While this column in usually about what is in this month’s issue, I’d like to talk about something that happened last May. On the 20th of that month, we finally got word that Michigan Central would be opening. It was a project that we — and everyone else in Detroit — had been following since June 2018, when the massive historic renovation by Ford Motor Co. was announced.
And while I wasn’t living in Detroit back then, the importance of the project was made very clear on my first day as Hour Detroit’s editor-in-chief in October 2021. It came in the form of a tip from our director of digital strategy, Travis Fletcher. “The more we can highlight the restoration of Michigan Central Station, the better,” he said at my first print-digital meeting. “Our readers and followers are genuinely excited about it.”
I did what any new editor in a job does: followed the tip of the social media guy. The following June, we got a hard-hat tour of the station during construction as well as interviews with the architect of the project and the design director of Newlab. We ran the article in October, stating that the campus was scheduled to open later that year.
But as with all massive projects came delays. Finally, when the news hit that a 10-day open house would be happening June 7-16, 2024, and that ticket registration would begin the next day … well, something happened that probably didn’t surprise Travis. It broke Michigan Central’s website, or in the publicist’s words, “The demand for tickets exceeded even our highest expectations and stress tests for website capacity.”
And what has happened during the past 10 months, over at the crossroads of Corktown and Mexicantown, has exceeded our expectations, beginning with one of the best concerts Detroit has ever seen. While there have been countless events at the station since then, it was one of my more recent visits that made the importance of the project resonate. Toward the end of my second hour at the Detroit St. Patrick’s Parade, I was longing for a place to warm up, enjoy a hot drink, sit in a comfy spot, and use a clean bathroom. I looked up at the station and thought, “Hmm, I wonder if it’s open today.” It was, and it had all those amenities, just as any great community gathering spot should.
This story originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on May 5.
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