KPMG is bringing 420 workers to Michigan Central Station

KPMG is bringing 420 of its Detroit-area employees to Michigan Central Station next year, filling nearly 45,000 square feet on the 11th and 12th floors of the Corktown landmark. The move, expected in the second quarter of 2027, will have the accounting firm leaving its longtime home at 150 West Jefferson and settling into a building that spent three decades as one of Detroit's most photographed ruins before a years-long restoration transformed it.

For Michigan Central Station, the announcement adds another major name to a roster that is beginning to look less like an experiment and more like a functioning urban campus.

"Michigan Central Station allows us to intentionally design an environment that reflects how we work and serve clients today, with advanced technology and purpose-built spaces for collaboration, connection, and focused work," said Kevin Voigt, KPMG's Detroit managing partner.

KPMG is one of the largest professional services firms in the region and has operated in Detroit since 1916. The move from 150 West Jefferson, a modern high-rise at the core of downtown, marks a notable geographic shift for the firm.

Three other office tenants have already committed to the station. Consulting firm Guidehouse has planted its Great Lakes regional headquarters there, taking 35,000 square feet. Architecture firm SmithGroup has signed on for 22,000 square feet. Venture firm Masco Ventures is occupying 28,000 square feet on the second and third floors of the east wing. Ford, which developed the campus and led its renovation, has more than 1,000 employees working out of the station today, with plans to grow that number to around 2,500 by 2028.

The station's history makes all of that worth putting in context. Designed by Warren & Wetmore and Reed & Stem, the same architects behind Grand Central Terminal in New York, Michigan Central opened in 1913 as one of the country's premier rail stations. The Beaux-Arts building featured an ornate Grand Hall with a Guastavino tile vaulted ceiling and handled thousands of passengers daily at its peak. It closed in 1988, and for the next three decades stood empty, deteriorating through exposure and vandalism, becoming a recurring image of what Detroit was losing.

Ford Motor Company purchased the property in 2018 and spent six years on a comprehensive restoration. When the station reopened in June 2024, it came back as the centerpiece of a 30-acre technology and mobility campus in Corktown. Thousands turned out for the reopening.

More is still in the works. A 240-room hotel under the Hilton Curio Collection brand is planned for the upper floors, and a 40,000-square-foot food hall featuring Detroit-based vendors is in development. With KPMG's lease signed and several major tenants already in place, the station that sat empty longer than many Detroiters have been alive is now filling up floor by floor.