Michigan Central Station, owned by the Ford Motor Co., reopened last month in Detroit after a nearly $1 billion renovation. It's open to the public to tour on Friday evenings and Saturdays through August.DETROIT, Michigan – In December 1913, a massive fire destroyed Detroit’s historic downtown train station. Fortunately, a new, larger train station was already under construction, and was rushed into service without fanfare.
A star-studded concert last month featuring Diana Ross, Eminem, Jack White and others helped inaugurate the space. The 18-story building had become a symbol of the city’s decay – filled with trash, damaged by water and vandals, covered with graffiti. Twenty years later, a Detroit City Council resolution called for the building’s demolition. Fortunately, the city didn’t have the money to bring it down.* The train station’s former restaurant, now filled with a curated catalog of the restoration effort, including numerous items discovered during the renovation. Shortly after Ford announced it was buying the building, an anonymous “donor” reached out to reveal that they had the station’s 700-pound Carriage House clock, missing for decades.
Ford, which envisions the building as the centerpiece of an innovation district, plans to relocate 2,500 employees here by 2028. Other companies plan to rent space here, as well, including Google.In a letter to the community displayed inside the building, Bill Ford, executive chairman of the Ford Motor Co., calls the restoration “a bold declaration that Detroit’s best days lie ahead.”Still, seeing is believing.
The Dequindre Cut deadends at the Detroit River, within lovely Milliken State Park, where we connected with the Riverwalk, the scenic waterfront path that travels 5 miles between Belle Isle and the Ambassador Bridge. Downtown Detroit, while geographically much larger than Cleveland, has a population of about 7,000, or roughly one-third the size of Cleveland’s, according to recent estimates.
For the full effect, come on a Saturday, when as many as 225 vendors are set up throughout the space, selling everything from produce to prepared foods to flowers, artwork, T-shirts and more. Museum exhibits cover Gordy’s early years, as he struggled to break through in the music industry, and the many record labels he eventually created .