Michigan Central Station Update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg-Hy3li4Y8

This was on NBC News Today, February 6th - Detroit

For years, the Michigan Central Station has stood as a tattered symbol of decay just outside of Downtown Detroit. Now, the old train station is being brought back to life, and serves as a symbol of renewal in the city. This week on Flashpoint, we’re hearing from leaders from Ford Motor Company, Google, the state and the city on why the renovation of this stretch of Michigan Avenue is much more than symbolic.

Gary 🚂

News from the Michigan Central Station

To read this article click here.

Gary 🚂

How are they going to heat this building?  It gets cold there.

It's not a brand new building and it got cold there when it was originally built.  There's probably all sorts of new technology that can be applied but heating this building is not a new thing ...

Actually, from s pratical aspect, would it been a lot more cost-effective to build new?  If this is a tech centet, cabling is an ssue.  As mentioned above, heating could be an is an issue.  If I am a local citizen, if tax breaks, why?  Big companies are involved with this.  And is this distracting the Blue Oval from its bade mission of car building.

I think the question based on JURASSIC PARK should be asked:  You were so concerned about if could, you forgot to ask if you should.

Dominic,

You're acting as though Ford has lost its common sense.  Along those same lines you could say that Tesla never had any.

But the automobile industry is changing radically, right now, and right under our noses, with the biggest push coming from outside it.  It will never be the same, for better or worse.  Younger folks don't want the same cars that us older folks do.  This is what's pushing the big changes.

You're right that Ford should be concentrating on it's core competency, which is indeed car building, and it is still very much focused on this, but to ignore all the market changes that are currently unfolding would be fatal.

That said, Ford investing in it's future is not a distraction, it's a requirement.  "Michigan Central", the station and the forward-looking business concept surrounding it, is a drawing card for the young talent needed to replace those of us in the industry who have retired, or are retiring soon.

You can second-guess Ford all you want, and there may be better ways of doing it, but Ford has to prepare for its future.

We'll all know in a few short years how well this works.  I'm looking forward to it.

Mike

Ford has big plans for that building, in some ways it will be a Tech center. I can't believe some of you would think otherwise. That kind of thinking has brought down many beautiful buildings from the past. Never to be seen again. I give Ford a huge Thumbs up for saving that building.

@Dominic Mazoch posted:

I think the question based on JURASSIC PARK should be asked:  You were so concerned about if could, you forgot to ask if you should.

Two-edged sword:  the same question can be asked of tear-down-build-new, and with a similar set of caveats.

This is a promotional video from a Detroit Realtor. That shows the Michigan Central Station and the area called Corktown. This is being used to promote home ownership in walking distance to the Michigan Central Station. Check it out. Playtime 38 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SonfTYI7VTg

I have always liked this area of Detroit.

Gary 🚂

Now, will the owners who live there for years be able to afford property or other tax increases because of this property?  Who is goi g to pay for increased traffic relief?  Is this a gentrification project, with the station at the core?

@Dominic Mazoch posted:

Now, will the owners who live there for years be able to afford property or other tax increases because of this property?  Who is goi g to pay for increased traffic relief?  Is this a gentrification project, with the station at the core?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQgnpRHSdV4

This video will answer your questions about gentrification.  Most of the interviews show the Michigan Central Station in the background.  Corktown and the Michigan Central Station are working together to address all the issues.

Hope this helps: Gary 🚂

@trainroomgary posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQgnpRHSdV4

This video will answer your questions about gentrification.  Most of the interviews show the Michigan Central Station in the background.  Corktown and the Michigan Central Station are working together to address all the issues.

Hope this helps: Gary 🚂

Good!

Michigan Central Station • March 6th., 2022 • Part One

It was a windy day at the Michigan Central Station as I walked the grounds to capture these photos. The red F150 in photo #3 is my everyday driver.

Photo #6 & #7 is a Canadian Pacific mix freight train on a downgrade to the CP Railroad Tunnel to Canada. Negotiations are underway between Amtrak & VIA Rail to run passenger train to Toronto Canada. Google Earth shows the location.

Hope to see you at the Michigan Central Station: Gary 🚂

Crikey, some of you guys are negative thinkers. A billionaire and his company are saving a historic and gorgeous railway station, and you find every reason to criticize?  You're the same ones who would b!+ch and complain if it were to be demolished.  If you really find the project so egregious, why don't you all pitch in and buy it?  Or start capitalizing on the future of the neighborhood and grab up all the abandoned houses and vacant land around it?

