Ford Motor Co. the multinational automaker, recently announced its plan to spend approximately $740 million in the renovation of the Michigan Central Station and other vacant sites, Incidentally, these were the sites that the company acquired in June 2018.
Reuters reports that Ford is looking to transform the building into a campus of offices that can accommodate up to 5,000 software engineers and tech workers focused on self-driving vehicles and auxiliary technologies and services.
The company further declared that it is actively seeking support from state, federal and economic development groups to receive tax cuts and incentives of almost $250 million in the development of these sites. The five sites include Michigan Central Station, 45 acres of vacant land, an old brass factory, the Book Depository and a closed hosiery factory.
According to reliable reports Ford claimed that the project will not be financially feasible without incentives as the costs of the project include the requirements of restoring a historic building, building and land purchase, as well as rehabilitation of exterior and infrastructure.
Ever since Ford’s announcement to restore the train station, it has been popularly contemplated that as many as 5000 people will find employment there once the project is complete. But Ford has not yet publicly committed the amount it plans to invest in the project that will possible transform one of Detroit’s oldest neighborhoods. The decline of Detroit has hard hit the area but in the recent past a renewed vigor in real estate and other business investment has somewhat revived the lost glory, claim reports.
Sources state that the Beaux Arts-style train station served as the city’s main depot until the rise of more popular options for air travel caused its decline and closure in 1988 by Amtrak.
According to Executive Chairman Bill Ford, Ford plans to restore the space and start not only restaurants, coffee shops and bars but also consult the locals and work in accordance to improve the prospects of Corktown.