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Fellow tycoon Warren Buffet also had a 25 per cent share of the bridge. But in 1979, Moroun purchased the bridge outright and took full control.
According to Moroun, his goal with the bridge purchase was only to get his trucks moving across the border smoothly.
Truck traffic at the bridge soared under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Central Transport bought out more and more other trucking firms until Moroun’s business interests stretched overseas and around the world.
By the mid-2000s, Moroun’s empire included more than 100 companies and affiliates across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
His vast real estate holdings made him the second-largest property owner in Michigan, behind only the state government itself.
Moroun was also believed to be the third-biggest property owner in the city of Detroit.
When Moroun spoke to the Star in 2006, he was tiring of his reputation as a pirate in business, and suggested he wanted to be considered a builder of the local and national economies.
“You know, when you get my age, you start to think a little bit about how you will be remembered,” Moroun said at the time.
—with files by Dave Battagello
