Two years after its celebrated reopening, the landmark Michigan Central Station has drawn an eclectic mix of tenants, including corporations, nonprofits, small businesses and a national hotel flag.
Ford Motor Co. paid $90 million in 2018 to buy the vacant Michigan Central depot in Corktown from the Moroun family and spent $975 million to restore the former train station and outfit it for modern office and co-working spaces. The building’s reopening in 2024 was seen as a symbol of Detroit’s recovery post-bankruptcy, and a promise of more to come.
Now, the building is host to a diverse mix of users, with two of 18 floors still awaiting tenants and a luxury hotel opening in 2027 that will use much of the building.
Ford’s investment isn’t just the building or its campus: It started Michigan Central, a membership organization to spur innovations by connecting startups with companies and institutions. Michigan Central changed CEOs in its first two years, as founding CEO Josh Sirefman departed in October 2025. Awenate Cobbina, who was chief of staff to Ford CEO Jim Farley, is leading the organization as of August.
The tenant diversity in the station furthers Michigan Central’s vision to create an open platform for innovation that encourages collaboration and creative collisions, a spokesperson told Crain’s.
Here are the tenants in Michigan Central Station, floor by floor:
FIRST FLOOR:
The Station Lobby, Grand Hall, Yellow Light Coffee & Donuts, Neighbor x Folk
The first floor of Michigan Central Station is the only floor open to the public. Yellow Light Coffee & Donuts became the building’s first food and beverage tenant when it signed a five-year lease in December 2024. It operates out of a 640-square-foot space for carryout and seating for six people.
Neighbor x Folk opened a storefront on the building’s main floor in November 2024. The space is an offshoot of the Corktown-based Folk restaurant, which offers food and small retail items as well as hosts pop-up events like book signings.
The main floor of the building includes a 19,500-square-foot Grand Hall, which features a museum-quality restoration of the Station where visitors can read about the history of the former train station and purchase merchandise at The Shop. It also has a 2,500-square-foot study that serves as co-working space open to the public that can also convert into event space.
A historic carriage house and restaurant on the west side of the first floor will be used by the NoMad hotel for its signature restaurant and bar concept. The hotel will also occupy the former Men’s Waiting Room, or Reading Room, an oak parlor on the west side of the ground floor.
SECOND FLOOR:
The Michigan Central Mezz
In May, Michigan Central opened a 17,000-square-foot innovation and collaboration space on the second floor of the Station called The Mezz. It offers members 24/7 access to the space, which includes 10 private conference rooms, desks and work setups, a kitchen, wellness rooms and a rentable 30-person meeting space.
The Mezz is also the home of the inaugural Black Tech Saturdays x Michigan Central membership cohort. The six-month program will run from April to October and is designed for entrepreneurs not already members of Newlab at Michigan Central who are interested in becoming more immersed in the ecosystem.
THIRD AND FOURTH FLOORS:
Partially used for the NoMad hotel
The NoMad hotel will be outfitting space on the third floor of Michigan Central for a spa and workout facility. The hotel will operate 35,000 square feet across the two floors. Michigan Central declined to share more specifics.
FIFTH FLOOR:
Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Detroit
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Detroit announced in May 2025 that it planned to take over 13,000 square feet — or more than half of the fifth floor — in early 2026.
The space will enable the organization to establish next-level programs to support fledgling tech and fashion entrepreneurs. It will expand the number of youth it currently serves on the campus at Newlab through autonomous racing, drone and other mobility programs.
“At the end of the day, I think Boys and Girls Club is uniquely positioned to create that talent pipeline, because we can literally start to influence and introduce kids to these careers at 6, 7 years old, and then that progressively gets more intense what they’re learning until they’re actually in the industry,” President and CEO Shawn Wilson previously told Crain’s.
SIXTH AND SEVENTH FLOORS:
Available
Space remains available on the sixth and seventh floors. A Michigan Central spokesperson said details about how the space will be used will be announced in the coming months.
EIGHTH, NINTH AND 10TH FLOORS:
Ford Motor Co. and Advanced Aerial Innovation Region
Ford Motor Co. moved employees onto the eighth, ninth and 10th floors of the Station in October 2024, taking up about 25,000 square feet on each floor, or a total of 76,500 square feet of workspace in the building. The employees moved from the company’s Dearborn headquarters as part of a plan to have at least 1,000 Ford employees working on the Michigan Central campus.
The ninth floor is dedicated to Ford’s Model e customer team and the 10th floor is home to the Integrated Services team. The eighth floor serves as a collaborative meeting space for any Ford employee interested in reserving it.
The office space on each floor is open, with conference rooms, co-working space, kitchenettes and unassigned desks equipped with computer monitors.
Ford is committed to having 2,500 employees at the Michigan Central campus by the end of 2028, a spokesperson told Crain’s.
The operations center for Michigan Central’s Advanced Aerial Mobility Region, a 28-square-mile urban testing ground for commercial drones and advanced air mobility, is also located on the eighth floor. Drone companies like Airspace Link, Birdstop and Blueflite operate out of the floor.
11TH AND 12TH FLOORS:
KPMG LLP
KPMG LLP plans to move its offices from the 150 West Jefferson high-rise in downtown Detroit into Michigan Central Station in the second quarter of 2027.
It plans to take almost 45,000 square feet on the floors, growing its office space by 11% from its previous home in the Redico LLC-owned 150 West Jefferson building.
14TH – 18TH FLOORS:
NoMad hotel
A luxury NoMad hotel is expected to open in the Station in 2027 with nearly 180 guest rooms.
In addition to the rooms, NoMad — which has a flagship location in London and is also opening a location in 2027 in Singapore — has at least two restaurant spaces envisioned, including one on the depot’s western side, where a carriage house is located to be enclosed in glass.
The opening of NoMad will also mark the first time the top five floors of the depot have been finished. They have never previously been occupied.
Story by: Anna Fifelski | Crain’s Detroit Business