Hundred of visitors and local workers on Tuesday toured Ford Motor Co.'s new Book Depository in Detroit during the building's official unveiling after a dramatic four-year redevelopment project.

At the center of the action was the automaker's Executive Chair Bill Ford.

"This is exactly what I wanted to see happen here," Ford told the crowd, which had gathered before a stage in the newly expanded three-story atrium. "The best and the brightest are coming here to invent things."

As the crowd later began to thin, Bill Ford recalled for reporters how the Book Depository has long been overshadowed by its older and much larger neighbor — Michigan Central Station — which Ford is still busy redeveloping and that is slated to open in early 2024.

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Ford Motor Co. bought both then-vacant buildings in 2018 from the Moroun family. The automaker's goal has been to create a new 30-acre Detroit mobility district in the city's trendy Corktown neighborhood. The Book Depository building, which first opened as a U.S. Postal Service facility in 1936, is now home to Newlab, which Ford said would be a "center of gravity for startups, entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists to build breakthrough companies in Detroit."

Here are a few of Bill Ford's musings and remarks Tuesday regarding the Book Depository and Michigan Central Station:

Book Depository was an 'afterthought'

"From day one, when we started envisioning what the train station could be, this building was in many people’s minds the afterthought. And there was a good reason for it: The windows were painted a horrible shade of yellow, there were literally trees growing in here and it was just rubble. And when I said to my team, ‘We need this building,’ they all looked at me like I was out of my mind."

“But I could see that this space could become something very complementary to what will happen next door, because this space will be where the young companies really can start to prototype and make things, next door will be more mature companies like Google ... and then they will be able to collaborate with these young companies, too. So it will be a very different vibe there than is here."

Hotel in the depot?

The tower in Michigan Central Station rises 15 stories above ground level and was built to hold offices, although many of the upper floors stayed forever vacant for lack of tenants.

After buying the station in 2018, Ford considered transforming several of those floors into housing. One year later, the automaker pivoted away from the housing idea and instead looked to put in a hotel, perhaps 90 to 100 rooms spread across the top floors.

Asked on Tuesday about the hotel, Bill Ford said the COVID-19 pandemic did impact their plan for a hotel, but they still want to open one in the former train depot.

"So we’re taking our time there. We have to get the right one in," he said. "We have a lot of people talking to us. We want to make sure we have the right one there that fits with the vibe of what we want there, and that we think has the longevity to stay there.

"Yes, we will have one — at some point. But we’re not in a hurry."

Condos in the depot?

Bill Ford also appeared to suggest that it's not an either/or proposition for having a hotel or condos in Michigan Central Station; some combination of the two might still be possible.

"We haven't really decided yet. We’re having those discussions now," Ford said.

He then made an up and down motion with his arm.

"The condos discussions has kind of gone like this over the years," he said. "When we first started, we were thinking — yes, let's do condos. And then we started thinking, 'No, let’s not do condos. Let’s make it all hotel space.' And then condos came back. So the short answer is — we don’t know.

He added, “A lot of what we’re doing over there is still to be fleshed out. We don’t have all the tenants ready yet. We have a lot of people who want to come, but we have to curate the right experience for not just the workers there, but for the visitors as well.”

Other visitors at Tuesday's Book Depository unveiling included Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

"This is Bill Ford's moment," Duggan said.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ford's rehabbed Book Depository near train depot officially unveiled