Ford Launches 10-Year Overhaul Its Dearborn Facilities

Ford Motor Co. has formally launched a 10-year plan to turn it 60-year-old, 70-building complex in Dearborn, Mich., into a two-campus layout for 30,000 employees.

The plan was first reported last June by Crain’s Detroit Business, which described it as a $1 billion project to overhaul the company’s tech campus. The design was provided by Detroit-based architectural designers SmithGroup JJR.

The overhaul of the company’s research and engineering center will begin later this month. Ford plans to rebuild some structures, replace others and add facilities, including an all-new 700,000-sq-ft design center. The project will create 4.5 million sq ft of upgraded work space that houses 24,000 employees—double the center’s current population.

Ford envisions a dense array of buildings surrounded by green space and linked by paths, trails, covered walkways self-driving vehicles, electric bikes and on-demand shuttles. The company expects to complete most work on the central tech campus by 2023.

CEO Mark Fields says the underlying goal is to support Ford’s transition from carmaker to auto and mobility company.

In 2021 the company plans to begin a similar but smaller scale overhaul of 1.3 million sq ft of work space at its world headquarters complex about one mile away. That five-year project will attach a new facility for Ford Motor Credit Corp. to the corporate headquarters building. The project also will add an onsite cafe, improve surrounding green spaces, install walkways and covered parking decks and add outdoor recreation facilities.