Interior of Michigan Central Station shown to 'Homecoming' crowd in rare display

The well-dressed guests mingled, cocktails in hand, beneath the old waiting room's soaring arches and crumbling pillars.

Sunlight streamed through the windowless skylights of the concourse, illuminating the graffiti-covered walls. And the aerial views from the top floor of the depot's tower were heralded as the best in Detroit.

Detroit's historic and long-vacant Michigan Central Station was on dramatic display Wednesday night during its first big crowd event in three decades.

The rare treat was enjoyed by the roughly 300 guests at Crain's Detroit Homecoming, an annual invitation-only event aimed at attracting interest and investment to the region from metro Detroiters who have moved away.

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The family of businessman Manuel (Matty) Moroun, which owns the station, opened up the building for the homecoming. The drinks-and-dinner event marked the largest authorized gathering inside the 104-year-old train station since it closed in 1988.

Only trespassers, movie crews, construction workers and those on an occasional sanctioned tour have been inside.

"Everything looks beautiful tonight," Matthew Moroun, son of Matty Moroun, said in the evening's opening remarks. "Demolition is unthinkable, and the only question is when and how this building is going to be redeveloped."

For many guests, it was their first time inside the train station.

"It's still amazingly beautiful," said Denise Drach of Ferndale, who attended the event with colleagues from the Rossetti architecture firm. "Many people have tried to get in here by climbing a fence."

For Todd Fortner, who grew up in Redford Township and now lives in Shanghai, the train station is Detroit's own world history site.

"It's like the Colosseum in Rome, the Acropolis in Athens — it's a jewel ruin," said Fortner, co-founder of a China-based automotive interior parts company called CAIP Group.

He said it wouldn't be all that bad if the depot stays as it is and isn't redeveloped.

"I've spent the last 15-16 years living in Shanghai, and I've seen how they just knock down things and make everything new and shiny," Fortner said. "Every book that you look at always focuses on this building as a symbol of Detroit's decline. I think it's a symbol of Detroit's edge and coolness ... this place has a lot of history."

The evening was scheduled to conclude with a stunning light show in the station's tower visible for miles around.

Various proposals have been floated over the years for what to do with the empty depot, including casinos and a new Detroit police headquarters, but none have panned out.

However, real estate and development experts say the station may soon be ripe for redevelopment, with high-end lofts and hotel rooms in the tower one possibility. But finding an anchor tenant for the station's large ground floor remains a challenge.

Matthew Moroun recently told Crain's that the depot could be used again as a train station, connecting to Detroit Metropolitan Airport and with future high-speed rail lines to Chicago.

Past estimates have put the cost of rehabbing the station above $100 million and approaching $300 million.

The Morouns say they have put more than $8 million into the station in recent years, restoring electricity, adding a freight elevator and installing more than 1,000 windows.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.