Posted on 05/27/2018 6:39:01 PM PDT by shove_it
The 105-year-old building that once handled all of Detroit's passenger rail traffic closed in 1988 due to a decline in ridership and took on a new life in the subsequent years as a must-see destination for urban explorers, the homeless and scavengers, who picked it clean of anything valuable.
After years of failed short-lived plans to repurpose the dated 500,000-square-foot, 18-story building, its future may be crystalizing: The Ford Motor Co. is moving into the surrounding neighborhood of Corktown and according to Ford board member Edsel B. Ford II is in talks to buy the old station...
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Railroad company offices used to be in there. Originally it was intended to combine office space and hotel space, but the plans for hotel space never materialized; the upper floors were not used.
If done correctly, like for example Kansas City and Denver, taking an abandoned train station and refurbishing it is a solid investment. For the last few years now, the construction in Denver has centered around the refurbished Union Station.
Since the completion of Phase I in 2014, Denver Union Station is exceeding expectations on a variety of fronts. According to estimates, the redevelopment of DUS has generated $3.8 billion in total economic impact in the near term, and another $2.9 billion over the long termgame-changing amounts for a city, a region, and a state. Meanwhile, according to the Denver Union Station Economic Impact Analysis, the DUS redevelopment was responsible for creating 31,000 construction jobs and will continue to support an additional 18,500 jobs. Denver and the region are forever changed by this multimodal transportation center, and ridership is expected to hit 200,000 passenger trips per day in 2030.
A beautiful old beast.
But the costs are beyond massive.
When built, airconditioning was just invented.
Typewriters were human powered.
All the building services will have to be substantially increased for current and future needs.
Where do you place them? Fire protection, how do you install a sprinkler in a herringbone ceiling? At what cost?
Many engineers and architects with sharp pencils can overcome huge problems.
Half a million sq ft (usable?) 200 sq ft per person?
WHERE WILL THEY PARK THEIR CARS?
Parking can equal floor space.
They need a TEN ACRE PARKING LOT OR LARGER!
And access roads, fire lanes...
Detroit, home of the car.
The station in Fort Worth is almost that tall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%26P_Station
http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/oldftw/tandpterminalsmith.jpg
Of course, Terminal Tower in Cleveland is 52 stories.
Nice, I guess Ford might use it as office space.
It was the home office building of the Michigan Central RR.
The one in Buffalo is 17 stories.
That's the easy part. Plenty of room for a parking structure on and over the old platform areas behind the station. There's probably some baggage space under the station that could be re-purposed, as well. Then there's the park in front of it which might be available for underground parking.
In Fort Worth they converted the old office floors to loft apartments and they still have enough parking available for the park and ride for the rail service to DFW Airport and downtown Dallas.
Maybe they might be able to tie it into the QLine? I know the Q is pretty much a suburban private system...but hey, I’m always looking for more train travel in Michigan.
“Its criminal what theyve allowed to happen to that beautiful gem.”
It’s just so messed up, I agree.
According to Wiki, “1-8-7” is the California penal code for homicide, which has become a national slang term for “murder.”
If I recall correctly on that show, they managed to have mostly White perps and cops in a city where there’s only 50,000 of them (out of 700k+). 100% of the people on that show should’ve been Black.
Don’t forget the moose tang.
bump
Sorry I let it slip by. Yes, mustang also. Any SUVs left?
Yey another attempt to fail at ressurecting a railway station
A quick google did not show the number of apartments?
Is it still is a working train station?
Considerably less parking needed for residential units.
And in Chicago, if you take proper care of your Alderman, the requirements can be ‘adjusted’. That said, without parking the talent pool shrinks.
I enjoy the old buildings, but you are usually better off with a greenfield site.
Parking inside the building? Everything is dollars per square foot, EVERYTHING.
Yes, 6 day a week commuter service from downtown Fort Worth to downtown Dallas (25 trains weekdays, a few additional trains which stop at Centerpoint) with a shuttle bus from the Centerpoint station to DFW airport; thrice a week Amtrak service to Chicago and San Antonio.
A quick google did not show the number of apartments?
A quick search showed "136 condos in the 12-story historic terminal" although most of them seem to have been bought by investors for the rental market.
Parking inside the building?
The old Post Office/Federal Courthouse in downtown Dallas converted the basement to residential parking when it became an apartment building (the post office still occupies about 2/3 of the main floor.) Engineering in the parking was always the big challege when they converted downtown office towers to residential. In several cases, they took the lower floors above the ground floor for parking (Mosaic (Fidelity Union Life Insurance Building) and former LTV building across the park), torn down adjacent buildings (Magnolia) or basement space. A few had adequate parking from their days as corporate offices. One of the problems with the Tower Petroleum/Corrigan Tower redevelopment was the lack of parking. The developers tried to do a crony capitalism deal to get control of a city park for parking, but that was blocked. Tower ended up as a hotel, I don't know what they did about parking (looking at the website, nothing). The nearby original Hilton hotel (first with the Hilton name, currently Indigo Hotel) had a similar parking problem, but it was connected by an overhead walkway to a city garage.
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