The Dirt: What’s going at Michigan Central Station? Ask again later

The NFL draft took up most of the news bandwidth this past week, but there were still a few development stories worth our attention.

What’s going into the revamped Michigan Central Station, opening June 6 ? Ford says to ask again later. The Ilitches are looking for developers to help bring to life three vacant or demolished properties the family has owned for years. And archaeologists may have discovered a historic site beneath the former Black Bottom neighborhood.

Plans, trains and automobiles

The former Michigan Central Station’s reopening is just weeks away. But the public still doesn’t fully know Ford Motor Co.’s plans for the building (paywalled).

Ford promised in 2018 that it eventually will have 5,000 people working out of its entire Michigan Central campus in Corktown, which is expected to cost $950 million to fully redevelop. Half the employees will come from the automaker. Full occupancy is likely to come in phases over many years. Other businesses in the office tower are likely to be tied to transportation and technology. Tech incubator Newlab opened in the old Book Depository building adjacent to the train station. Ford says it houses 93 startups.

There will be restaurants and retail on the first floor of the train station — an operation being overseen by Detroit Is the New Black founder and CEO Roslyn Karamoko. A hotel could one day top the 18-floor tower, but Ford needs a rezoning request approved by Detroit City Council. (Detroit News, Outlier Media, Metro Times)

Help wanted

Olympia Development of Michigan is looking for partners to jointly develop three of its properties (paywalled) near The District Detroit. The Ilitch family-owned company is working with The Related Companies on its $1.5 billion redevelopment of 10 buildings near the Ilitches’ Little Caesars Arena. The three projects were added as part of a program included in the District Detroit’s community benefits agreement .

Here’s more info about the three buildings :

• Fine Arts Building facade (West Adams Avenue by Grand Circus Park): Two parcels totaling 0.52 acres to be redeveloped as residential and retail. The Ilitches demolished most of the Fine Arts Building and the entire adjacent Adams Theatre in 2009.
• Blenheim Apartments (2218 Park Ave.): Long-vacant apartment building to be redeveloped into some combination of residential, hotel or retail.
• Woodstock Apartments (475 Peterboro St.): Two buildings totaling 47,500 square feet to be renovated as a multifamily property.

Interested developers have until June 26 to submit their proposals. (Crain’s Detroit Business, Urbanize Detroit, HistoricDetroit.org, City of Detroit)

Road work

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is reducing the number of lanes on the proposed boulevard that will replace I-375, following public outcry that it was too wide .

A preliminary draft the department released during a project update from earlier in the month shows six lanes on the boulevard at the Lafayette Avenue intersection. The previous design showed nine lanes and used I-375 traffic data taken from 2017. MDOT collected new data last summer and found it could “reduce the number of lanes on the boulevard and increase local connectivity in the interchange area.”

The department is expected to finalize the road design later this year and begin construction in September 2025. (Outlier Media, MDOT)

Digging up the past

A team of archaeologists and historians may have identified the location of barracks for a Civil War-era Black regiment that trained in Detroit. The team may soon excavate the site, which is buried in and around Campau Park in what was the Black Bottom neighborhood , demolished in the 1960s.

The 102nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment was formed following President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The 900-man unit trained at the site, known as Camp Ward. The researchers used ground-penetrating radar scans and Civil War-era maps to locate the six barracks. Before excavating the site, they need to get permission from private property owners to perform more scans and raise more funds.

A Michigan Historical Marker outside the Bunche Preparatory Academy near Chene Street acknowledges the regiment. “Formed from August through October 1863, a year of draft riots and protests against the war, this Negro regiment consisted entirely of volunteers,” the marker reads . (BridgeDetroit, Outlier, Historical Marker Database, Michigan History Center)

The Dirt: What’s going at Michigan Central Station? Ask again later · Outlier Media