Michigan Central] become what it once was is opening a new chapter, not only for this building or the historic Southwest and Corktown neighborhoods, but for the entire city," Dan Austin said. "I think for the state."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8035b40/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2400x1478+0+61/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2f%2Fd9%2Fe1987e59465b8367062cdcc82464%2Fimg-7609.JPG)
For Austin, an avid Detroit historian with a focus in architecture, there’s far more for the city to gain than a monetary return.
“I think that no building in Detroit has embodied the ups and downs and many twists and turns of Detroit. It was built at a time when Detroit was on the precipice of greatness on its way to becoming the Motor City, and it was built to show the aspirations of that city…” Austin said. “And once again, this building is right there at the center of it all, helping to make it happen.”