@Arthur P. Bloom posted:

Crikey, some of you guys are negative thinkers. A billionaire and his company are saving a historic and gorgeous railway station, and you find every reason to criticize?  You're the same ones who would b!+ch and complain if it were to be demolished.  If you really find the project so egregious, why don't you all pitch in and buy it?  Or start capitalizing on the future of the neighborhood and grab up all the abandoned houses and vacant land around it?

You’re so right. There are two groups of people I can’t stand: those who tell me that I shouldn’t spend my money the way I want to and those who demand I spend my money on things that I don’t want.

@Arthur P. Bloom posted:

Crikey, some of you guys are negative thinkers. A billionaire and his company are saving a historic and gorgeous railway station, and you find every reason to criticize?  You're the same ones who would b!+ch and complain if it were to be demolished.  If you really find the project so egregious, why don't you all pitch in and buy it?

It has happened before, and quite nearby to MC station.  Just to the south of it you'll find the Ambassador Bridge carrying auto and truck traffic across the Detroit River to and from Canada (and in the news a few weeks ago for the Canadian trucker protest that shut it down for several days).

Believe it or not this bridge, which is the busiest border crossing in the country, is not owned by a government, or a public-private partnership.  Unlike every other infrastructure-based border crossing (bridge or tunnel) it's owned by a private individual (actually a billionaire family).

Back in the 1980's they put their money where their mouths were and bought the bridge from the quasi-governmental organization that had owned it for decades.

Is this a good thing?  Maybe, maybe not.  The owners have been quite difficult to deal with as a new competitive bridge (Gordie Howe International) was being proposed and funded by a Canadian group, and is now under construction a mile or so downriver of this one.   Lawsuits, complaints, attempts to sway environmental impact studies, etc.

But it proves that it can be done, and for as long as the station sat vacant (decades) someone easily could have done the same before this.  In the end the family that owned the bridge actually did -- they bought the station for pennies years ago, and sold it to Ford at a significant profit so that Ford could get their station, neighborhood and business rehabilitation project underway.

Mike

Michigan Central Station • March 6th., 2022 • Part Two

These photos show cool places adjacent to the Michigan Central Station. The Q-Line is a street car, The Ambassador International Bridge to Canada, open November 15, 1929. A new bridge is now under-construction, The Gordie Howe International Bridge, expected opening 2024.

The Detroit Fire Boat, & Station. GM Building & railroad tunnel to Canada. The Mercury Bar & Grandma Bobs Pizza Shop.

Hope to see you at the Michigan Central Station: Gary 🚂

Gary,, thanks so much for posting those pictures of Detroit and the bridge over to Canada.  A few years back we traveled to Detroit to do a run.  It took us over that bridge just at dawn.  Some things last a long time in one's memory.  We found downtown to be a great place to visit.  Would like to go back one of these days.  Cheers.

As I recall from the news accounts, Bill Ford (William Clay Ford, Jr.), frequently drove by this deteriorating  train station on his way to and from work.  The idea to renovate the station, and to re-purpose it at the same time, came to him during one of these drives.  That was an excellent inspiration!

I think the renovation of the Michigan Central Station is great.  Bill Ford mentioned that they need to compete with places like Silicon Valley for the best and the brightest and, in the war for talent, they need a "talent magnet."  You need to have and be able to execute a great vision (''make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood'' as Daniel Burnham put it) to build a place to which the motivated and skilled builders of the future want to come.

Too bad New York City didn't have a person of equal vision to save Pennsylvania Station from its ignoble end as the basement of Madison Square Garden.   

@Nick Chillianis posted:

You’re so right. There are two groups of people I can’t stand: those who tell me that I shouldn’t spend my money the way I want to and those who demand I spend my money on things that I don’t want.

Then, I guess you have little regard for Congress (no matter who is in office)?

Thanks @trainroomgary for posting these pix.

There's another, and related, news item that I stumbled upon recently.

The phrase Michigan Central was of course the nickname of the Michigan Central Railroad, which was at the time a subsidiary of the New Your Central, and was responsible for building the station (1913?).  It was absorbed into the New York Central not long afterward (1919?).

So the term "Michigan Central" was most likely trademarked by the NYC, or perhaps NYC inherited the trademark in the purchase.

