A member of the international business community has passed away.
Manuel "Matty" Moroun, the billionaire whose company has owned the Ambassador Bridge for over 40 years, died Sunday. The Detroit News, citing Moroun's family, reported that Moroun died of congestive heart failure at his home in Grosse Pointe Shores.
Moroun was 93 years old.
A grandson of Lebanese immigrants, Moroun was born and raised in Detroit, the oldest of four children. He attended University of Detroit Jesuit High School, then the University of Notre Dame.
Moroun built his fortune with a trucking company, and in the late 1950s, purchased a quarter-share of the Ambassador Bridge to expand his trucking business more extensively into Canada. By the late 1970s, his company had owned the entire span.
In addition to the Ambassador Bridge and other properties, Moroun also owned the historic building that once housed the Michigan Central Station, Detroit's largest railway depot. Moroun sold the building two years ago to the Ford Motor Company, which is transforming it into a mixed-use complex and the centrepiece of the automaker's southwest Detroit presence.
Forbes magazine had listed Moroun as the 342nd richest man in the United States as recently as 2015. As of Monday, the magazine listed his net worth at $1.6 billion.
Moroun's business presence on both sides of the river was not without controversy. His company had aggressively lobbied against a new international crossing, which will become the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Moroun had wanted to build a twin span right next to the current bridge.
The bridge company had bought a group of homes at the Windsor end of the Ambassador Bridge, then demolished them to clear the way for a possible Canadian approach to a twin span. In 2016, the U.S. Coast Guard had approved the company's construction plans, and the company said in 2017 that the Canadian government had issued it a construction permit, which caused concern among City of Windsor officials and neighbourhood advocates.
In 2012, Moroun spearheaded a Michigan ballot proposal that would have required Michigan voters to approve state funding for any new international crossing. It was defeated.
The Moroun family had also filed several lawsuits to stop the construction of the GHIB. Most recently, in 2018, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling in favour of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), which had been buying land in Detroit to build the GHIB.
Moroun is survived by his wife and his son Matthew. Funeral arrangements have not been worked out.