Michigan Central Station in Corktown has a new exclusive catering partner, and it’s a name the Detroit event circuit already knows well.
Continental, the Sterling Heights-based hospitality company, is now the official catering partner for all events at The Station. The deal covers food and beverage, catering, and full event services for every gathering hosted inside the restored 1913 landmark.
Continental’s private hospitality group runs two of Michigan’s better-known catering brands: Forte Belanger and Two Unique Catering. Between them, those brands have been working weddings, corporate functions, and fundraisers across the state for years. The new arrangement formalizes what was already happening on the ground. Since Michigan Central reopened in June 2024 after a six-year restoration led by Ford Motor Co., Continental’s brands had already been supporting a number of events at The Station before any exclusive agreement existed.
That informal relationship is now official.
“The demand to host events at The Station has been incredible since we opened our doors,” said Michael Kalt, chief commercial officer at Michigan Central. “Partnering with Continental allows us to scale our operations and keep up with that momentum.”
The scope here is wide. Continental will handle everything from small private gatherings to large-scale weddings and civic celebrations. Forte Belanger brings what the company describes as award-winning culinary work and deep experience running regional events of significant size. Two Unique Catering handles the more flexible, format-shifting side of the business, which matters for a venue that hosts everything from nonprofit galas to Fortune 100 corporate functions. Continental itself serves more than 3,000 clients, including Fortune 100 companies, across workplaces and landmark venues.
Big building. Lots of moving parts.
“This partnership reflects our ability to support events of every scale,” said Charlie Millerwise, president of dining and hospitality at Continental.
The Station is not a small venue to staff. The Michigan Central restoration cost hundreds of millions of dollars and took six years to complete before Ford cut the ribbon in the summer of 2024. Getting the event side of operations right matters as much as the architecture. For anyone who has walked through that main hall off Vernor Highway, the building sets expectations high before a single plate hits the table.
That’s exactly what Mya Robinson, head of events and visitor engagement at Michigan Central, said the partnership is designed to address. “When people host an event at The Station, we want the hospitality to be just as memorable as the building itself,” Robinson told DBusiness Magazine. “Bringing Continental on board allows us to offer our clients a higher standard of service from start to finish.”
Worth knowing: this arrangement covers events at The Station specifically. Forte Belanger and Two Unique Catering will keep running their own books independently, taking on weddings, fundraisers, and corporate work throughout Michigan outside of the Corktown venue. The exclusivity runs one direction. Continental is locked in at The Station. The Station is not locking Continental out of anywhere else.
The next chapter for the building is the NoMad Detroit hotel, a luxury brand under the Hilton umbrella that is expected to occupy the top five floors and part of the main level starting in 2027. The hotel will offer nearly 180 guestrooms, including 30 suites, on floors 14 through 18. Those floors have never been occupied in the building’s history. NoMad is expected to handle its own food and beverage services separately from the Continental catering arrangement, though that has not been finalized publicly.
Floors 14 through 18. Never occupied. That detail alone should put the scale of this restoration in perspective for anyone still underestimating what Ford pulled off on Michigan Avenue.
The Corktown address has carried symbolic weight in Detroit for a long time, but the operational infrastructure behind The Station is now catching up to the mythology. An exclusive catering partner with two established regional brands, a luxury hotel coming online in 2027, and a venue that has been hosting corporate and civic events continuously since June 2024 adds up to something more durable than a ribbon-cutting story.
Groups interested in booking private events at The Station can reach Continental directly at [email protected]. The Michigan Central website also carries event inquiry information for organizations looking to use the space. For a broader look at Continental’s regional footprint, their full client and venue list is available at continentalserves.com.
