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Former Packard (Merlin) Building is Leased

crainsdetroit.com/article/20140817/NEWS/ ... s-into-large-space-at-packard-plant

"As President Rick Portwood's business expanded in the last 18 months, he began looking for more space in the city. He found it in the 255,000-square-foot former Packard Building No. 22 -- which is separate from the part of the plant purchased by Peruvian developer Fernando Palazuelo last year -- that was built in 1941."

"The company, which makes event props, rental office furniture and other products, expects to keep its showroom in the Fort Street building while moving company inventory, offices and manufacturing to the Packard building starting by the beginning of October."

Too busy to add my comments now, but I will have more later.

--Roger--

Good news about building 22. I didn't know that it was owned seperately from the rest of the plant. Also glad to hear there is an apparent shortage of large industrial spaces in Detroit. Someone must be moving in.

The local news had another interview with Palazuelo tonight. He estimates 15 years and $400M to rennovate the plant. He says he has met with some of the scrappers who have been tearing the plant apart and is offering them paid jobs to clean up the rubble, instead of reducing the plant to more rubble.

Video here.

wxyz.com/news/detroits-packard-plant-owner-shares-his-vision

Packard owner settles land disputes, expects to fire up cranes next month

freep.com/article/20140820/BUSINESS06/30 ... ard-Plant-Fernando-Palazuelo-update

Some quotes from the article:

"Palazuelo envisions restoring some of the original Packard structure and redeveloping it for commercial, industrial and cultural uses. He plans to apply for historic and brownfield tax credits to help pay for the project, which could cost up to $300 million and take decades to complete."

"He acknowledged Tuesday for the first time that he probably lacked free-and-clear title to the vast and crumbling factory ruins until just a month ago. Palazuelo said he reached a deal in July with a former owner, Dominic Cristini, who came forward with a claim that he was still the owner because the county auction didn't succeed in fully extinguishing his ownership interests."

"Palazuelo said he struck deals last month with Cristini as well as 17 creditors to Cristini's former company, Bioresource. Palazuelo would not reveal the amounts paid or terms of the deals, but he said he's confident he now has clear title."

"Palazuelo, however, is still in talks with the City of Detroit over ownership of a single key parcel that was left out of the auction last year. Palazuelo has said he didn't realize until after the auction that the parcel was missing from the deal."

When I read this last post, it sounds to me that the guy has a very sloppy legal team (if he has 1 at all)

It does sound a bit like the S-P merger surprises doesn't it. It also sounds like Detroit may not have it's act together -- or maybe not enough envelopes under the table were offered.

I would think a municipality that was serious about maximizing a famous asset and attracting a quality redevelopment would have all the needed parcels identified, grouped, foreclosed and packaged with no surprises or separate negotiations needed for a potential buyer.

["I would think a municipality that was serious about maximizing a famous asset and attracting a quality redevelopment would have all the needed parcels identified, grouped, foreclosed and packaged with no surprises or separate negotiations needed for a potential buyer."]

You're not from around here are you? There is a reason the City of Detroit is bankrupt.

No, not from around there and it does take a lot to believe how bad it must be. From what I remember in the papers, guess the fiasco and sad state of the whole transaction should not be a surprise -- but it does boggle the mind.

I was half joking with the comment alluded to in the first paragraph but now that I think about it, isn't the last Detroit mayor in the cross bar hotel because of something like those under the table envelopes.

Unfortunately we have a lot of the same fiascos here except here the taxpayer usually has to bail out developers because the city council was promised the moon and guaranteed loans that mostly went sideways.

I was half joking with the comment alluded to in the first paragraph but now that I think about it, isn't the last Detroit mayor in the cross bar hotel because of something like those under the table envelopes.

Given the former Mayor, and several cronies in the slammer ("ran the city as a criminal enterprise" said the Federal prosecutor), a former councilwoman now on parole after doing time for taking bribes, and several officials from county government also in the jug, crumbling infrastructure and deplorable city services, Motown starts to look like a third world country.

There has been some improvement lately. Street lights are now working that had not worked in years. Police and EMS have new vehicles, donated by local big money types.

The report in Crain's about the tennant for building 22 said it's getting hard to find large commercial properties available in the city also indicates that maybe the decades long outflow of people and business might be reversing.