  Sg_creative Member Username: Sg_creative Post Number: 38 Registered: 01-2007 |
An in depth collection of Michigan Central Station photos as of May 4, 2008. http://www.detroitstockphotos. com/Production/PhotoGroupView. aspx?pbid=4&msa=1&pgid=1290613 6 Also, a blurb about a possible future for the station. According to Wikipedia. Proposals and concepts for renovation in the past have included several potential uses: * Depot owners said (2008) they still are working on renovating the decaying Beaux-Arts, neo-classical building that's been closed since 1988. * In 2004 when Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick announced that Detroit was pursuing options to possibly relocate the Detroit Police Department headquarters to the aging facility. However, in mid-2005, the deal was called off and MCS remains abandoned. One proposal suggested turning the Station into a trade processing center due to its proximity to the Ambassador Bridge. * Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel J. "Matty" Moroun, proposed that his Michigan Central Station be restored as the centerpiece of a new convention center possibly combined with a casino, such a project could cost $1.2 billion, including $300 million to restore the Station. The Detroit Wayne County Port Authority has the ability to issue bonds and could take part in financing such a project. * Renovation budgets have been estimated to require between $100 and $300 million to bring the building back to life. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 969 Registered: 05-2004 |
I think they are just guessing with the costs of fixing it up. That place is such a mess. The cost overruns would probably be outrageous. | ||
Sg_creative Member Username: Sg_creative Post Number: 39 Registered: 01-2007 |
I agree. As much as I would love to see it how it looked in that video that was posted a while back, I just think about the cost and realize that it will probably never happen. My fingers are still crossed, though. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6451 Registered: 11-2003 |
jjaba would sure miss that view of Canada from the expressway, through the windows. Please, no curtains, eh. It's really cool at sunset. jjaba on the Westside. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6452 Registered: 11-2003 |
Can somebody drop off a broom for the MCS? Looks a little dusty. Sg_creative, welcome to Forum. Great ruins photos. jjaba. | ||
Sg_creative Member Username: Sg_creative Post Number: 40 Registered: 01-2007 |
Haha, maybe a wet/dry vac, too. Thanks. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 3099 Registered: 01-2005 |
After looking at those photos, I'd have to say the shell is beyond rehab. On the other hand, if Wilbur and Orville hadn't invented that danged machine of theirs, the place would be booming right now. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1246 Registered: 12-2006 |
Ray, trains do fine in other countries, and they have air travel in those places too. It's the federal government that did in the passenger rail system in the US, through massive subsidies of highways and air travel. | ||
Spacemonkey Member Username: Spacemonkey Post Number: 533 Registered: 03-2006 |
When do you guys think they will get this station up and running again? | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 880 Registered: 08-2006 |
It will NEVER be open again. | ||
Bob Member Username: Bob Post Number: 1770 Registered: 11-2003 |
It will never open again. For one thing, every year that it sits, I am sure the cost goes up for what it would take to rennovate it. Weather is taking its toll on the structure, even with it being massively overbuilt to withstand the constant rumbling of trains. Another thing is, what do you do with an old train station? Ideas have come and gone. When time was good and financing was easy to get, nothing happened. Now with extremely tough economic times, financing is probably impossible. It was never fully used even when it was open and being used as a train station. There were floors of offices that were never used and there was a time period when the main lobby was closed to save money in the 1960s. | ||
Flanders_field Member Username: Flanders_field Post Number: 329 Registered: 01-2008 |
Tear it down or implode it, the reason for the great size of the building was paperwork, desks and file cabinets. The introduction of interstate highway system started to eat away at that railroad's share of passenger and freight transportation, and the computer age finished it off. I witnessed work that was once performed by a dozen people, reduced to a few, after computer terminals were implemented in the late 70s. Just as the internet has been doing to the USPS. | ||
Retroit Member Username: Retroit Post Number: 50 Registered: 04-2008 |
I bet if Mr. Maroun was given a casino license, he'd find a way to fix up the place, and quick! In fact, I'd be in favor of granting up to one casino license a year to anyone who places it in a renovated building of historic preservation value. | ||
Valkyrias Member Username: Valkyrias Post Number: 515 Registered: 02-2005 |
they won't ever tear it down...it will have to be rehabbed first before that happens, because much like the book cadillac, the cost to tear it down would be more than rehabbing it based on the amount of hazardous material that building was made with. i've also heard from many, including architects, that the building itself is solid, and could be rehabbed...that is, if someone could ever get it out the grasp of mr. maroun without spending a ton of money and giving up their first born. | ||
Flanders_field Member Username: Flanders_field Post Number: 331 Registered: 01-2008 |
If the MCS would be too expensive and hazardous to tear down, then perhaps it should be converted into a baby-boomer mausoleum, it looks like a giant tombstone now anyway... | ||
Spacemonkey Member Username: Spacemonkey Post Number: 536 Registered: 03-2006 |
Whoever owns the building should be thrown in jail by now for letting such a hazard remain as it is. For shame. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1249 Registered: 12-2006 |
One of the biggest problems with that building, as opposed to the many abandoned office buildings in the downtown area, is that it is in a location that no longer makes any sense for any conceivable purpose. A building of that type, in the downtown area or near Wayne State, you could perhaps come up with a use for. But out there where it is? I can't imagine any reason why anyone would want to fix it up. There has to be some return on the investment, so tell me: fix it up and use it as what? | ||
