What can we learn from Detroit’s transformed Michigan Central?

Detroit is celebrating the start of an extraordinary third act for its iconic train station, Michigan Central.

The 500,000 square-foot Beaux-Arts building originally opened in 1913. Through the mid-century decades it reflected Detroit’s prosperity and explosive growth. About 4,000 passengers passed through it each day in the 1940s. But as Detroit lost population and industry through the century’s later decades, the station symbolized Detroit’s hollowing out. It sat vacant for 36 years after closing in 1988. By 2009, it was on the verge of being demolished.

Now Michigan Central is the crown jewel of efforts by local leaders to revitalize and reinvest in the city center. On Thursday, about 20,000 people attended the first day of the re-opening celebration, which featured a concert that began with Diana Ross and concluded with Eminem. The Detroit News  dubbed it “a love letter to Detroit.” NBC will air selections from the concert at 7 p.m. (ET) on Sunday. Opening events will continue through June 16.

The celebration culminates an initiative that began in 2018, when Ford Motor Company purchased the building for $90 million. The station sits on a 30-acre campus and will be the hub of Ford’s “future mobility” initiatives. An adjacent building—also renovated by Ford and now called Newlab—is already home to about 100 companies and roughly 600 workers.

Leadership is vital

Ford has spent an estimated $1 billion on Michigan Centrally and related projects. FastCompany described it as a “possibly crazy effort” that is “a mix of established entities like Ford Motor Company, startups focusing on new forms of mobility . .  and public-realm improvements intended to create a new civic center for Detroit.” Roughly 1,000 Ford employees will work at Michigan Central by the end of this year. More than 2,500 will be based there by 2028.

The massive renovation was completed in a short timespan—six years—because it was a passion for William Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chair and the great-grandson of the company’s founder.

Ford said in an interview with Crain’s Detroit that the station’s decline always bothered him, especially as it became “ruin porn” after it closed. “I hated that,” Ford said. “I hated our national reputation. I hated the fact that this was used as that visual. I always said to myself if I could find a reason one day to change it, to restore it and change the narrative . . . Then I found the business reason.”

Ford worked closely with Detroit’s mayor, Mike Dugan, in pushing the project forward, and he had the resources of a multinational company at his disposal. Other champions might have a political base, or they might have a dense social/business network and the ability to bring people together.

Whatever their superpower, and whatever sector they come from, determined champions—working in partnership with grassroots advocates—are vital to getting transformative projects done.

Steal this idea

Michigan Central is an extraordinarily ambitious project, but the core idea is relevant for dozens of cities across America: To revitalize your downtown, invest in the train station located in or near your city center—and likely either vacant or badly underused. In most cases, that will also mean investing in quality train service.

The same investment that Ford made in Michigan Central, for example, could transform Chicago’s Union Station into a world-class facility—and the hub of a regional network of high-speed trains.

Or consider the cases of Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Both currently have bare-bones Amtrak service. But Union Terminal in Cincinnati sits on 287 acres and was designed to accommodate 17,000 passengers daily. Completed in 1933, it’s an icon of Art Deco architecture, with an interior dome that spans 180 feet and rises more than 100 feet. It’s now primarily a museum—which is closed when Amtrak trains arrive and depart in the middle of the night (just three each week, in each direction).

Wouldn’t quality train service that allows a magnificent building to serve the purpose it was built to serve be a boon to both the city and the museum?

Similarly, Indianapolis has three-times-per-week Amtrak service, which drops riders off at its Union Station. Indianapolis was the first city in the world to consolidate train service in a single facility, in 1847. The current building opened in 1853 and has been renovated multiple times—most recently when it became a “festival marketplace” in the 1980s. That experiment ended in the 1990s. Part of the building is now leased out as office space; part of it is a hotel, which rents out the Grand Hall for special events.

But what if the station were a hub of quality train service?

It’s an easy walk (or short drive) from Union Station to some of the city’s most popular destinations, including the stadiums of its professional sports teams; the offices of some of its most vital employers, like Eli Lilly and Cummins Engine; and the local campuses of Indiana University and Purdue University.