Ford is keeping a big piece of its long-running Product Development Center in Dearborn alive, turning it into a new "World Headquarters South" instead of flattening the whole site. The revamped building will pull more vehicle-focused operations into the automaker’s expanded campus while preserving a large garage for vehicle testing and service.
The shift is part of a broader campus overhaul the company has dubbed the Henry Ford II World Center, which moves core headquarters functions onto the product development campus across Oakwood Boulevard. According to Ford, the new primary World Headquarters will span about 2.1 million square feet and is designed to bring engineering, design and corporate teams together under one enlarged footprint.
Renovation instead of demo
In an update first reported by the Detroit Free Press, Ford will keep and renovate the remaining section of the Product Development Center, connect it to the new World Headquarters via a skywalk and rebrand the building as World Headquarters South. The outlet reports that the experimental vehicles building is set to receive upgraded interior workspaces, additional windows and a refreshed facade as part of the makeover.
Campus scale and collaboration
Ford says the redesigned campus is meant to boost everyday collaboration by putting more teams within easy walking distance. Per Ford, the new World Headquarters will seat roughly 4,000 people, while the larger campus will cluster thousands more nearby, creating a tighter work neighborhood than the old Glass House arrangement.
Parking, racing and a big gym
Ford will keep a roughly 60,000-square-foot garage under the Product Development Center for vehicle work and will bring Ford Racing into the new World Headquarters South, according to the Detroit Free Press. The report adds that Ford plans a new free-standing parking structure with about 3,100 to 3,500 covered stalls, and that the campus will feature a fitness center in the 30,000–40,000 square-foot range that the company estimates could serve roughly 24,000 Dearborn employees. The outlet also notes that Ford expects phase-one physical construction on the renovations to begin in the second quarter, with work rolling out in stages over the next few years.
Timeline and what comes next
The World Headquarters South conversion slots into a multi-year reshaping of Ford's hometown footprint that started with construction of the new World Headquarters last year. The Associated Press reports that Ford has already shifted many operations to the new campus and plans to "sustainably decommission" the old Glass House before it is eventually demolished, with the company and the city still deciding how the Michigan Avenue site will be used in the future.
