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Old Posted Jun 17, 2018, 5:31 PM
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Docta_Love Docta_Love is offline
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Metropolitan Detroit
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I have to agree that Bill Ford has really gone ahead and seized and opportunity that became apparent from Detroit's Amazon bid and ran with it. I've been watching the Crain's interview with Bill Ford he envisions "a mobility corridor along Michigan Ave from Corktown to Dearborn and then on to Metro Airport, Willow Run, Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor.

There is a full video interview with Bill Ford available for Crain's subscribers some highlights are:

He recognizes and admits that we are "in a war for talent" and further more that Ford has not invested in it's R&D facilities "when they had opportunities to in the past and then when a down turn came along it was one of the easiest things to cut, this time though we said we are going to invest this money in the future and not touch it". He goes on to detail how the money for this project was already budgeted for in campus improvement plans and how this is one part of a broader plan first detailed in 2016 for Ford to update it's "antiquated facilities".

I like the idea of a high-tech M-12 corridor it's not an entirely new idea but its needed something to kick start it. Ford's redevelopment of MCD and with the creation and integration of a Corktown campus into a broader regional mobility, transportation - logistics & aerospace district along the Michigan Ave axis from Ann Arbor to Detroit is an ambitious goal that would help the region compete better in the digital age.


Quote:
Originally Posted by The North One View Post
An extension of the streetcar onto Michigan Avenue is likely to happen though.
There were a lot of reasons for eye rolling when Mathew Moroun talked about playing the role Roger Penske did as someone ready and willing to help bring parties to the table for a Michigan Ave street car & possible use of MCD as an inter-modal transit center. But Bill Ford does envision the main concourse area as something like San Francisco's Ferry Terminal and hasn't ruled trains out but says that's not Ford's place.


Quote:
Ford's future: Train station to be part of new transportation model

By CHAD LIVENGOOD
Crain's Detroit Business
June 17, 2018

-Ford Motor Co. aims to have 2,500 employees in Corktown
-Wants to renovate the Michigan Central Station by 2022
-Envisions creating a autonomous-vehicle technology hub



"I would love for this to be like the Sand Hill Road of Michigan, where entrepreneurs, startups (and) partners all want to come and be part of this creation process," Ford said, referring to the California road where venture capitalists fueled the meteoric rise of Silicon Valley.

"That would be amazing to me, and I think that can happen. Because the future of mobility should be created in Detroit — and I believe it will be."

The automaker's bid to use the derelict train station as the anchor for a 1.2 million-square-foot Corktown campus hinges on getting suppliers and technology companies involved in the development of autonomous vehicles to join them in Detroit.
Quote:
Open to the public

The automaker will formally detail its Corktown and train station plans at Tuesday's event — a long-awaited homecoming of sorts for a company Henry Ford founded in Detroit 115 years ago this month.

Ford's last employees left the Renaissance Center in 1996 for Dearborn after the company sold the riverfront skyscrapers developed in the mid-1970s by Henry Ford II to crosstown rival General Motors Co.

Unlike the RenCen, Bill Ford Jr. wants the train station to be accessible to Detroiters and visitors alike.

"It's really important that we become part of the community and that we're not isolated or insulated from it," Ford said.

The goal, Bill Ford said, is to ensure the train station doesn't become "a corporate island."
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...ortation-model


Edit; here's an article I picked out of the AP feed.

Quote:
Ford CEO Jim Hackett reveals details about how he's reinventing the 115-year-old car company (F)

-Ford has developed a massive development plan for a new-mobility corridor stretching from Detroit through its revamped headquarters in Dearborn to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
-CEO Jim Hackett is bringing his "design thinking" innovation and management approach to the task of remaking the 100-plus-year-old company.
-Ford has bought a huge, crumbling rail station near downtown Detroit and intends to combine it with a plan to revive the city's Corktown neighborhood to be a center of the carmaker's Smart Mobility efforts.

This is an old rendering (2016) of part the new Dearborn Campus which is still to be built minus the AV/EV groups which will go into MCD & Corktown. As Ford seems to be aiming at a broader scope it seems appropriate to include.



https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-...040100504.html
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Last edited by Docta_Love; Jun 17, 2018 at 6:52 PM.
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