Wood Member Username: Wood Post Number: 49 Registered: 05-2006 |
professorscott, I heartily disagree. white people from the suburbs LOVE corktown. maybe because it's one of the few white neighborhoods left in the city. maybe because of all the good memories of going to tigers games. maybe because it has a kick-ass barbecue restaurant they feel comfortable in. it doesn't matter, the proof is in the pulled pork: white people from the suburbs love coming down to corktown. have you ever been there for st. patrick's day? jesus, I never saw so many white people. A casino would do very, very well in that building. And what a magnificent place to throw away your suburban dollars, compared to the smoky, low-ceilinged dumps we already have. | ||
Treelock Member Username: Treelock Post Number: 321 Registered: 03-2005 |
* Depot owners said (2008) they still are working on renovating the decaying Beaux-Arts, neo-classical building that's been closed since 1988. Bullshit. | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 1082 Registered: 10-2003 |
I would think at this point the only way to realistically make a go of MCS would be to do something like what Buffalo did with Buffalo Central Terminal, another major NYC station/office complex that fell into disrepair. www.buffalocentralterminal.org | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 438 Registered: 06-2007 |
$100-300 Million? Why do I have the feeling that Moroun can afford that without Sacrificing much? | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 268 Registered: 03-2008 |
I think the price guess is accurate. I don't think the building can get that much more expensive to rehab. At this point it would be a total gut and rebuild. Just my thought. I also think it would be to expensive to just demolish. I mean, you could put all that money in getting rid of MCS, or you could put that same money into dozens of other more dangerous abandoned structures. MCS looks bad, but it isn't really hurting anyone like some of the small ones are. Also, saying that location is bad is like saying the location of Lafayette Towers is bad. There are enough people who want that seclusion in/near the city. It's in a prime location if you ask me. | ||
Bussey Member Username: Bussey Post Number: 656 Registered: 12-2003 |
I like this better, especially the graffiti. http://www.flickr.com/photos/s amuraighost/sets/7215759444487 2794/ | ||
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie Post Number: 1381 Registered: 11-2003 |
Treelock called "Bullshit" on Moroun's words of renovation. That's about exactly what my post would have looked like if he hadn't already have typed it. Any time the media or citizens group starts sniffing around the depot, Moroun (or more likely, one of his lackeys) dishes out a smooth load of B.S. And not one of the big media outlets has truly called him out on it yet. | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 478 Registered: 09-2004 |
Douglasm, I agree with you 100%. I've visited the Buffalo NYC terminal before. It's amazing what that group has been able to do. Anyone interested in historic preservation/reuse projects should really take a look at that site he linked. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 502 Registered: 07-2007 |
Other than the MetroTimes, has any Detroit media outlet had the guts to dig into Manny's business. I think Steve Wilson would go down a dark alley with Kwame and Carlita before he would start rummaging through Manny's trash. | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 280 Registered: 03-2008 |
They are open to proposals... what more do you want? | ||
W_chicago Member Username: W_chicago Post Number: 23 Registered: 01-2008 |
Why not just turn it into a train station... again???? Think about it!•• It could be the center of the Detroit area's new commuter rail system, and a major stop on a high-speed rail from Chicago to Montreal! I know everyone on this forum is SOOOOOOO cynical about anything good happening to Detroit, but honestly this station is WAYYYY too valuable to just destroy (and I don't mean simply in terms of •••••• Once the MCS is renovated we can contemplate on this forum: Grand Central Station (NYC) vs. Union Station (DC) vs. a renovated Michigan Central Station... I think its a close call. I would be a darn shame to see our station go, a darn shame. And a question: Do the costs of renovating the MCS really outweigh the costs of tearing it down + the cost of developing the land??? I've heard some absurd figures for the amount of money it takes to tear high-profile buildings like this down... and often times with TAX PAYER'S MONEY!••••• Fucking absurd!! | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 269 Registered: 08-2007 |
if i,m not mistaken, i belive when they were giving out the casino bids, Trump put in one and it was the MCS that he wanted to use. might be wrong but thats how i remember it. I love trains and so does my Uncle from Chicago, We both wonder the fate of the MCS. But if i had to put cash on that deal, i,d be better of putting it on the Lions in the Super Bowl then any thing getting done with that place. | ||
Bob Member Username: Bob Post Number: 1778 Registered: 11-2003 |
I have always wondered why none of our local media dig around to figure out Moroun and his dirty laundry and intentions. He must have some good connections in the local media to get them to stay away. Never once heard them try to get him on MCS of any of his Ambassador Bridge dealing, like wanting the second bridge next to it when the Canadian government is against it. | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 480 Registered: 09-2004 |
MCS would be an effective train station if it was directly tied into a effecient transportation network. Either they need to run a subway from MCS to Michigan Ave and then directly downtown which operates on express schedules, or else do the same on the surface, with local and express trains, to make it effective to get downtown quickly. I would love to see at least a portion of the structure re-used as a passenger train terminal, with Amtrak, local, light rail, and trains to Canada (Via or joint Amtrak/Via) included. | ||
Sg_creative Member Username: Sg_creative Post Number: 44 Registered: 01-2007 |
I think a Casino would offer the best chance for that amount of money to be spent on MCS. | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 1140 Registered: 11-2004 |
The question we should be asking how can it be taken from Maroun? Whether you think it can be saved or not, as long as Matty owns the place nothing will happen. I certainly don't him selling without charging an exorbitant price. |
