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Packard Plant owner makes U-turn on ambitious redevelopment vision; sweeping demolitions planned

The owner of the Packard Plant has placed the property up for sale or lease, throwing in the towel on his original ambitious but unrealized redevelopment plans for it.

Details here:
crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/packard-pl ... =20201029&utm_content=hero-readmore

You heard it here first.

So glad we are woring to save the Proving Grounds

--Roger--

Quote:

As I've been saying all along. This just wasn't going to happen. I've had friends watching the site and the goings-on (or lack thereof).

There was no understanding of the reality of the site and the area. There was no money. There was no audience. And there were no angels.The owner kept making promises that were no way happening.

Poor Dominic must be extra-angsting... wherever he is in the universe. Heartbreaking on top of heartbreaking. I lay all this entire nightmare at the feet of the people running the City of Detroit.

Of course it could only come to this. As the Steely Dan song says..."These things are gone forever... Over a long time ago..."

By the way. thanks, but the link here does not work unless one is a paid member of Crain's news feeds.

Hello Leeedy,

Sorry about the link not working. I'll fix that first thing in the morning. Worth reading the entire article.

--Roger--

I pretty much agree with Leeedy - in Detroit, supply of vacant property far exceeds demand. Perhaps the exceptions are adjacent to landlocked ventures looking to expand. Considering demolition and remediation costs,I have a hard time seeing how someone could make a viable venture of it if given the site.

Sorry, but the forum won't let me post a PDF file of the article from Crain's Detroit Business - says "detecting a foreign object" or something like that.

Here are links to the two Detroit Newspapers.

Detroit News: Grand plan to redevelop Packard plant is scrapped; eyesore goes back on market
detroitnews.com/story/business/2020/10/2 ... ins-in-detroit-scrapped/6076466002/

Detroit Free Press: Packard Plant owner switching gears from rehab to demolition
freep.com/story/money/business/2020/10/29/packard-plant-demolition/6077326002/

Simple economics. Can't save them all especially in this current environment. Even good plans/performance can fail due to outside factors, aka, risk.
I guess this guy bought with his $/ft2 eyes and not with a sense of reality. Isn't real estate credo, location, location, location?

ZOMBIE properties are the bane of any city, Detroit has more than its share. Huge, purpose-built production facilities are the worst, notoriously difficult and costly to repurpose. It took decades for the Studebaker factory complex to be either razed or some few given new life, but only a small percentage of all what was.

Not familiar with the needs there, but could the acreage be turned to urban gardening/farming once the buildings are gone? Or a public green space...Packard Park?

Steve

The Packard Plant is about 40 acres, so would make a pretty large urban garden or park. I'd think that ground contamination would have to be checked first, as in any industrial site of that age. But it's not in a very desireable neighborhood.

For a commercial venture, it's not far from I-94.

But for any of these , the value is less than that of vacant land - the buildings are mostly badly deteriorated.

It should be noted that the (former) plant for sale is north of E. Grand Blvd. The area south of EGB is owned by the City of Detroit.