Ford Motor Co. paid $90 million for the Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown.

The disclosure on the city's property sales history page puts an end to months of speculation in commercial real estate circles about how much the Dearborn-based automaker ponied up to the Moroun family for the vacant and unused building off Michigan Avenue.

A purchase price of $90 million puts the purchase price at $150 per square foot for the 600,000-square-foot depot, which has long been seen as emblematic of a city that decayed over decades.

AJ Weiner, managing director in the Royal Oak office of JLL, said the high purchase price is reflective of a buyer who will ultimately use the property itself, as opposed to an investor looking to profit off the building.

"The benefits to a user buyer don't translate to what an investor buyer would see the benefit of," he said. "Marketing, social impact, etc. That said, that's a staggering amount of money, and it's another validation of an ongoing recovery of a market that continues to amaze and impress."

Dennis Bernard, founder and president of Southfield-based Bernard Financial Group, a prominent commercial real estate finance company, was surprised by the cost.

"DAMN!!!!!," he said in an email to Crain's.

A message was sent to a spokesperson for Ford Land Development Co., the automaker's real estate development arm. A spokesman for the Moroun family declined comment.

Ford finalized the depot purchase May 22, according to public records. The company is seeking nearly $239 million in local, state and federal incentives for its planned $740 million campus in the Corktown neighborhood west of downtown, with the train station as the focal point of the 1.2 million-square-foot project that is expected to bring 5,000 autonomous and electric vehicle technology workers to the area.

The 104-year-old depot is expected to be turned into about 313,000 square feet of office space, about 42,000 square feet of residential space spread across 40 or so units, 43,000 square feet of commercial space and 60,000 square feet of event space.

A nearby former Detroit Public Schools book depository, designed by Albert Kahn at 2231 Dalzelle St., is expected to be transformed into 205,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet of commercial space.

A former brass factory is set to be leveled starting later this year. What will rise in its stead is expected to be a 290,000-square-foot building with 247,500 square feet of office/lab space along with 42,250 square feet of commercial space.

Amtrak service stopped at the train station in 1988.