As expected, the Michigan Strategic Fund on Tuesday approved tax incentives totaling $207 million over 30 years for Ford to create its new mobility campus centered on the Michigan Central Station in Detroit.

State approval Tuesday of a tax-favored renaissance zone will help Ford transform the dilapidated train station into the centerpiece of a new campus devoted to future mobility technology.

Ford said it will invest $740 million into renovating the depot and transforming several other sites in the immediate Corktown district. The tax abatement will save Ford about $6.9 million annually over the 30-year period.

The City of Detroit has also approved tax abatements for the Ford project worth an estimated $27 million over 12 years.

Although mostly a foregone conclusion, approval of the tax incentives Tuesday marks another important step in Ford's transformation of Detroit's most notorious eyesore into a centerpiece of new mobility research.

Ford announced earlier this year that it would buy the train station from the Moroun family, which had owned it since the 1990s. The station has been vacant for about 30 years, used only for a few special events that took advantage of its vast waiting room and historic architecture.

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Ford said it plans to create a campus centering of the train station with five distinct projects. Besides the train station itself, those projects include:

The Detroit Public Schools Book Depository Building at 2231 Dalzelle St. near the depot. Ford plans to clean up and renovate the 273,000-square-foot structure.

The Brass Factory site at 2200 Rosa Parks Blvd. The existing building, vacant since 2016, is badly contaminated and will be demolished before Ford builds a new structure on the site.

The Factory, a building on Michigan Avenue near the train station that Ford has already opened and staffed.

A new parking deck on Michigan Avenue.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.