Somewhere along the line the trademark lapsed, and evidently relatively recently was picked up by Ford Motor Co., and is now the internal name for the Ford project, the name of the larger organization running it (Ford and it's construction partners), and apparently the public-private entity that will take over the reins after the renovation is complete.  Its full name will be (and already is in fact) the Michigan Central Mobility Innovation District.

See https://michigancentral.com/ for more details.

Mike

Michigan Central was never a trademark.  It was a corporate name.  The MC was controlled by the Vanderbilts from 1871.  Although its railroad properties were leased to the NYC in 1930, the corporation existed until 1995 when it was merged into a subsidiary of the Penn Central Company.  It was the MC itself that transferred designated lines to Conrail in 1976 after which it was a corporate shell that was still paying interest on outstanding bonds.

As the name of the building itself had always been Michigan Central office building, and the MC company had had no involvement with it after 1930, when it was leased to the NYC. 

Guys, thanks for posting the photos of the project, no matter what its real name may be!   Looking forward to the Grand Opening where we can get to go inside and see the completed renovation for ourselves first hand.

I'm very glad that the building is finally being fully renovated to some of its former glory.   It was such a shame to see it deteriorate as the years went by.

Too bad Bill Ford didn't think of it sooner! 

Yesterday part of the Michigan Central Station came to our neighborhood. Slows Bar BQ came with their food truck. They are located across the street from The Michigan Central Station in the restaurant district at 14th. Street & Michigan Ave. Also know as Corktown.

It was a rainy evening but we all got in line for a great dinner. Our home was built in 1936 by the Chrysler Corporation for their employees. They built 200 homes and I have one of the originals, we now have 320 homes. My home is on Michigan’s Historic Home Registry. Chrysler ran a bus from these homes to their automotive plant, from 1936 to 1964.

Below is a photo of the food truck, notice their train logo on the left side of the truck.

We are all please they came to our neighborhood and we all look forward to opening day at The Michigan Central Station.

🇺🇸 Gary 🇺🇦

A friend of mine gave me this Facebook link for some postings on the Michigan Central's history. 

I hope this is ok to do here.

Enjoy

https://www.facebook.com/groups/100654233396758/posts/4854317818030352/

Hello Friends,  Does anyone have any real information on an update to this stations restoration?   I imagine that the station will be opening sometime very soon.

Follow this link for the most recent news:

     Ford Unveils First Rehabbed Building in Long-Derelict Detroit Train Station Complex (4/25/23)) | Yahoo! Autos

Mike

Hello @Mellow Hudson Mike,

Thanks for the link to the article.   It states the building is slated to be opened next year.   I'd love to see the refurbished building on opening day as it should be a grand celebration.

@Allegheny posted:

Thanks for the link to the article.   It states the building is slated to be opened next year.   I'd love to see the refurbished building on opening day as it should be a grand celebration.

Agreed.  The mayor gave his televised state of the city address back in April from the semi-finished concourse of the station building itself.  From what I could see, as he did so, the work is progressing nicely and doesn't appear to be cutting corners on authenticity, at least in the public spaces.

We'll see what sort of grand opening Ford plans as we get closer.  In addition to all the typical Ford automotive and political guests, it would be nice if a few of us railfans would be able to attend to represent our colleagues who may not be so lucky.

Back at the renovation kick-off in June of 2019 I was lucky enough to get this tasty sugar cookie souvenir, with several dozen hand-made for the event by a local bakery:

Mike

I'm sure it was mentioned earlier, but I seem to remember that the Corktown area, where the MC Station is located, has special meaning for the Ford family, because Irish immigrants from County Cork in Ireland and and those with roots there, including the Ford family, settled in the area, giving Corktown its name.

That is going to be one impressive complex! Hopefully part of it will be open to the public to come a check out.

My company Quinn Evans, are the architects for the project. Sadly, I am based in DC and have not gotten inside but from what others have told me its amazing on the inside.  Even with trips to Detroit, I was never able to make time for the inside tour.  Michigan Central Station - Detroit, Michigan - Living & Heritage Design (quinnevans.com)

I was at the Michigan Central Station last night. It was just a spectacular summer evening. To see the Depot’s Lights. More Michigan Central Station photos coming on “Rail-fanning of The OGR Forum”. I also saw a wedding on the steps to the station.

Gary from Michigan 🚂