Dearborn wouldn’t be Dearborn without Ford Motor Co. But with the struggling automaker in the throes of the deepest crisis in its 103-year history — buying out 38,000 blue-collar workers, pink slipping white-collar staff and posting billion-dollar losses — Dearborn faces a difficult question: Can this comfortable suburban city find its own way forward?
“Dearborn has to be prepared for a worst-case scenario,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jack O’Reilly. “We may have to go through more pain, but I’m optimistic. I think our relationship with Ford may actually get stronger.”
The storm clouds at Ford threaten to stunt a period of growth for the city. New retail and office development is breaking ground around Dearborn, and the growing Middle Eastern community helped push the population over 100,000, up from 90,000 in 1990.
Still, Dearborn is the company town of a company in industrial-sized trouble.
“Everybody’s scared, everybody’s asking how long can we hold on before it gets better at Ford?” said Anthony Fera, who ran the Little Professor Book Center near Ford’s headquarters until he retired.
While chain stores and restaurants continue to open in Dearborn, many business owners say sales have never been slower. Several businesses have gone under in recent months. Many houses for sale are languishing on the market.
“We depend on the Ford worker,” Fera said.
Henry Ford was born on a farm at what is now the intersection of Ford and Greenfield roads in 1863. He launched Ford Motor Co. in Detroit but returned to his hometown to build the world’s largest industrial complex — the Rouge complex — and create the educational institution that became the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village and is now called The Henry Ford.
The post-World War II era ushered in 25 years of expansion, including construction of “the Glass House” — Ford’s world headquarters.
The 1970s marked the creation of Ford Land, the company’s real estate development arm, which built the Automobile Club of America’s office, the Fairlane Town Center mall and two hotels. Today, Ford Land controls about 100 buildings and 5 million square feet of office space in the city.
Now it’s Dearborn’s turn to extend a helping hand. City officials say they want to offer tax abatements and incentives to keep Ford workers in Dearborn and help the automaker consolidate more operations in the city.
Ford declined to comment, stating it is the company’s policy not to talk about its plans in specific communities where they have a presence.
But Dearborn’s Rouge facility snagged a piece of the $866 million in investment Ford intends to put into six Detroit-area facilities, a move aimed at saving thousands of auto jobs.
In some cases, Ford’s restructuring is bringing in jobs. Some 1,500 ad agency workers — including 800 from Detroit offices — will set up shop to be closer to Ford headquarters. The Rouge facility’s Dearborn Truck plant added another shift amid the layoffs.
But it would take a massive relocation of Ford workers to Dearborn to compensate for the automaker’s shrinking work force in the city, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Ford cut 4,000 white-collar workers in 2006 and plans to eliminate another 10,000 salaried positions this year. The majority of those work in Dearborn, and many live in the city.
Dearborn also lost a host of workers several years ago when auto supplier Visteon Corp., formerly part of Ford, moved its headquarters to Van Buren Township, Mich.
While Dearborn doesn’t keep an exact tally of Ford workers in the city, the automaker pays about 25 percent of the city’s taxes, making it vital to city services. Dearborn boasts its own health department, 43 parks and six senior-citizen apartment buildings.
Still, the city faces a $10 million budget deficit, mainly due to rising pension and health care costs and state revenue cuts.
Nearly 12 percent of the city’s office space is vacant, about double what it was five years ago, according to commercial real estate brokers Grubb & Ellis, mainly because of the consolidation at Ford and other auto firms. But it is still lower than the 21 percent vacancy rate in the overall Detroit area.
Ford’s early retirement packages and white-collar job cuts have contributed to a glut of homes for sale in Dearborn, many of which are staying on the market for months, according to real estate agents.
Like most of Michigan, Dearborn is looking to diversify and become less dependent on the auto industry. And some parts of the city are becoming more hip and attractive to younger residents. Michigan Avenue on Dearborn’s west side continues to develop as an evening destination with restaurants and night spots, and an increasingly urban feel.
Much of Dearborn — where one in three residents is of Middle Eastern descent — hums with entrepreneurial energy. The east side is becoming a busy commercial district with stores and restaurants owned by Middle Eastern families.
“I don’t know many people in the community who work for Ford. This is working to our advantage right now,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of Dearborn’s Arab-American News. “If you go to the shops, you will see many people from different suburbs and many come from out of state.”
In West Dearborn, $250 million in planned real estate investments would add lofts, condos and retailers such as Cold Stone Creamery.
A big part of the development along Michigan is being led by Hakim Fakhoury, who grew up in West Dearborn after migrating from Kuwait as a child.
“Everyone wants to attract the office crowd of not only Ford but of the 50,000 office workers who come into Dearborn during the week,” the developer said, referring to workers at nearby Oakwood Health Care System and AAA headquarters.
“The future is young people and diversity,” Fakhoury said. “Ford will always be here, but I don’t know anyone who thinks it’s going to be the same.”
