Things are still raw inside Michigan Central Station — but progress is happening

John Gallagher | Detroit Free Press

From a distance, it may look like not much has changed yet at the old Michigan Central Station. But get up close or get inside, as I did Monday, and it's clear that the restoration of Detroit's most famous ruin is well underway.

The long-derelict train station, once a symbol of the city's downfall, is becoming Detroit's premier revitalization project. On Monday, Rich Bardelli, Ford's construction manager for the station and other projects in Corktown, led me and several others on a hard-hat tour of the work in progress.

Since Ford bought the station 18 months ago, Bardelli and his team have put on a temporary roof (the old one had been stolen by metal strippers). They dried out the water-logged building, cleaned a lot of the exterior, made models of plaster pieces that will be replicated, and gotten started on interior demolition.

Just recently Ford signed contracts for limestone to replace some exterior panels damaged beyond repair.

"We’ve taken a lot of time this past year to do a lot of testing, just going and looking at everything," Bardelli told me.

Patience is required because It's a big job and will take a lot of time. Bardelli told me that construction at the station will continue for another three years, through the end of 2022. It'll take a few more months beyond that to finish the tenant spaces for the retailers and other vendors who will operate there. Full occupancy should happen by mid-2023.

Things are still pretty raw inside. Ford is just now getting heat to some of the interior, so Monday's tour was pretty chilly. And a lot of questions remain, like whether to keep the new windows installed by the Moroun family, the station's former owners. Bardelli said the question is under review.

Ford's entire Corktown campus consisting of several buildings will cost somewhat more than $700 million. The train station itself is costing $350 million to renovate. The station contains 650,000 square feet of space out of Ford's total 1.2-million-square-foot inventory in Corktown.

For Bardelli, a 30-year veteran of Ford's real estate work, this project is deeply satisfying.

“As a Detroiter, growing up here, seeing the rebirth of our city, outstanding," he said. "Understanding that the city’s coming back, that we have iconic buildings that are being restored, and that we have a future that looks bright is really what’s important for me and I’m sure a lot of other Detroiters.”

The general outline of Ford's plans for the station remain what they have been. Ford will keep the vaulted waiting room open to the public, with restaurants, retailers and community spaces there. Most of the tower portion will become office space for Ford employees and partner firms.

The upper three stories will become "hospitality" space — a hotel, conference center, or the like. Options are still under review.

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Opened in 1913, the station operated as a hub of train travel until Amtrak ceased running trains there in 1988. In the decades since, the station saw heavy damage by metal strippers and vandals. So ruined was the station that it became the international symbol of Detroit's downfall.

So when Ford's executive chairman Bill Ford agreed to buy the depot from the Moroun family in mid-2018, it was universally hailed as a major turning point. The company said the station would become a hub for its future mobility research, with as many as 5,000 Ford and supplier firm employees based there and in nearby buildings Ford is renovating.

So be patient a while longer, Detroit. Ford shows every sign of doing this right. And it will definitely be worth waiting for.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.