Ford has announced it would relocate its world headquarters for the first time in nearly 70 years, moving from the iconic “Glass House” at 1 American Road to a new, purpose-built complex on its Dearborn product development campus in November 2025.
The company set out the plan in an internal announcement today, adding that the wider Dearborn site would be designated the Henry Ford II World Center.
Ford stated that the four-storey, 2.1-million-square-foot building at 20901 Oakwood Boulevard would open as “Ford World Headquarters” and anchor a consolidated campus bringing corporate leadership, design and engineering teams into closer proximity.
The project, which broke ground in December 2020 and is scheduled for final completion in 2027, is intended to place some 14,000 employees within a 15-minute walk of the main building to speed collaboration.
Key facilities include six design studios for confidential reviews, a unified design showroom with 10 vehicle turntables and a 64-foot micro-LED screen, more than 300 technology-enabled meeting rooms, and a 160,000-square-foot food hall open to Ford employees.
The company said the building can accommodate vehicles almost anywhere inside to streamline product reviews.
Ford added that the headquarters was designed to WELL standards and as a net-zero energy building.
Measures include a central energy plant for campus hot water and steam and participation in DTE Energy’s MI Green Power programme, with a target to use about 50% less energy than the previous product development centre.
The campus layout also adds 12 acres of green space and more than doubles the tree canopy to create a walkable environment.
The company said operations would leave the Glass House in the first half of 2026, after which the building would be decommissioned and demolished over roughly 18 months.
Ford said it would retain ownership of the site and was working with the City of Dearborn on future uses that would serve employees and neighbours.
Ford said the new headquarters stands on the former Product Development Centre, opened in 1953, where vehicles such as the Mustang, Thunderbird, Continental, F-Series, Ranger and GT were developed.
Ford’s relocation comes as General Motors is also uprooting its HQ from the Renaissance Center to a new office in downtown Detroit, with the move already in progress as it seeks to modernise its facilities and support strategic goals.
