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...were ANY efforts made to sell it? Since the rest of Detroit was still (relatively speaking) in its heyday, could no other automobile manufacturer make use of such a facility?

i was under the impression that was the main reason for the Conner move. Those "experts" from the industry coming from other mfgs that Nance had gathered apparently convinced him that the factory was by then quite old in some parts and multistory buildings were considered costly and inefficient. If that was the predominant thinking by the rest, then I would imagine not many offers were made.

In a similar query: Were any of the other defunct or surplus mfg facilities such as Hudson, Nash, Kaiser, Willys etc etc abandoned like Packard's or did they find a useful life.

Studebaker had a huge complex and how much of that was abandoned right off or was it always used for something until age caught up with it. There were small warehouse or retail uses and of course, the Avanti production for a few years but that was relatively small for such a huge place.

Packard was making plans to leave East Grand Boulevard before things turned bad. There was discussion to build a body and car plant in Utica next to the Defense work-turned driveline production plant (AKA V-8 engine plant), this plant would have been optimized for production of the never-realized AMC "big car" line, not unlike what GM did in the "BOC" consolidation.
No major manufacturer (OEM) wanted "old" plants like the Packard plant, and the war left them with more production capability than they could use. They had multi-story plants of their own they would all gradually replace, some (Chrysler) taking decades to do this.
Just before the war the single-floor plant became the standard, Chrysler built plants in Detroit and Warren MI that set the standard, Warren truck (Chrysler) was considered a landmark design by Albert Kahn. Once the war started and the additional production facilities were needed asap the single floor plant became the norm. Packard somewhat bucked the trend by adding on to the EGB plant with multi-story buildings, a reaction to the lack of available land by that point in time. The newer plants built for the war were built further out from urban centers, Warren was still quite rural in 1940, Utica was like being up north in the woods!

As for the other independents and their plants:

The Hudson Plant on East Jefferson was vacated by AMC in '56-'57 and demolished in 1960

Kaiser-Fraiser used the (Ford-built) Willow Run (MI)bomber plant, GM bought it after KF went belly-up and produced Hydramatic transmissions, a easy solution to the devistating fire that destroyed the Livonia MI Hydramatic in 1953. It was valuable to K-F and GM because it fit the modern design, a single floor plant.

Nash autos were built in Kenosha, WI (hence the term "Kenosha Cadillacs")and AMC built cars there until Chrysler bought them in 1987, They finally demolished that plant, Chrysler still operates a (newer) engine plant in Kenosha.

Willys were produced in Toledo OH, and that plant was converted over to the production of Jeeps when the US Government (War dept.) awarded the production of Jeeps to Willys-Overland over American Bantam, who designed the Jeep in answer to a war dept. RFB. The Bantam design was chosen, but that firm could not produce the volume of Jeeps the War Dept. needed so the contract was given to Willys. Willys could only make so many Jeeps given their facilities and Ford was contracted to build Jeeps at the Rouge plant under licence to W-O. Ford introduced one production effiency--the grille on the original W-O Jeep resembled jail cell bars, and was made the same way, Ford brought the slotted, stamped grille that is so much the image of the Jeep today.
The Willys plant produced Jeeps up until about the 2005 model year, and was closed and demolished by Chrysler.
I attended the control demolition of the Willys-Jeep administration building in 1980, a large structure.

Great overview, MrPushbutton.

Having worked in the field for Chrysler for a few years (a whole 'nuther lifetime ago), let me add that after Chrysler bought AMC, they moved M-body (Fifth Ave, Diplomat, GranFury) production from their St. Louis plant to Kenosha for 1987-89. However, they must have been looking for sufficient reason to shutdown that facility as they had us writing product quality reports on every Kenosha-built Chrysler we could find on the dealer lots. Ironically, those cars were built better by former AMC workers than any M-body I'd seen that was built by Chrysler workers.

Still, after M-body production ended, they bulldozed the Kenosha plant. What a waste of good talent.

Chrysler writing quality reports? file that under "wishful thinking" window dressing.

We had to write Product Quality Reports on a "random" sample in our districts (a couple of cars per dealer visit) for new models - annually and any mid-year intros. Frankly, I don't think those reports accomplished much - except that we'd get called on the carpet for badmouthing vehicles or if a real POS slipped past us.

The M-bodies were a special mission - a witch hunt, IMHO.

Some automakers wasted a lot of time and money at the wrong end of the quality equation (and still do).

After a lifetime of new Chrysler products with one GM and AMC car sprinkled in early on, I finally switched after my 1998 Concorde. The GM car was particularly abominable, a 72 Buick Centurion that ate both a motor and transmission with less than 20 miles on it, and a continuing host of electrical problems. While a very pleasant car to drive, the Concorde ate power steering racks, 4 in 60,000 miles. Not wanting to buy imports I switched in 2008 to a Lincoln MKZ, great car thus far, time will tell.... Probably my most reliable and trouble-free vehicle was a 1988 Jeep Cherokee, 140,000 miles and never a hiccup or repair.

Great historical summary, Mr. PB. Thanks!

I've had good luck with Chrysler products overall...and actually have a GM orphan now, too (Saturn SL2)...

I've always had pretty good luck with Chrysler products--even in the 80's with the early K cars. Others did not so maybe it is luck of the draw. The company experimented with Ford for a couple of cycles and then back to Chrysler. The latest change is to Toyota hybrids so we'll see how that works out. I'm hanging it up so won't be involved with those but will be interesting to see if they save what they think they will.