Ford is reimagining its footprint. Here's how its campus consolidation plan is taking shape

Apr. 20—DEARBORN — When salaried Ford Motor Co. employees eventually return to offices, studios and labs after more than a year of remote work, it will be to a workplace in the midst of transition.

The Blue Oval is reshaping its physical footprint in southeast Michigan and around the world, consolidating far-flung facilities into central campuses where engineers, designers, product developers and others will lead newly flexible working lives. The idea to change work patterns and places predated the pandemic but has been informed by it — and new ways of working tested and cemented over the last year are sure to influence Ford's plans going forward.

At the heart of it all is a massive renovation of the automaker's research and engineering campus in Dearborn. The project, pegged by outside estimates to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, seeks to transform dozens of older buildings into a modern workplace that aims to attract new talent and provide a walkable, appealing space for the public to enjoy.

A new "Hub" building is the focal point of a redesigned campus that — along with Ford World Headquarters and an under-construction campus anchored by the Michigan Central Depot in Detroit's Corktown — will serve as central locations eventually replacing some of roughly 90 Ford facilities scattered across the region.

"We have a lot of smaller buildings scattered throughout Dearborn, and some of those may go down and we'll integrate everyone into The Hub," said David Dubensky, CEO of Ford Land Co., the automaker's development arm. He emphasized that the moves will be specific to each site.

The changes to physical facilities are reflective of a broader corporate evolution, as the legacy automaker founded nearly 118 years ago by Henry Ford strives to be a leader in the coming wave of high-tech electric and autonomous vehicles.

One of the overarching goals of the Dearborn project, as well as the Michigan Central Depot renovation, is to make the automaker a more appealing workplace for the new talent executives say the company will need to attract as it attempts to reposition itself as a tech-oriented mobility company competing with industry rivals, tech heavyweights and start-ups.

R&E campus

Under former CEO Jim Hackett, previously longtime CEO of office furniture maker Steelcase Inc., Ford in September 2019 unveiled fresh plans for an interconnected research and engineering campus — where some 11,000 employees develop, design and test new products.

"Our vision for our Dearborn Research & Engineering campus — and our new Corktown campus and Ann Arbor robotics lab — will enable Ford to lead the next era of transportation and personal mobility, and help us continue our founding mission of driving human progress through the freedom of movement," Hackett said in a statement at the time.

The 10-year, three-phase master plan (led by Norway-based architecture firm Snøhetta) adopted by the company envisions that as many as 20,000 employees could one day be based at the campus.

The first phase in the renovation of the research and engineering campus is the construction of The Hub, a 2 million-square-foot, figure-eight-shaped building that moves the company's presence closer to the main artery of Oakwood Boulevard, near Village Road and just down the road from the commercial heart of west Dearborn. Ford estimates the central building will be able to house more than 6,000 employees.

Construction atop what used to be vacant land and parking lots began recently, with foundation work now underway. The project required the demolition of a portion of the existing, nearly 70-year-old Product Development Center, with full demolition slated to take place later.

Designers, engineers and product development employees are now slated to begin moving into the building in 2023, with another wave of move-ins scheduled for 2025. Many will move out of smaller facilities in favor of working together across disciplines in a central location.

Angela Hall, an associate professor at Michigan State University's School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, said the trend of companies consolidating their facilities carries benefits: "When you centralize, not only do you save money potentially, but ... it's a way of doing culture building."

Ford declined to comment on the cost of the project.

Opening up the campus

A tenet of the project is to make the property more accessible to the public and more closely integrate it with the surrounding neighborhoods. That means tearing down what Dubensky acknowledged can be intimidating features, such as fencing and guard stations around the perimeter of the campus. Some fencing along Oakwood already has come down.

Going forward, the campus largely will be open to pedestrians, with security moved into individual buildings. Outdoor features including pathways and pavilions that employees and community members alike can use are being added, and natural environments on campus are being restored. And rather than vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and scooters will take precedence on campus.

Ford is working to improve the landscaping. And amenities that are planned for The Hub, such as coffee shops and places to eat, likely will be open to non-employees, too (operators for the retail components have not yet been determined).

