Michigan Central Station Adds Google Code Next As First Tenants

August 4, 2024 2:09 am

Ford spent years completely renovating the historic yet run-down Michigan Central Station site in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit, and just celebrated its grand opening in grand fashion in early June. Now, the site will begin welcoming all sorts of workers in what is promised to eventually become a massive mobility hub housing an array of established companies and startups, in many cases, working together toward a common goal. Now, Michigan Central Station has secured its very first tenant in that newly renovated site, too.

That tenant is Google and what it calls the “Code Next” program, or computer science education programming focused on helping Black, Latinx, and Indigenous high school students pursue careers in technology. This program aims to develop a pipeline of diverse talent for Michigan tech startups and established companies, and will serve as a larger skills training initiative at Michigan Central Station, to boot. Thus far, Google has enrolled 100 students in the program, and Code Next will take up permanent residence on The Station’s 23,000-square-foot youth floor.

“Today marks a significant milestone for Michigan Central and our efforts to build a vibrant hub for innovation, community, and opportunity. Having Detroit youth and Google’s Code Next be the first to call The Station home speaks clearly to the mission of Michigan Central to create not only tech and innovation, but opportunity,” said Carolina Pluszczynski. “It is also exciting to see our partnership with Google take another major step forward in our commitment to building an ecosystem that will keep Detroit and our region at the forefront of mobility innovation.”

Following five years of non-stop construction, Michigan Central Station officially opened up just a few weeks ago, and Ford reportedly spent a whopping $1 billion on its restoration project. As for Blue Oval employees themselves, the automaker recently announced that they’ll begin moving into the freshly restored site in 2025.

We’ll have more on Michigan Central Station soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for continuous Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.