Ford Motor Co. is turning its former Product Development Center in Dearborn into what it’s calling World Headquarters South, a move that will reshape how roughly 10,000 to 11,000 employees work, collaborate, and share space across the company’s main campus.
Construction starts this summer. Completion is set for 2029.
The project converts a building that was built for designing cars into something closer to a full-service corporate campus within a campus. Ford says it will gut much of the interior, pull out drop ceilings, knock down walls, and cut in new windows and skylights to bring in natural light. The façade gets a refresh too. What comes back in: cafés, markets, wellness rooms, reflection rooms, and mothers’ rooms. Not exactly the PDC your grandad worked in.
Ford Racing Moves to the Center
The bigger operational news might be what’s moving in alongside the office workers. Ford Racing is leaving its previous location outside the main Ford campus and relocating into World Headquarters South. That matters because Ford has been vocal about wanting the lessons from track competition to flow more directly into production vehicles. Having the racing team in the same complex as design, engineering, and corporate teams is the physical expression of that strategy.
“As we deliver the Ford+ plan, our teams must collaborate more closely than ever,” said Jim Farley, president and CEO of Ford. “This includes connecting the Ford Racing teams who innovate on the track with their colleagues across the business and help bring those advances to our customers’ vehicles.”
The former PDC design studios will be converted into double-height, flexible workspace built for labs, vehicle testing, and prototype work. So the bones of the place still serve the same basic function. Just open, connected, and wired differently.
3.3 Million Square Feet, One Complex
When World Headquarters South is finished, the combined facility will total 3.3 million square feet. Ford says roughly 16,000 employees will be within a 15-minute walk of each other across the full campus. That’s a real number worth sitting with: 16,000 people who previously had to drive or shuttle between buildings being close enough to grab lunch together. The collaboration math is obvious.
The building will also include a dedicated wing for vendor and visitor meetings, keeping outside guests out of secure Ford workspaces. That’s a practical detail, but it signals how Ford is thinking about the campus as something that needs to handle outside business without compromising internal security.
A 30,000-square-foot fitness center rounds out the amenities. Cardio equipment, strength training, a fitness studio, locker rooms with showers. Full setup.
A New Parking Deck and New Street Names
Also this summer: construction starts on a new 3,100-space parking deck just east of World Headquarters. It will include EV charging stations and ADA parking. For a company that builds electric vehicles, putting EV infrastructure into its own employee parking is the floor, not the ceiling, of what you’d expect.
In May, several road names within the Henry Ford II World Center will change to honor Ford’s notable products. One confirmed rename: the ring road around the north end of campus, formerly Carroll Shelby Way, becomes Raptor Way.
“At Ford, we have always understood that to build a future, you have to renew the places where you work, design, and build,” said Bill Ford, executive chair of Ford. “It’s a rhythm that runs throughout our history.”
What This Means for Dearborn
Ford’s campus sits in Dearborn, a city whose economic identity has been inseparable from the automaker since Henry Ford put down roots there more than a century ago. A $X billion renovation commitment, thousands of employees consolidated within walking distance, a racing operation brought in from the periphery: all of this reinforces Ford’s long-term bet that its Dearborn footprint is worth serious investment rather than the kind of slow withdrawal that’s hollowed out corporate campuses elsewhere in the region.
The Ford+ plan that Farley referenced has been Ford’s framework for restructuring the company around EVs, software, and commercial vehicles. The physical campus renovation is meant to support that restructuring in concrete terms.
DBusiness Magazine first reported the details of the project, including the planned construction timeline and the scope of the PDC conversion.
The work starts this summer. Keep an eye on the east side of the World Headquarters campus when you’re on Michigan Avenue. You’ll see it taking shape.