It's becoming increasingly common for large employers to open up their campuses to the public, said MSU's Hall: "Organizations are seeing more and more that they are a part of the larger community."

Hybrid work

Ford sent some 30,000 of its salaried employees in North America — most of whom are based in southeast Michigan — home in March 2020 at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Then last month, Ford announced it would transition tens of thousands of salaried workers globally to a hybrid work model, even after the pandemic ends. Executives said pandemic-driven remote work revealed that employees overwhelmingly prefer flexible work and resulted in lessons that allowed them to accelerate the transition to a hybrid policy.

Executives have said a physical presence will remain important, but it will look different than Ford's current footprint. Under the hybrid model, employees still would come onto campus, but it will be up to individuals to determine with their supervisors when and how work gets done.

Inside buildings, Ford plans to reorient workspaces in favor of shared spaces where teams can meet when they are on campus.

And because it's not yet clear how employees will choose to apply the new policy, executives say it's too early to say how exactly it will affect Ford's consolidation plans. The automaker currently maintains about 90 facilities across southeast Michigan. That number is likely to be significantly reduced in the coming years, but the exact changes are to be determined.

"Once we can see a pattern, then we can say, 'OK, on average we are going to be in the office 70% of the time, at home 30% of the time,'" Dubensky said. "Then I can look at the portfolio and accelerate some of those moves in terms of taking out real estate."

Meanwhile, as employers that have moved to remote work during the pandemic ponder a more permanent shift, Hall said the phenomenon stands to have both positive and negative impacts on the communities where those businesses are based. On the plus side, less on-site work means less traffic and a reduced environmental impact.

"But there are going to be economic costs, as well, for those small businesses or even larger businesses that rely on the income that workers coming in bring," she said. "It's going to have negative impacts for the local businesses that rely on people to come into work, like the coffee shops or the places where people go to lunch."

And for employers, the transition must be handled thoughtfully, she said, with an eye on ensuring that existing disparities in the workplace are not exacerbated by virtual communication.

"It's going to have employers really think about how they're going to manage their organizational culture. It's easy for people to be disconnected when they're not seeing each other all the time," she said. "But .. these types of moves are good if it gives employees another option on how they manage their lives."

Community impact

Though the campus renovation represents a major investment on Ford's part, the company's transition to a flexible work model could have implications for business owners in Dearborn who derive a significant chunk of their sales from Ford employees.

Businesses in Dearborn — and by extension, city revenues — already have taken a hit over the past year, due to state shutdown orders and the loss of office workers, including from Ford. Bars, restaurants, child care providers, salons and hotels in Dearborn and other communities with large corporate employers have reported struggling to stay afloat.

Among those concerned about the impact is Adam Gil, an owner of Oakwood Bar and Grill, located on Oakwood Boulevard just down the street from Ford. The eatery traditionally has relied on Ford employees for its lunchtime rush, said Gil.

Having the campus largely closed during the pandemic "affected us big time," he said. "We lost that whole lunch crowd."

City officials, however, are mostly upbeat about the changes Ford is making — though Jeff Watson, the city's director of economic and community development, acknowledged there is some concern about the impact on small businesses.

But, he said, it's simply too soon to estimate what the financial impact will be, given that Ford is still working through its plans.

Dearborn does not levy an income tax, so Ford's economic impact on the city is tied primarily to its real estate and the sales tax generated by employees spending money at local businesses.

Watson said the city remains in close contact with Ford about the campus renovations as well as the company's plans for its real estate holdings.

The city will "work with them to minimize the negative impacts but also look to the opportunities that it might present," he said. "Dearborn is largely a built-out community, so the fact that Ford might be divesting properties may in fact present opportunities for redevelopment that would not exist otherwise."

And Dubensky pointed out that although some employees might spend less time on campus, they'll still be there part of the time. Plus, some employees have jobs that require them to work on-site.

"All those building-dependent people are still going into Dearborn every day. What we're talking about is just this salaried workforce that may work from home from time to time, and may come in from time to time," he said. "So I wouldn't think it would have a material effect."

Added Watson: "They've made a huge commitment and what we consider to be a reaffirmation of the fact that Dearborn is their hometown and they plan to be here for the long run."

jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @JGrzelewski