Why Ford spent $1 billion to transform an abandoned Detroit train station

Bill Ford Jr. has spearheaded an ambitious, expansive, and possibly crazy effort to remake Michigan Central Station into a tech hub.

Bill Ford Jr., the executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, is sitting in what was once one of the world’s most glorious drug dens. Michigan Central Station, the grand Beaux Arts terminal and 18-story tower that served as Detroit’s train hub from 1913 to 1988, has spent the decades since its closure in abandonment and abject decrepitude. Left to crumble under the elements and stripped of nearly all removable bits of valuable scrap, the 640,000 square foot building became a free-for-all zone that has over the years held raves, housed encampments, endured graffiti, and seen lots of drug use. From the outside, the station’s hulking ruins became synonymous with the decline of Detroit and the left-behind economies of urban America.