Avoiding A Brazilian Detroit

The country's Motor City is losing plants and jobs in a sign of manufacturing decline

- Shannon Sims , Leonardo Lara and Simone Iglesias

In 2019, when Ford shut down its auto plant in São Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of São Paulo, it marked the end of an era. Almost exactly 100 years earlier, Henry Ford, trying to dodge a British monopoly on rubber, founded Fordlândia deep in the Brazilian Amazon. Beset by tropical pests and worker revolts, the project failed, and the town was abandoned in 1934. Today, tourists can visit the derelict rubber operation in Pará state. In São Bernardo, the corporate ruins are not open to the public, but in mid-February, this reporter got a tour.

Picking his way through piles of broken concrete, abandoned hard hats, and cracked safety goggles in suede designer shoes, Mauro Cunha Silvestri swept his hand over a horizon of midcentury buildings as he explained how he "hunts” for old manufacturing sites to transform into luxury high-rises and shopping malls.

São Bernardo's residents described the closure of the Ford plant, which employed some 2,700 workers, as a “trauma” and a “psychological hit” in interviews. For Silvestri, a partner at developer Construtora São José, it's a dazzling opportunity.