The entrance to the Michigan Central Station is seen, Monday, May 13, 2024 in Detroit. A once hulking scavenger-ravaged monolith that symbolized Detroit’s decline reopens this week after a massive six-year multimillion dollar renovation by Ford Motor Co., which restored the Michigan Central Station to its past grandeur with a focus squarely on the future of mobility. FILE- The abandoned Michigan Central Station is seen, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010 in Detroit.
“The train station ... it is perhaps the most powerful story in Michigan of the power of historic renovation,” Detroit Regional Chamber President and Chief Executive Sandy Baruah said. “To turn something that was blight into something that is hugely attractive and is an anchor as opposed to a deficit is huge.”
The train station’s history reflects the city’s fortunes during its heyday as the world’s car capital and later misfortunes as thousands of auto workers and other residents fled Detroit for life in the suburbs. It also was the vision of Bill Ford, company executive chair and great-grandson of its legendary founder Henry Ford, that a revamped Michigan Central would be something for the community to enjoy, he added.The project is expected to bring with it thousands of tech-related jobs. Restaurants, new hotels and other service-industry businesses already are moving into and near Corktown.