Detroit — Restoring a former train station has been the “holy grail” for many Detroit historic preservationists, but will it help save the many vacant architectural gems spread across the city’s 139 square miles?
Even the head of a Michigan nonprofit that advocates for the preservation of historic buildings can only offer cautious optimism.
“There’s still the fundamental problem of raising the funds and having the vision to execute it,” said Brenda Rigdon, executive director of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network. There are a number of current battles to preserve historic structures, including the Belle Isle Boathouse, parts of the former Packard plant and the new Renaissance Center that will come into being after General Motors Co. leaves next year.
But the importance of reviving the 111-year-old former train station, now called Michigan Central Station, which has been dilapidated and vacant for decades, shouldn’t be underestimated, Rigdon and other city development officials said.
“For many of us, that building was the Holy Grail,” Rigdon said. “Twenty years ago, everyone was saying it should be torn down. ‘It’s too big, it’s too late, who’s going to pay for it?'”
Ford Motor Co. has paid an estimated $240 million in property tax abatements and about $60 million in historic preservation tax credits to cover the cost of extensive renovations to Michigan Central Station and related facilities. The station is part of Ford’s $940 million investment in the Corktown neighborhood in southwest Detroit.
The Dearborn automaker renovated the old train station and the nearby former Book Depository building, now called the New Lab at Michigan Central Building. Both had been vacant and thoroughly looted for decades. In 2009, a homeless man was found frozen to death in the Book Depository’s elevator shaft.
The sheer size of the Michigan Central and the hundreds of millions of dollars it has cost to restore it set a new standard for what’s possible in the city and gave rise to the term “ruin porn,” said Elizabeth Knibb, an architectural preservationist who has worked on more than a dozen major renovations of Detroit’s major historic buildings.
“This is the most significant renovation that’s ever been done in Detroit,” Knibb said of the Michigan Central. “It once was a symbol of Detroit’s decline, and now it’s part of the symbolism of Detroit’s resurgence.”
Knibb said Michigan Central Station is an example of “incredible progress” that has taken place over more than a decade, particularly in the seven-square-mile area centered around downtown. In 2010, The Detroit News counted 48 vacant buildings in downtown. Since then, billions of dollars in private investment, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in tax subsidies, have restored dozens of these historic structures. Today, there are more renovated buildings than vacant ones, from the Detroit Opera House to the Book Tower.
Beyond Michigan Central, there are other major efforts to preserve Detroit’s major historic buildings.
There’s a fight to stop the Michigan Department of Natural Resources from demolishing the old boathouse on Belle Isle. The state agency manages the island’s parks and is accepting private and public proposals through the end of July for a possible restoration of the boathouse. If a viable plan isn’t found, the DNR hasn’t ruled out demolishing the structure, which was built in 1902.
The city wants to preserve part of the former Packard plant, named for the auto company that disappeared 66 years ago. After years of failed attempts by private developers to revive the east side plant, much of the 37-acre site is set to be demolished with taxpayer money. Last month, the city and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation issued a request for proposals by July 12 to redevelop part of the site. The city wants to make sure someone from the auto industry can use the site again.
New challenges loom
A new big question looms along the downtown riverfront: What to do with the Renaissance Center after General Motors Co. relocates in 2025 to its future Detroit Hudson site about a mile north.
GM is working with local Bedrock Development Group to figure out what to do with the city’s tallest building, and Bedrock Chairman Dan Gilbert said in May that corporate and government leaders were in “brainstorming mode.”
“There’s never been a better environment in Detroit than right now” to renovate architecturally significant buildings and spaces, said Gregory Jackson, a longtime Detroit developer.
“There’s a new appreciation and recognition of these assets among federal, state and city governments and among residents,” Jackson said.
Jackson is one of the co-developers of an estimated $134 million plan to renovate part of the former Fisher Body auto plant that has been vacant since 1993. Fisher Body Plant 21, built in 1919, is a 600,000-square-foot facility in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood.
Jackson and Detroit developer Richard Hosey have been working for years on plans to renovate the site and build more than 400 apartments (some of which will be below-market rent) and about 60,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, a project that has secured more than $31.3 million in brownfield redevelopment grants.
Jackson praised the “tremendous momentum” in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood, where historic buildings are being renovated and new construction is underway. Earlier this year, Detroit PBS announced it would purchase a vacant lot in the neighborhood to turn it into its headquarters. The parcel includes warehouses, some built in 1928, that were deemed abandoned several years ago, according to city of Detroit documents. If all goes according to plan, the site would become a “community media campus” that is expected to open in 2026.
Many buildings remain
Still, many historically significant buildings remain across Detroit with no clear plans for their rehabilitation, architectural preservationists and developers say.
Most of these buildings still have significant obstacles.
Many parts of Detroit “don’t have a reasonable return on investment,” said John Moguk, a Wayne State University law professor who has been involved in development deals and follows the city’s development closely. “Outside of areas affected by other large investments, like Midtown, Downtown and New Center, there’s still risk for private investors,” Moguk said.
Moguk and his colleagues have looked at dozens of vacant school buildings across the city. In 2020, the city released a study that included 63 “vacant historic school buildings,” including some city-owned and those managed by the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Various social media sites have highlighted numerous churches, apartment buildings, and commercial buildings that are abandoned and falling into disrepair.
Moguk and others said one way to build momentum in Detroit neighborhoods is to support local communities and local developers who focus on renovating them into a mix of housing, small commercial buildings, parks and other spaces.
Northwest Goldberg Cares is one example of a small nonprofit focused on improving its community. The organization has invested just over $1 million to rehabilitate four dilapidated homes and currently has 12 development projects underway, including former commercial buildings.
“The city would have been happy to demolish these buildings if they hadn’t done so,” said Daniel Washington, the group’s founder and executive director.
The group has been relying on funding from foundations and some investors because traditional financing, including refinancing from banks, remains out of the question, and tax incentives that big developers rely on to complete projects are also unavailable.
In the Northwest Goldberg neighborhood, Henry Ford Health is working with the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University on a $3 billion development plan over the next decade that will include a new hospital, medical research facility, housing and recreational facilities.
Washington said the Henry Ford Health project would benefit the neighborhood but also carry some risk: He worries that it would “attract a lot of speculators” to buy residential property, pushing out longtime residents.
He said the Michigan Central upgrades could directly benefit the area. Northwest Goldberg is about three miles north of the train station, and 14th Street stretches from Michigan Central into the neighborhood.
“This gives 14th Street a viable option for people to make a living, so that’s really encouraging,” Washington said.
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