ASP Panel Update: Michigan Central Station, Detroit.
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December 2018
In 2018, Ford Motor Company (Ford) engaged the ULI Advisory Services program to provide strategic recommendations for the future of the iconic Michigan Central Station. Ford purchased the vacant landmark in 2018 to focus on core research, engineering, and manufacturing facilities and manage its commercial portfolio. Acknowledging that Ford Land last delivered a large multiuse development in the 1970s, Ford engaged a ULI Advisory Services panel to provide strategic recommendations in a variety of areas, including innovation, partners, impact, mutual success, programming, and support for the future of mobility, through the rehabilitation of Michigan Central Station, for the Corktown neighborhood and the City of Detroit.
The panel provided Ford with recommendations on best practices for undertaking large development projects and the tools to champion the project for the neighborhood, city, and region.
Photo By ULI
Key Recommendations:
- Think big. Michigan Central Station is an icon not just for Corktown but for people throughout the state and beyond.
- Focus on placemaking for unexpected “collisions,” which is both art and science. Aim for a curated mix of uses and tenants that avoids a homogenous look and feel for the Central Station District.
- Make the district a “mobility playground” of innovative solutions. Make Michigan Central Station a hub for multimodal transportation.
- Create a communication strategy that includes the district, the city of Detroit, and beyond. Prioritize actively engaging and empowering the local community in the district. In all cases, communicate early, often, and consistently while being clear, authentic, and transparent.
- Document and deliver on the Community Benefits Agreement. Set targets, communicate progress, and look for ways to deliver above and beyond the agreement.
- Celebrate and activate the station throughout construction.
- Find ways to save the tracks for future connectivity.
- Use triple-bottom-line sustainability (people, planet, and profits) as a backbone principle and incorporate it into all phases of development.
Photo By ULI
These recommendations provided a blueprint for Ford as they began to put the pieces together to bring Michigan Central Station and the surrounding area back to life.
In June 2024, Ford reopened Michigan Central Station after six years of extensive restoration and renovation efforts. In the first three months, more than 100,000 visitors visited the station. Throughout the renovation, Ford held community events and shared updates and stories.
Michigan Central, a “30–acre technology and cultural hub in Detroit, where leaders, thinkers, communities and creators come together to accelerate bold ideas and technologies that shape our collective future,” was also formally established. The Corktown neighborhood’s tech and cultural district extends beyond the station to three additional buildings. These buildings include a mobility hub connecting to a future greenway, the home base for Ford’s autonomous vehicle business and operations team, an open concept innovation and startup space, and 1.2 million square feet of new development focused on retail and hospitality.
To learn more about the Advisory Services Program visit: https://americas.uli.org/programs/advisory-services/
To read the Advisory Services Report delivered to Ford, visit ULI Knowledge Finger: https://knowledge.uli.org/-/media/files/advisory-service-panels/2018/corktown-detroit-mi-2018.pdf?rev=eedb00bd88b84e37a1a757b163823aee&hash=63F2A8ABBDE0353D165805ACC194F455.