Michigan Central acquires historic church that was home to music recording studio

A historic Corktown church that has been home to numerous congregations of worshippers, and most recently dozens of Detroit musicians who used it as a recording studio, is slated for a new chapter as part of Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Central mobility campus.

Michigan Central leaders confirmed Wednesday that the organization will renovate a church that neighbors the former train station that serves as the campus's anchor after Ford's real-estate arm purchased the property from Detroit music company Assemble Sound.

What the property will be used for is unknown at this point, but officials on both sides of the deal said it secures the church's future after Assemble Sound could no longer make it work there.

The church, at 2300 17th St., was dedicated in 1873 as St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, according to HistoricDetroit.org. The German Gothic style building was designed by architect Carl Schmidt.

The church campus was sold in 1952 to the House of Israel. In 1982, the church building was sold to La Iglesia de Jesus Christo. In 1999, Grace to Grace Christian Fellowship Church bought it and used it until 2009. The other two buildings on the campus, meanwhile, sat unused for decades.

The property sat vacant from 2010 to 2015, The Detroit News previously reported.

Enter Assemble Sound, which bought the church in March 2015 and converted it into a recording studio and collaboration space to which musicians had round-the-clock access. The company later acquired the other two properties on the church campus. There, the company — which provides sync licensing, artist development, artist management, marketing and label services — provided a space for musicians to produce hip-hop, R&B, rock, techno and other types of music.

Assemble Sound gives musicians sanctuary to collaborate

The company had been renovating the space but halted work after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

"We've emerged from the last 2.5 years as a company with different needs in a physical space, facing a different construction environment with insanely higher costs on all fronts," Assemble Sound said in a social media post last year announcing the listing of the property. "In short, renovating the church has become financially impossible for us. We would risk the whole music company if we took on the amount of debt it would now take to renovate the buildings the way we need to."

"To put it simply, buying the Church made Assemble Sound possible, but renovating it would make our future impossible," the post said.

Assemble Sound listed the property for sale last August. It later approached Michigan Central's leaders to see if they would be interested in purchasing it. They wanted to ensure it went to owners who wouldn't let it sit unused, as it had been before Assemble Sound brought new life to it.

Ford Land bought the property for $1.5 million, according to Garret Koehler, managing partner at Assemble Sound. The sale first was reported by Crain's Detroit Business.

The properties will be part of Ford's 30-acre, nearly $1 billion Michigan Central mobility campus. Part of the campus, the Book Depository, opened earlier this year as the Detroit headquarters for Newlab. Dozens of startups in the building are working on a variety of mobility-related ventures. The former train station is slated to open next year after an extensive renovation is complete.

Ford has said that about 5,000 employees, half from the automaker and half from other companies, will populate the campus where it will work on electric- and autonomous-vehicle projects.

It's an open question how Michigan Central will use the space, said Dan Austin, a spokesperson for the organization.

For now, the top priority is getting the steeple stabilized after it was deemed a safety risk. The plan is to remove the steeple, rebuild it, and then reinstall it. After that, Michigan Central officials plan to engage the local community in discussions about the future use of the church property.

“Though we are not actively looking to acquire additional properties around Michigan Central, we felt this historic church was an important exception. Like the previous owners at Assemble Sound, we were deeply concerned about the long-term status of this 19th century church and believe it to be an important piece of our neighborhood’s history," Catherine Kelly, who leads communications for Michigan Central, said in a statement.

“Our priority is to work with the City of Detroit and (the Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department) to address the steeple," she added. "Like our neighbors, we want to see it preserved, and we are going to do everything we can to do so. After having experts inspect it, we have determined that it must be temporarily removed to restore it properly. This work will likely begin in the next few weeks. After we get the structure stabilized, we can better determine the future use of the building.”

Meanwhile, Assemble Sound plans to announce its new location in the city this winter, Koehler said.

"The sale allows us to further invest in the music company that has positively impacted the lives of countless Detroit area musicians," he said via text. "Our physical spaces have always been in service to that core mission."

In speaking with Michigan Central leaders, including CEO Josh Sirefman, Koehler added, "it became clear that they saw the vision of these buildings, something they've made so evident in the visionary work they've done at the Book Depository and Train Depot. We can't wait to see their team give a historic building that has meant so much to so many people the love it needs and deserves. The property was instrumental in Assemble Sound turning our initial vision into a reality, and that reality will live on in a new location we're excited to announce next year."

Bill Ford: Book Depository opening is 'tangible evidence' of Michigan Central vision

jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com