Michigan Central’s rebirth welcomed by Corktown businesses already on the rise

Michigan Central's rebirth welcomed by Corktown businesses already on the rise

Detroit’s oldest neighborhood is anything but stagnant. Just in the past three decades, Corktown has morphed and shifted following the closure of key landmarks: first Michigan Central Station in 1988, and then Tiger Stadium 10 years later.

Now, the gateway neighborhood to Southwest Detroit features new housing developments, a flourishing small business landscape and a growing hub of startup and venture capital developments.

On Thursday, the neighborhood will see the latest — and most highly anticipated — development in its saga: the reopening of Michigan Central Station following Ford Motor Co.’s intensive six-year restoration.

But the reopening of the station is only a product of Corktown’s tremendous growth, not its cause, said Sheila Cockrel, a former Detroit City council member and lifetime Corktown resident.

That sentiment is widely shared amongst the business community in the neighborhood. But some fear already rising rents could stifle growth.

Corktown’s continuing transformation

While national media narratives often insinuate Detroit is facing its comeback moment, Cockrel said that couldn’t be further from the truth — especially in Corktown.

“Detroit has had residents who kept the city viable for generations,” Cockrel said. “Just like the rest of Detroit, Corktown has always been a viable neighborhood that has literally withstood multiple efforts to destroy it in the mid-1950s.”

In the 1960s, the city of Detroit declared Corktown a slum and leveled dozens of homes for the construction of the Lodge Freeway. Cockrel, also the president of the Train Station Neighbors Block Club, said that no matter what issues may be happening “down the street,” there are always residents who are working to continue planting flowers.

“(Neighborhood efforts) are another important indicator of people’s faith and belief in the neighborhood and in the ability of all of us to play a role alongside the Ford Motor Company and the Michigan Central team in improving the neighborhood,” Cockrel said. “Not fixing it. Because it wasn’t all that broke.”

When it was up and running as Michigan Central Depot, Cockrel said the building was nothing short of magical.

“It was an adventure because you would walk in the train station and you’d be met with the sounds and the sights and the lights and the bustle of people,” Cockrel said. “It was really like going to a special place. It was so different from day-to-day life, but it was part of the community.”

After it closed its doors in 1988, Cockrel recalled the station becoming something akin to “ruin porn” and “ultimately one of the major symbols of the city’s decline.”

There was the potential for a long time that Michigan Central Station would be torn down. While on City Council, Cockrel said she and the other officials were pushing the Moroun family, who owned the building from 1995 until 2018, to either demolish the building or begin fixing it up.

“I think they needed that threat,” Cockrel said.

The Greater Corktown Development Corp. also pushed for rehabilitation of the train station, said Paul DeBono, the organization’s former president. The group would go on to work with the community to develop plans for a viable future for the station.

“I think that opened the door for someone, and really only someone like a Ford could come in and tackle a project like that,” DeBono said. “I think Ford did all the right things, but frankly, they really are a champion in the neighborhood.”

But change was slow-moving. In the building’s vacant years, it became something like a badge of honor to sneak into the train station, Cockrel said, though she never toured the ruins herself.

From ruin to revival

“There were 100 ways to die per square inch,” filmmaker and photographer Stephen McGee said of the Michigan Central building during its era as a vacant eyesore of the Corktown neighborhood.

McGee moved to Detroit from California in 2005 and purchased a house in Corktown, formerly known as “Righty” of the Imagination Station nonprofit project, for just $1 in 2013. Despite the living murals that frequently decorated the outside of the house, the building was inhabitable. It was only one of two buildings that faced Michigan Central Station from 14th Street. Its twin, Lefty, caught fire in 2012.

McGee, his wife and three daughters have been living in the renovated home since 2017, a year before Ford announced it had bought Michigan Central Station. Despite the small disruptions the six-year construction project caused, McGee viewed it as a temporary, but necessary evil.

“Our city was disinvested for 16-plus years. The implications of that is getting it back on the right track; the implications of that are things like construction,” McGee said.

In addition to its $950 million makeover of the train station and neighboring former Book Depository building that now houses Newlab and more, Ford has committed an $11 million cash infusion to the city, including a $6 million makeover of Roosevelt Park.

Since Ford’s announcement in 2018 that it planned to buy the former train station, there have been nearly $500 million in private investment in various projects in the Corktown area, according to an estimate by city of Detroit officials. Additionally, city and state investments in infrastructure in the area total about $27.5 million.

“(The developments) are just showing the trajectory that Corktown was on,” DeBono said. “Getting a big player like Michigan Central didn’t save Corktown, it was already moving in a positive direction; it only helped Corktown and I think that’s gonna be the continued scenario.”

DeBono’s stake in Corktown goes back generations. His family has lived in Corktown since they immigrated from Malta in the 1920s, and he served as the president of the Greater Corktown Development Corp. from 2000 to 2010, where he focused efforts on advocating for the totality of the neighborhood.

