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Ford officially buys Michigan Central Station


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Not going to lie, Im still kind of pissed about it. I feel a little better knowing their using money previously allocated for the Dearborn campus renovation but still. After this I dont want to hear another word out of Jim Hackett or any of his cronies about cost cutting or anything like that.

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Not going to lie, Im still kind of pissed about it. I feel a little better knowing their using money previously allocated for the Dearborn campus renovation but still. After this I dont want to hear another word out of Jim Hackett or any of his cronies about cost cutting or anything like that.

Don't be, this is basically free office space the way Brownfield refunds and Tax deprecation work. Its like Dan Gilbert's new tower downtown, not going to cost him anything to do it, but he will make the rent and when he sells the building he will profit from it. Ford will probably make money on doing this with rent paybacks and credits for Job creation. Only thing that is going to be interesting is City of Detroit Income tax for workers, they will be paid more to compensate for that. Ford Land is actually the owner of the building.

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Don't be, this is basically free office space the way Brownfield refunds and Tax deprecation work. Its like Dan Gilbert's new tower downtown, not going to cost him anything to do it, but he will make the rent and when he sells the building he will profit from it. Ford will probably make money on doing this with rent paybacks and credits for Job creation. Only thing that is going to be interesting is City of Detroit Income tax for workers, they will be paid more to compensate for that. Ford Land is actually the owner of the building.

Its still going to cost anywhere from $100m to $500m for renovation. For a company that cries broke as much as they do that is a big number.
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Its still going to cost anywhere from $100m to $500m for renovation. For a company that cries broke as much as they do that is a big number.

You get that money back in the Brownfield. So the end result is 0 dollars, Plus you depreciate the building along the way.

 

It is a win win, Ford can look good saving this building, have better recruitment and not have it cost them a whole lot. The Dream would be for the to have a Train that ran from Dearborn to Detroit every 30min connecting the 2 campus.

 

 

Edited by jasonj80
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Maybe they could run an electric train down one of those tracks.

Master plan for the line is full double track and Electric all the way to Chicago. They've done the track upgrades and PTC between Pontiac and Chicago and the train hits 110mph on a lot of the line between State line and Jackson. That is the fastest it can go with at grades crossings.

 

Also interesting that the station was never fully occupied the top floors have always been vacant.

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Its still going to cost anywhere from $100m to $500m for renovation. For a company that cries broke as much as they do that is a big number.

 

Jason's right.

 

They'll get roughly 20% of what they spend on the renovation back as a tax credit from the feds (I've got quite a bit of experience in this area), not to mention the state historic preservation credits--and that's right off the top, before you start getting into other incentive programs.

 

And what they spend on the building will be transferred on the balance sheet from 'cash' to 'property', which means no effective change to the bottom-line.

 

Renovating this building, in accounting terms, will not reduce Ford's income.

 

Frankly, I'm really excited to see this.

 

There are very few companies in Detroit in a position to rehabilitate this building, and Ford's one of them.

 

It's the first thing Ford's done that I agree with in months.

 

(FWIW: One of the reasons why I'm excited about this is that the Pennsylvania Railroad built three mammoth stations: Penn Station in NYC, Chicago Union Station and this station--this ensures two of the three will be kept around)

Edited by RichardJensen
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The railfan in me is glad something will finally be done with the train station, I just wish it was someone else and happened 10 years ago....

Didn't think anyone in Wayne county was a Railfan. Sit, wait, Turn Around, blocked, turn around again. 40min later you end up where you should have been 30min ago. Though still better than the thousands of trucks on the road that just tear them up.

 

I'll doubt it is going to be publicly accessible when it is done though. Going to end up like the old EEE building that is beautiful inside but no one will ever see it.

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I'll doubt it is going to be publicly accessible when it is done though. Going to end up like the old EEE building that is beautiful inside but no one will ever see it.

 

My dad worked in the triple EEE building. Every so often his department had "family days" where family members were let inside. My memory is of "mahogany row." Just beautiful.

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My dad worked in the triple EEE building. Every so often his department had "family days" where family members were let inside. My memory is of "mahogany row." Just beautiful.

The old powerhouse at the Rouge was the same way, shocking that amount of work was put into the powerhouse though at the time it was quite an achievement What is sad was old World Headquarters was torn down, that was another beautiful building.

 

What would also be nice is if Ford made it a Ford only Museum. While the Henry Ford is great at showing the industry and industrial revolution Ford doesn't have a museum dedicated to itself the way BMW, Mercedes and Porsche do. The Mercedes museum is amazing to walk though as their story is told in relation to where there World was at those times. It is always been something I though Ford needed, and you could walk out of Greenfield Village hop on a train and it could take you there.

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They Henry Ford Museum is probably enough museum for Ford, it's one of the best in the country anyway.

But it is not a Ford only museum, Ford needs one that showcase it. Henry Ford is more of an industrial revolution museum. While I agree it and village are amazing in the Americana sense, they are not directly focused at all on Ford Motor Company.

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