Billionaire Matty Moroun doesn't seem to quite understand why he's such an unsympathetic figure in Metro Detroit -- almost a Henry Potter-like character from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life."
One of many good reasons is that he owns an iconic piece of ruin porn, Detroit's Michigan Central Station, which has often served as backdrop for out-of-town TV reporters trying to illustrate the decline of a great industrial city.
The empty heap of architecture sits in Corktown, an area of Detroit which is showing great economic promise, both in the area of housing and business. Moroun could help turnaround his rather poor public image -- which includes his obsession over building a new bridge -- by helping develop the station and improving the already promising Corktown neighborhood. The station has been empty for about 25 years.
But nooo.
Detroit Free Press reporters Dan Austin and JC Reindl report that the future of the station remains in limbo at a very noted milestone. They write that it was exactly 100 years ago today that the first train pulled into station, "the tallest train station in the world at the time and a proud, towering symbol of the city’s progress."
The reporters write:
When travelers stepped off the train, they entered a building covered in fancy marble and hand-carved wood, soaring ceilings, intricate wrought-iron railings, gargantuan columns and famous Guastavino tile arches.
The Freep reports that Moroun has left the station in a "purgatory-like state."
He's refused to demolish it and has no immediate plans to revive it, the Freep reports.
“Everyone seems to have an affinity for this place, but not a lot of people know much more than the fact that it’s this giant building and has been in a couple movies,” Ashton Parsons of the Michigan Central Station Preservation Society tells the Freep. “We’re trying to raise awareness . . . to help people understand the building and see where it came from and what it could be again.”
