The acquisition of the MCD would have had to been orchestrated by Ford Land Development. This is the branch of the company that handles all land related acquisitions and development. Secondly, the "Family" would have been involved heavily in making this a Go or No Go deal. You can bet that they have a definitive long term plan in mind that will be profitable to them.
Anyone thinking that the firm has any integrity or moral obligation to the City of Detroit due to Ford's involvement in aiding its decline needs to seek out professional help. Dollars are the only thing this family / firm understands and lives by - Period.
The continuation of the "Families" legacy is extremely important to them. The only reason their family is even on the map is due to their Great Grandfathers achievements. Otherwise, they'd be like the rest of us slogging away trying to earn a living. What has any of one of them really done to help the firm in development of new products using their brains? Look at their history since Hank the Deuces demise. They have struggled to keep afloat often making horrible product development decisions i.e. developing the Probe to replace the Mustang, elevating J. Nassar to President, replacing the Ford Oval with the Script, not incorporating Ford European designs into the product line-up that at the time were considered innovative, etc.
Please don't misunderstand what I'm trying to say. In terms of being good money and business managers I'll give them some credit a C. But in terms of individual contribution to direct new product development - Zero. One of their current board members - essentially flunked out at the age of 42 yrs. He had several golden opportunities handed to him and failed each time. He never started at bottom and worked his way up. Instead he started near the top and then fell off.
It will be interesting to see what the long term goal of acquiring the MCD is. Hopefully, they don't abandon the project midway should the expected head of steam doesn't materialize in the time frame they'd like. The Cities full recovery will take time and sums of money needed to revitalize the building - staggering.
