Inside the refreshed shell of an 87-year-old building in Detroit that’s been wracked by fire, tragedy, and more than 30 years of abandonment, a new multi-armed venture is trying to shape the future of mobility. The building is the new home of Newlab, a technology collaborative and business hub originally started in Brooklyn. In a move deeply tied to this particular building, Newlab has expanded to Detroit in order to focus on the ways transportation and society intersect.
Once known as the Book Depository building, the building now houses companies building autonomous wheels, electric bicycles, electric recreational vehicles, and streets built for autonomous vehicles.
Ford is rehabbing that building as well, and plans to move more than a thousand employees in by early 2024. Newlab’s location in the Book Depository building, which sits right across the street, is kind of like the scrappier cousin of the establishment automaker next door, with startups developing new ways for people and goods to move around.
Through district-level plans and agreements with the city allowing more diverse ways for companies to experiment with their technologies, Michigan Central is relying on Newlab to pump out new ideas and technologies for mobility to better align with the needs of 21st-century society.
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