Very interesting. I had a chance to go in the Central Station before they really started fixing it. I remember seeing a mirror placed on the floor so you could see the ceiling (and the nets that were there to catch any falling ceiling pieces).
As far as the war on talent goes, that's going to be a lot harder than restoring a train station. Getting people to move to Michigan is hard enough, getting them to stay is even harder. I also think that Ford is still remote first, but perhaps they can use this as a lure when making a talent pitch.
If Ford is in a war for talent, they shouldn't use the same incompetent recruiters and HR flunkies as everyone else in the war. But like most companies, they've created an employment pipeline full of holes, explosive sections, and loops without exits. For most companies, the war for talent is one the company is fighting against itself.
What they have found is that people don't want to take a job in Detroit. Even though the cost of living is so much lower.
Ford is banking on the fact once someone sees the rebuilt campus of the Depot and the buildings around it that their opinion will be changed. You can live downtown and either walk or bike to that campus. There will be self-driving shuttles taking you out to the Ford complex in Dearborn if you need to attend a meeting there.
You're near sports stadiums, theatre and music venues. One of the Ford buildings near the depot is full of mobility startups and a Techstars program.
The alternative is what General Motors did in buying Cruise and actually being in San Francisco. It cost them much more money and I ask you the question, how is that working out for them?
I am a native Detroiter. I watched the city decline for over fifty years after the 1967 riots. It hurt me because I remembered a time as a kid when it was a totally different city. They hit rock bottom during the bankruptcy.
Dan Gilbert then made a multi-billion dollar bet by buying twenty buildings downtown. Slowly things began to turn around. Looking back it really started to turn when the chief criticism was sure downtown is fine but the neighborhoods are not. Then the city began investments in a number of neighborhoods and it was harder for critics to make that blanket statement.
COVID hit Detroit harder than any other city in America except for New York. Progress came to a complete halt and the city lost a number of its senior leaders. But now it has begun again. I am certain the folks that attended the Super Bowl there will be shocked when they're at the NFL draft how much has changed.
Now it is Ford's turn to make a big bet. I remember the old depot and it was simply magnificent. Bill Ford says it is better than before and I will withhold judgement until I get inside this summer.
I urge you to make a visit. Detroit doesn't have homeless living in tents and RV's on the street. No open air drug markets. A large number of the abandoned factories, retail outlets and houses have been torn down or rehabbed. But the city lacks much mass transit and the schools are still horrible.
As far as the war on talent goes, that's going to be a lot harder than restoring a train station. Getting people to move to Michigan is hard enough, getting them to stay is even harder. I also think that Ford is still remote first, but perhaps they can use this as a lure when making a talent pitch.