Six years of restoration, $300 million in tax incentives, and a lineup deeper than any single Detroit show in decades. Michigan Central Station opened its doors again on June 6, 2024, with Ford handing the building back to the public through a 90-minute concert on the Roosevelt Park lawn. Twenty thousand people showed up.
Michigan Advance Diana Ross opened in orange chiffon, gliding the catwalk to "I'm Coming Out." Big Sean took the middle. Jack White played. The Clark Sisters and Kierra Sheard handled a gospel set honoring Detroit's churches.
Theo Parrish and Sky Jetta acknowledged the techno history of the building's abandoned years, when underground raves moved through the ruins. Patti Smith read Eminem's spoken-word "Letter to Detroit." Eminem closed the show with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra behind him. Bill Ford Jr. called the station "our Ellis Island." Michigan Advance The line lands harder when you remember the building sat boarded for 36 years, a postcard for ruin tourism, before Ford bought it and put a six-year restoration backed by $300 million in state, local, and historic rehabilitation tax incentives into bringing it back.
The concert was the front door of an 11-day reopening festival. More than 60,000 people were ticketed for ground-floor tours over the following stretch. Michigan Advance The upper floors are still under construction.
Whether Corktown changes more or just keeps moving the direction it was already going is the question Roosevelt Park doesn't fully answer. Slows BBQ. Folk.
Astro Coffee. Now the neighborhood has a Beaux-Arts anchor with Ford office workers inside it and a public lawn that just hosted Diana Ross. Mayor Duggan said it was a day Detroiters had waited 40 years to see.
He wasn't wrong about the wait. The Michigan Central Honors ceremony before the show recognized Jack White, the Clark Sisters, Kierra Sheard, Illa J, and Slum Village and J Dilla posthumously. Whether trains will return to the station is unsettled.
Ford has had preliminary conversations with Amtrak. The lobby was set to open Friday evenings and Saturdays through the end of August. Hours expand in the fall.
Location: 2001 15th Street, Corktown
