That was pretty cool. Well, thank you all and welcome to Michigan Central. I know a lot of you have been here before, but what I really hope is that you'll keep coming back because we've got programming here that's going to keep you coming. This is going to be much more than just a trip down memory lane. It's going to be a vibrant place for the community. Once we get a hotel here, Casey, which we're close, then we'll have food and beverage throughout the place. And you'll have... okay, you can't steal all my questions. Okay, fire away, fire away. This is when you're supposed to say hello and welcome and thank you all for being here. Sorry about that, Bill.
It's so wonderful to see your family here. I mean, Bill, holy crap, this place is unbelievable.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. When we... and then there were a lot of skeptics that said, 'Okay, fine, even if you do it, what's it really going to mean?' And I know we'll get into that in terms of what it's going to mean. But I want to say one thing. Mayor Duggan said, you know, mention the phone call he received. I got to tell you, it cuts both ways. 30 years ago, we did Ford Field together. I didn't know Mike prior to that. We worked very closely and it was fabulous. One thing I learned about Mike is all it takes is a handshake. You don't need to write anything down. You don't need to note it. If Mike tells you he's going to do something, he does something. And so when I said, 'Mike, we want to do this,' he said, 'Yep, I'll be your partner like we were the last time, and whatever it takes, we're going to take this building and we're going to turn it into an incredible venue for Detroit.' Now we were at the Motor City Casino because you had some work to do on this place. When you're sitting here six years later in this unbelievably beautifully renovated building, has it been everything you hoped and how does it compare to what you pictured when you bought it?
Well, when you said a lot of people thought I was a little crazy, that was being very kind. But I think it's way exceeded what I thought because of this. Obviously, the group that did the renovation, the workers here, I mean just look what they did. It was amazing. And I used to love to come down here at every stage of the renovation and just marvel at what they... when I say it exceeded, it's not just the restoration that exceeded. It's what's going on here between here and New Lab. I never wanted this to be a trip down memory lane. I mean, yes, it is, and it's an amazing trip down memory lane, but it was much more important to me that this really become a magnet for future talent and that we create the kind of campus where the Motor City could become the Motor City again. And it's happening, and that to me is the best, because you can have a beautiful building and that's wonderful, but it's what goes on inside of it that really matters. And I was so sick of losing our young generations to other cities. I mean, it seemed like there was a one-way... technology so that people will have something to stay here for.
I think that deserves a round of applause. Thank you. Just saying, because I couldn't agree more. You mentioned the book next door. I mentioned there's 120 startups already there at New Lab. Ford has put employees on three of the floors. You mentioned talent. You got a lot of the Ford executive team here. But talk about what it's been, how it's really attracting the best and the brightest, and how that conversation has changed.
Well, it's interesting because the conversation's really changed a lot because of what Mayor Duggan has done for the image of our city globally. So, you know, used to be the discussion to... many of them are not from Michigan. Many of them are from a long way away, and some are from overseas, and they love being here. But I'll tell you this: I served on a board years ago in Silicon Valley, and what I saw happening there really opened my eyes, and it really was in stark contrast to what was not happening in Southeastern Michigan and what was not happening in Detroit. And it wasn't just the startups; it was the whole ecosystem around the startups. What I love about what's going on next door at the Book Depository is we have 130 startups, but we also have 20 venture capital firms in there, and the firms in there have raised over $700 million in funding. That's the kind of... each other, and it becomes a flywheel, and we're starting that now. It's incredible. It also helps when you bring them here in June and not February.
That's true. Tough day today. Give us a little glimpse: what is the coolest or most exciting thing you've seen come out of New Lab so far?
Well, if I could just go back to what I said a second ago, I don't think it's any one technology, although there are so many very cool things that are being worked on. But it is the network that's taking place there to create a whole ecosystem that will build upon itself. And so I think the next thing, and Mayor Duggan and I have talked about this briefly, is to provide an area, a zone if you will, where these young companies can graduate to, because the companies will outgrow that and they'll need to go someplace, and we don't want them to leave Michigan. We don't want them to leave Detroit. And one thing that we know how to do here is make things, and we're really good at that. But these young companies have to have spaces to go into. And when Mike becomes governor, we're going to be working on this to actually help provide... I don't want to call it a district, but maybe it becomes like that, a place where our young companies can graduate and stay.
Can you stop getting ahead of our script, please? Thank you. You know, it's interesting you talk about that network effect. I've noticed a lot in Europe and the automotive industry is so... happening. Yeah, we do. And we actually have a really good relationship, may I say, with Mary Barra and with John Elkann at Stellantis. You know, look, the one thing we... yes, we compete every day against each other, but we all want this to be a vibrant area. They're both great to work with, and so we're completely aligned in terms of how we see the development of our community. I mean, one of the things that I saw was, you know, in this little film that you did that was embarrassing... was the comment, which I really believe: you can't have a healthy company if you don't have a healthy community in which it resides. And that's why I think it's so important that we, for GM, Stellantis, all the tier ones, all the companies in this room, really... they will do anything they can to make it work. It's very different than other cities. You can have everybody disagree about everything else, but when you say, 'Hey, will you help in Detroit? Will you help Southeastern Michigan?' There's no shortage of volunteers who want to do that.
Yeah, it's pretty incredible, isn't it?
Yeah, it's great. I love it. Okay, now let's talk about the hotel. How close are we to getting a deal?
We're probably a couple months away from announcing it, maybe sooner. And it's going to be great because, as I said, it's not just going to be the hotel, which will be the top few floors of this building, but it actually will really turbocharge the food and beverage options here in the station, which is what we need to have the community come in, enjoy themselves, the people that work... because we're not New York, and we have to make sure that we have price points all along the way that are going to support the kind of activity that goes on at New Lab, going to support the big events that were talked about earlier today. We've got a lot of big events, a lot of visitors coming here. We want them to stay here and enjoy this.
I was waiting for that. I can feel it coming. We are in Grand Central... Michigan Central. Used to be a lot of trains here. Last month you were talking about possibly bringing trains back. Fill us in on what that could look like.
