OT: Ford purchases Michigan Central Station in Corktown, Detroit
This is pretty exciting news for Ford and Detroit — and the state of Michigan, as it tries to retain more in-state college educated kids. Hopefully it nudges GM to move Cadillac headquarters back to Detroit, away from their mega-millions pointless "studio" in SoHo, Manhattan.
My understanding is the Ford will still have it's HQ in Dearborn at the Glass House. The autonomous vehicle and electrified vehicle teams will be based at the Central Depot Station
I think Ford Mobility (Electric and Autonomous) are going in the Factory at Michigan and Rosa Parks. I think there will be more diversity in the train station (but that's just what I've heard).
(lol. Take it easy)
Looks like OP updated the title on the post, just was posting to make sure people didn't think Ford was moving the HQ to Corktown.
Ford announced and began doing a major ($ billion) renovation project to the Dearborn Research Campus (not the WHQ or downtown Dearborn projects). When Hackett came he stopped it to restrategize (he's from Steelcase so I guess he had some input).
Now it would seem they may scale back some of those plans to invest in Corktown...? .
The damn troll finally sold out. I thought he would die first.
Definitely a good day for the city of Detroit.
Dan Gilbert, the Ilitches, and Matty Moroun have long reminded me of the New Testament parable of the servants and the talents. Three servants are entrusted with the master's money. Two invest it and one buries it for safekeeping. No points for guessing which one comes off badly in the end.
(not you, M&B Wahoo)
The comeback continues.
And yes, I realize Detroit won't ever be the Detroit of old, but it's quickly becoming a unique mid-sized city.
Help out a guy who's been out of state for 13 years but likes Detroit: Can you provide more detail on the what and the how? I'd love it if Detroit actually did make a real recovery, but what's your reasoning?
There are a few dozen different projects going on that are really starting to make an impact, but the highlights are the District Detroit being built around Little Caesers Arena and what seems like a couple dozen new buildings being built downtown as well as in the surrounding area. I get that this is a vague description, but the District Detroit developments really have changed an entire swath of Detroit.
In general, the demolition of so many thousands of abandoned homes has helped with optics.
Here are a few things to check out:
New Detroit skyscraper, to be tallest in MI:
https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2017/12/14/detroit-…
A list of random new developments:
https://detroit.curbed.com/maps/development-detroit-transform
A better, more comprehensive list with a bunch more developments (apologies for any overlap):
https://detroit.curbed.com/detroit-development
Add in the smaller developments like the PGA tour stop at the Detroit Country Club and this much bigger news from Ford and it's starting to feel like a lot is happening at once!
This is a great article in my opinion. It highlights the restoration projects that are making Detroit a destination without removing the charm and beauty of the old buildings.
Dont forget the efforts to revitalize the neighborhoods. I know Pulte has done major work in Brightmoor. And the neighborhoods have street lights again. Duggan has done some nice work.
Sorry, but Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) moving their headquarters to Atlanta a few years ago hurt the area far more than any improvement from tearing down dilapidated homes in one Detroit neighborhood. And from what I recall, it wasn't altruism, it was merely an effort to win a piece of the nine figures in demolition funds.
Most of the recent Detroit hype is built around the Downtown renewal. Quicken Loans, Ally, Nike, LinkedIn, Under Armour, Microsoft, Shinola Hotel, Little Caesars Arena.. it seems like every month a company announces that they're moving into the city or making renovations.
I've worked downtown for the better part of 3 years now, and every summer the city looks cleaner and busier than the last. For the first time I'm actually considering moving here when my lease expires.
That's good news.
I took my wife and kids to a Tigers games last summer, which I try to do every couple of years on visits. I always enjoy the trip, including the park and walk, but I just wrote off the attractiveness of the streets we walked to me being near the Park. Perhaps things are spreading beyond, though.
You'll pardon me for being mildly skeptical. I want Detroit to recover, but we've heard a lot of "This will bring Detroit back!" over the past 25 years. If businesses really are moving there (not to mention people, I have a friend moving there this year) that's a much better sign than a contract for boondoggle X.
Well, people are naturally going to scream "comeback!" after the city implodes. That said, the change in the last 5 years, especially the last 2, has been incredible. I'm a little worried that it'll come to a screeching halt when the economy corrects and Dan Gilbert's pockets thin out with the housing market; but even if that happens, progress has already clearly been made.
Better to have a private investor that might be overstretched than no private investor at all. It's good to hear that there's real progress in recent years, and a new skyscraper (!) is quite a step.
I second this. I have been living and working downtown since 2013/2014, and the development has been incredible. Old, abandoned property is being re-done to support commerce and it seems like its sticking. I know a good number of people living within greater downtown, significantly more than when I moved.
It seems to have accelerated within the last year. For the first time, I'm getting annoyed by the crowds on normal days. It's harder to get into bars/restaurants at peak times, and today the street was so crowded at a stoplight it felt like NYC; it never had before, to me at least.
Still a long way to go, and the neighborhoods are still in dire need of demolition, street/sidewalk repair, and police presence, but we're on the right path.