“I think Corktown has been an anchor for the city, being the oldest neighborhood, the historic context, the parades, the events, the baseball, you name it. It’s got its own life,” DeBono said. “I think Ford, smartly, came in to become a partner with the neighborhood and I think they will continue to be a great partner … I think you’re just going to continue to see solid organic growth come out of the neighborhood. I think that’s only helped by the opening of Michigan Central and Ford’s commitment, but also the other aspects of the neighborhood.”

Joe Mifsud, co-owner of Cork & Gabel restaurant and Six Spoke Brewing Co., both on Michigan Avenue in Corktown, said Ford has been engaged with the residents and business owners throughout the construction processes. Still, he’s happy the construction is wrapping up because of the impact it’s had on his businesses.

“It’s been progress and it’s been disruptive. I know it’s for the betterment of the area, but like for example, June 6, we are completely cut off because of where we’re geographically located,” Mifsud said. “We’ve had our building shut down a few times, also we’ve lost power, they’ve cut the old gas lines to make new gas lines … and so on a personal level, we’ve lost some business that way. It’s going to come back so I gotta be optimistic, but it’s been a little bit of a struggle … but it’s gonna be good for everybody.”

The reopening of the train station is sure to draw more attention to the historic neighborhood, Mifsud said, through new businesses, visitors and even potential home buyers and renters. Even so, Mifsud, a lifetime resident of Corktown, is concerned about how the big changes from Michigan Central could impact the lives of his neighbors.

“Corktown would have always survived. It’s the oldest neighborhood, but there’s a reason,” Mifsud said. “There’s a lot of old neighbors and residents that live here that care about it. They fix their homes up and fix your business up out of their pocket. They’re the ones that kept it safe and clean. So it would survive and thrive even without the train station, but you’ve got to admit that with the train station, it’s just … really going to set this off and make it even more of a destination for people to work here and develop more property.”

Climbing costs

Property values across the city continue to climb this year. Last year, condos across Corktown ballooned in popularity due to the walkability of the neighborhood and the investments from Ford and other developers.

According to the Rocket Homes Corktown Housing Market Report, the median sale price of a three-bedroom house in Corktown increased 21.3% from May of last year to $620,000.

Bob Roberts, co-owner of McShane’s Irish Pub in Corktown and president of the Corktown Business Association, said he and his partners “beat the gold rush” when they opened the restaurant and bar in 2012, before the city’s bankruptcy and investments in the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, that didn’t save them from the impact of the added attention on Corktown.

“We experienced a 30% rent increase at McShane’s this year, which was substantial and a little bit of a surprise to get that much of an increase, but we did,” Roberts said. “We’re trying to figure out how to maneuver and what our next steps are.”

Other restaurants, like Michigan and Trumbull Pizza, have moved or closed due to the rent hikes, Roberts said.

He worries that Corktown will soon get too expensive for longtime business owners and residents and even those just moving to the neighborhood. Hundreds of condos and apartments have cropped up around Corktown in the past few years.

“The thing that I worry about is that (residents) become either rent or mortgage poor,” Roberts said. “You’ve taken on this huge rent burden or you’ve taken on this huge mortgage burden and now all of a sudden, you don’t have any other disposable income … so you just don’t have the money to go out and go to the restaurants, go to the pubs, the breweries and go to the small retail shops.”

As for businesses, he worries the high rent rates are keeping prospective business owners out of the neighborhood.

“There’s definitely been a lot of interest in Corktown, that remains high. However, if you drive around and look, there’s also a number of key commercial and retail spaces that’s available, and it’s been available for quite some time,” Roberts said. “My guess is that because of the rent and the fact that Michigan Central is not open yet … that people can’t just make it pencil correctly. They can’t make it make sense. I think that’s why there’s more people that are passing on opportunities that are available in Corktown.”

Roberts admits, though, that there is both good and bad that come with the developments in the area. McShane’s will host a watch party for the concert at Michigan Central on Thursday night and expects increased foot traffic all day, and an increase in business through the other days of Michigan Central tours, which will take place June 7-16.

Ford also said it plans to staff Michigan Central with 1,000 employees by the end of the year, and 2,500 by the end of 2028, which Roberts also anticipates will bring more business to the area.

He hopes that the developments in Corktown will help its businesses thrive.

Corktown is not a neighborhood unfamiliar with big changes. Its age is proof that the residents of the city are built to adapt, but the opening of Michigan Central is simply the latest chapter in Corktown’s 200-year history.

“Michigan Central was the visual metaphor for the decline of the city,” McGee said. “And all the people that were around loving that building and loving Corktown and Southwest, and the communities that surround the core city, those people are incredibly, incredibly beautiful community members that are also going through a lot of changes … when something is visually dying, but you love it, and then you think it’s going to be torn down, but it isn’t, it’s purchased and then loved and brought back at the highest caliber, the opening just means something bigger than I could ever explain.”

(800) 921-4755