The new bank will replace a Fort Street facility that's more than 75 years old, which is located in the city's financial district. Bank branch manager Glenn Hansen says that building is "still sound, still in good shape," but doesn't allow for some of the new methods of operations the Fed would like to employ and some of the new security measures that the Fed wants at its facilities. Hansen says security concerns in the post-Sept. 11, 2001 world added about 10% in expenses to the project. The existing 275,000-sf building will be sold about a year after the new building is complete, in fall 2005, Hansen says.

Speaking at the groundbreaking, Michael Moskow, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said "this is the single largest investment for The Federal Reserve in at least 10 years." The Chicago district includes the metro area.

The bank's main operations include check clearing, currency processing, economic analysis and conferences. The existing local bank processes some two million checks and 3.5 million pieces of currency daily.

"This will be a 24-hour operation," Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said at the groundbreaking. "We can focus on this area for development. This is the beginning of a cohesive neighborhood." Moskow went on to say, "we will employ cutting edge technology for the vaults and include a state-of-the-art conference room which can hold 200 people."

Detroit's economy is "the 10th largest economy in the US," Kilpatrick said. "We have the 37th largest economy in the world. Detroit's economy is bigger than many country's economies."

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GlobeSt.com UPDATE: New Fed Building Under Construction

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