Brush park (the lots with all those really old, really big houses on them) is getting redone with new apartments as well as the surrounding area. That has been new in the last few years. Brush Street going from the stadium and almost all the way to the hospital has been getting a lot of new business and there are some pretty nice new places to eat along there as well. All down Cass and into by Wayne State has gone through a hell of a transformation, but that isn't anything really new. A lot of the older buildings are being renovated and getting power washed and it makes a difference.
Are you actually from the City of Detroit or just judging it continually from afar?
I too haven't been in Detroit consistently for over a decade now, but when I've visited it definitely feels more alive and vibrant than it did during my youth. And they seem to legitimately focusing on organic growth; not for nothing they have 2 WeWork offices downtown, which cater to smaller companies and tend to attract a younger, more tech-savy crowd. Sure it's mostly just office space dressed up with cucumber water jugs, but it's still a positive sign for the city that they are trying to attract younger people downtown to work as well as see a game or grab a drink.
The only concern I've had (and I may well be off because I don't follow the news that closely) is that they've yet to land a "big" employer downtown. Lots of outposts for major companies, but they aren't getting Amazon's second HQ or some other major corporation's home base, which will really drive new investment and help transform larger swaths.
Kwame went to jail. The bar could only go up from there.
Hard to miss, it was big news nationwide. I could keep up with the situation every day in LA newspapers.
He's one of the reasons I'm skeptical. Not because he's involved, but because since I was a kid I would hear of promising (good-faith!) efforts to revitalize Detroit every few years. It seemed like things were on the upswing with Archer, and when Kwame was elected he seemed like a good successor. And then there was the Super Bowl and talk of showing off a "revitalized Detroit" with middle-wigs like Roger Penske saying lots of great stuff.
So to hear of actual, real construction, to hear about people and businesses moving in, to hear people start complaining that it's hard to get into restaurants? That's different than the usual "this $1 billion sports complex will bring economic growth" smoke-blowing, to me.
Spent Friday night down at the Belt and bar hoping. Spent Saturday at the beach on Belle Isle. Numerous friends and family headed down for the EDM festival and numerous after parties. Weather was great. People were friendly. Then you realize there was a shootout in Greektown, and a total of 9 people killed city wide over the weekend.
It was a bummer reading that one, especially after experiencing how great the city can be. I've been heading down there regularly for 10 years now, and never had a problem myself. I'll never speak ill of the city, and always recommend it as a great town to enjoy an night out in. Idk, Detroit just had such a great chance to show off how beautiful it is, and this kind of stuff casts a cloud over it.
This narrative is pretty overblown. The businsess district is extremely safe - you'd have to be looking for trouble to find it. In fact, that's the case for mostly everything between Campus Martius and Comerica. Just don't venture around Greektown alone at 2:00 in the morning.
Oh and most days I'm right there with you. I guess the two shootings in Greektown have me flustered the most. I'm down there probably once a month, and was only a few blocks away from the one on Friday. I guess the good thing is that these are rare occurances. Hopefully it's not a continuing thing...
is trash tornado.
Detroit needs every bit of it's downtown to succeed. Greektown was really the first place I was introduced to downtown as a early 20s guy. I grew comfortable there enough to branch out into the neighboring areas. Start to map the city a bit, know where you are driving and how to get around. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who would be sad to see that area written off and forgotten about.
We had 4 murders in DC over the weekend, and nobody thinks that DC is going to go out of business. It's the same in a lot of places. Detroit will be fine.
I was following facebook comments about these weekend shootings and folks listening to Detroit police scanner traffic said DPD was admitting over the air they were shortstaffed. It's really sad when city leadership shortchanges public safety. Ann Arbor does it too — they just blew a recent $2M public safety millage on "affordable housing and climate change."
I mean, of all the things to spend money on, mental health, affordable housing, and cutting down on your environmental footprint seem pretty reasonable. Cities waste taxes on far worse.
Everything sounds great, but a government that lies about why it's taking your money is morally bankrupt.
Sure. Then that's every government ever in the history of the world.
From the very cursory research I did, it sounds like the county millage was for public safety and mental health services. It now sounds like Ann Arbor was going to use it's cut to fund public safety, but also use some of the additional money to fund affordable housing and climate change, something they were apparently quite public about. I assume they feel their mental health services are sufficiently funded so as to not need the additional money.
Nobody is ever fully happy with how their money is spent. But again, if I'm a resident of Ann Arbor and I read that some of my tax money is going to try to make the place a bit safer to walk through and a little cheaper to live in, that doesn't feel like some huge betrayal.
Sure. Then that's every government ever in the history of the world.
Hard for me to disagree with that.
The evenings were awesome though and the day time I was at the beach, so it didn't bother me at all! IDK, give me that weather over being stuck inside due to rain like the last couple!
Well, I also read that Chicago had 39 homicides over the same period, vs 9 in Detroit. Sure, it is more populated, but it gives some perspective.
39 homicides in Chicago? That's an absurd number, and doesn't hold up to a quick check. 8 people were killed in Chicago over the Memorial day weekend, one fewer than in Detroit, in a city 4 times bigger. Perspective.
Here is the article:
"By comparison, the Chicago Tribune reported that 39 people were shot over the long Memorial Day holiday there — seven fatally."
When I posted I was going from my memory of reading it earlier, and I missed the "seven fatally" part, so it wasn't 39 homicides. So my point is null.
The Moroun Family trying to polish their public perception...