Ford and the city of Dearborn, Michigan updated the public on the automaker’s development plans in its hometown Monday, giving a presentation at Henry Ford College to outline its plans. Much of the presentation centered on Ford’s sweeping, 10-year campus revitalization project, but The Detroit News reports that it included details of the automaker’s various other projects around town, as well.
One of the key objectives of Ford’s many Dearborn projects is to attract employees to the city, says Ford Motor Land Development Chairman and CEO David Dubensky.
“We’re trying to make Dearborn and the whole area… a great place to work, a great place to live and to play,” he told the audience. “Trying to get to the point where people come here, they see this wonderful career opportunity and then they love working and playing in Metro Detroit, is our objective.”
Ford has set up shop in a 240,000-square-foot portion of the Fairlane Town Center shopping mall, which includes an old Lord & Taylor location that shuttered about a decade ago. The site hosts some 1,800 employees. At the same time, the automaker is pouring $60 million into a 150,000-square-foot development with office and retail space on the site of Dearborn’s historic Wagner Hotel. Wagner Place (pictured) is expected to preserve the building’s distinct facade.
And with the help of a $3 million grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund, Ford is working on a four-story parking structure nearby, with 373 spaces for employees and consumers alike.
Construction started this year, and is expected to finish in 2018, possibly in time to start accepting Ford employees by next summer, Dubensky says.
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