In Detroit, Creating a New Hub for Innovation

David Medina Álvarez hopped on a four-wheeled vehicle that looked like a speeder bike from Star Wars.Donning a helmet and goggles, the 25-year-old designer zoomed down 15th Street, driving alongside the massive Michigan Central train station, built in 1913, which had just reopened after a gleaming $1 billion renovation.Rather than Detroit’s past, however, Mr.

Medina Álvarez represents the city’s future.He was riding an electric all-terrain vehicle of his own design called the EQUAD.

It’s like those used by police to patrol vacation resorts and retirement communities, and which adventure seekers ride off-roading over dunes, mountain roads and in some lawbreaking instances, city streets.Starting with $2,000 in family money, Mr.Medina Álvarez and a team of nine people are developing a production version at LIVAQ, one of 103 start-ups at Newlab, a 270,000-square-foot mobility-focused incubator set in a former book depository designed by the architect Albert Kahn.

(“Livaq” is a pre-Hispanic Quechuan word to describe the explosion created by a bolt of lightning.)Ford Motor Company bought the vacant building in 2018, when it purchased the neighboring train station, and began renovations.Since the site opened last year, Newlab projects have received nearly $700 million in funding, although none has yet reported revenue as a stand-alone company.Nearly 130 years ago, Henry Ford tested his first automobile on Detroit’s streets, helping to usher in its future.

Now, an incubator less than two miles from that test drive is moving the city even farther forward.Resembling something out of Silicon Valley or Brooklyn, where a similar Newlab incubator operates, the three-story building has long hallways and glass-windowed work spaces.One floor features a row of trees in big planters.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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