Interesting how this article from the Chicago Tribune today highlights more of Dan Stamper's and DIBC's comments about the building. I've tried to put them in bold here:

Detroit wants blighted old train depot demolished

By COREY WILLIAMS |Associated Press Writer6:10 PM CDT, April 7, 2009 DETROIT - The Michigan Central Depot -- a 17-story hulking reminder of Detroit's past grandeur and present failures -- could be approaching its end.

The city council has passed a resolution seeking emergency demolition of the mostly hollowed-out building just outside the shadow of downtown, while Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. has made it clear that he wants federal stimulus money to bring it to rubble.

Both want to force the long-closed train station's owner, Manuel [[Matty) Moroun, to pay the city back. Moroun also owns the Ambassador Bridge, which is operated by his Detroit International Bridge Co.

Dan Stamper, company president, told The Associated Press Tuesday afternoon the council's demolition plans are not that simple.

"The building is on the historical list," Stamper said. "But for that, we would have torn it down some time ago.

"I agree, the depot is a visual icon to the decay of Detroit and we feel really bad about that, and agree with everybody who says something needs to be done. Renovate it or get rid of it."

The nearly 100-year-old building dominates Detroit's southwest skyline and in its heyday had been considered one of the city's most stately structures.

Built in 1913, the station was designed by the same architects responsible for New York's Grand Central Terminal. It served thousands of travelers each year, but its demise was set as rail service in Detroit began to fall off.

The building was sold in 1985, with passenger carrier Amtrak pulling out three years later.

Hundreds of pane-less windows have left the depot open to the elements, birds and four-legged varmints. Fencing, barbed wire and warning signs remind urban adventurers and other upright walking trespassers to keep out.

Moroun bought the building in the mid- to late-1990s after one of the owners defaulted on a loan to the Detroit area businessman, Stamper said.

Moroun also has interests in rail and trucking transport which led to him buying the depot, Stamper said.

Depot "ownership really was by accident, and probably the most criticized thing we could have done," he said. "We got into it because of the railroad implications, and all the railroads converged there. It had been closed and stripped long before we got involved."

Stamper said they are looking at opportunities to renovate the depot or start the demolition process. Past bids have estimated demolition at a "couple of million" dollars, Stamper said.

"We would like to see the building saved," he said. "We think the process [[the council) has gone through is not the right way.

"The real issue is there are about 600,000 square feet in the building. Is there a market for all of that, or is there a market for part of it?"

Stamper did not directly address the possibility of Moroun being billed for demolition.

A report on how to enforce demolition of the building is expected to be presented to the council later this month. But similar plans and cries to rehab or tear down the depot have been heard in prior years throughout City Hall.

Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick even pushed a short-lived $100 million to $130 million plan to buy, renovate and convert the depot into a new police headquarters.

"We did a lot of work, spent a lot of money on engineering," Stamper said. "The city couldn't complete the deal."

Meanwhile, Cockrel is seeking $3.64 million in federal stimulus funds to tear the dilapidated station down. Like the council, Cockrel wants Moroun to reimburse the city, mayoral spokesman Daniel Cherrin said.

"We're waiting to hear from Washington" on whether the funding will be approved, Cherrin said Tuesday. "It's an eyesore. What once stood as the city's architectural treasure, now sits as a symbol of blight in the city."

But not all want to see it torn down.

Timothy McKay, executive director of the Greater Corktown Development Corp., envisions the old station as a "fabulous ruin."

"Why couldn't we have a ruin to celebrate like the Coliseum in Rome?" McKay said. "It's an iconic piece of architecture that needs to be regarded in a very good way. What is going to replace it is our big question."

McKay's organization is a nonprofit housing and economic development corporation that works in the area surrounding the depot.