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I won't believe it until I see it, but the wrecking ball is supposedly coming to East Grand Boulevard. The site for this article contains links to other articles about the plant, as well as a couple of slideshows:

http://www.freep.com/article/20120301/NEWS01/120301073

Packard Motor ruins to be demolished
11:35 PM, March 1, 2012

By Bill Laitner
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The man who Detroit officials say is responsible for the aging Packard Motor Car plant - which has become a worldwide symbol of the city's decay - is on the verge of demolishing it.

Dominic Cristini, who has claimed ownership of the disputed property on the city's east side, has had contractors surveying the industrial ruins for four months and is merely awaiting demolition permits, said Mike Carlomusto, owner of AVC Services in Harrison Township.

"We've got big lights going up next week (and) we're going to put fencing all around it" to keep scavengers out after razing of the historic Albert Kahn complex begins, Carlomusto said Thursday.

"It's 3.3 million square feet. That's a lot to take down," he said, although Cristini expects that the value of recovered scrap metal will cover the millions of dollars for the demolition tab.

Yes, a similar story is in the Detroit News:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120302/BIZ/203020372/Owner-demolish-iconic-Packard-Plant?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

The purported owner of the Packard Plant says he is days away from starting to barricade and fence off the 3.5-million-square-foot eyesore as a part of his plan to demolish one of the city's most iconic ruins.

Dominic Cristini said Thursday he has hired a demolition firm and plans on applying for permits in the next several days to secure the sprawling, dilapidated plant on East Grand Boulevard near Concord. Cristini, who claims he's the sole owner through his company, Bioresource, said he wants to start the demolition process within a month.

"I am going to demolish the building," Cristini said. "It's unsafe, and it's got to come down. I don't want anybody to get hurt. I am just trying to do the right and responsible thing."

He estimates it will cost $6 million to raze the Albert Kahn-designed plant built by the luxury automaker that went out of business in 1958, adding that recovered scrap metal will offset the cost.

Cristini said they may try to save portions of the plant for historical value but isn't sure whether that is possible.

Detroit officials said Thursday the plant has already gone through demolition hearings and was ordered down in April 2011.

well looks like i'm SOL for seeing this place, unless someone pays my air fair.....LMAO!

ah well, i guess i can always go see the huge vast open space it once occupied.

i hope someon takes time lapse of the place being taken down.

you suppose this means that the doors i have will go up in value? hmmmm maybe.

Hank

It will be a sad day when it comes down, but dare I say it's been even sadder to watch the continual desecration and decay over the past decade or so.

So guys, all the more reason to give your support to the Proving Grounds - at least one corporate Packard facility is in the hands of the hobby and likely to stay that way if we continue to support it's needs.

There is an opportunity here. The local regions of PI and PAC need to get involved and raise awareness in the Detroit community that some parts of the building complex need to be preserved. The city, the library, museum and Proving Grounds could be talking tax deduction, some incentive, to Cristini to save not only a few bricks, but the portico, doors, other iconic or uncommon pieces of equipment. Restoration is what we do.

Orchestrating a demonstration, a means of calling the attention of the community to the importance of Packard, its significance in the industry, is certainly possible. Then using Packard cars to encircle city hall, caravan, or Something to get community support!

Wieden & Kennedy, the ad agency doing the "Detroit" commercials for Chrysler, is hq'd in Portland. Perhaps they can leverage this for Chrysler, leverage the demolition, but first recall, as proof of what Detroit was able to do in the past, show some great cars of the past no longer made, but Chrysler surviving...and now with the demolition there is the passing of the old giving way to a new Detroit. Some spin like that. Perhaps if Packards were used, it could pay for acquiring a few things that need to be preserved. But I think the rest of us rely on regional Packard owners/enthusiasts to take some kind of action before it's all dust.

Aren't we the ones who can look at a pile of burned out rust and see a magnificent '34 Twelve at Pebble Beach?

I'll call W&K and see how far I can get. But I hope this sparks not only some thought, but action. The weather will be getting better soon.

Joe

okay detroit peeps....where is a nice place to stay? my wife is afraid all of detroit is the ghetto, but thats about all we see on tv and media.

i think i can fly/hotel/car for around 1500 and just pinch it.

i would fly in on a friday and back out on Sunday.

just long enough to see the plant and the proving grounds.

and dang Joe...you GO BUDDY! i like!

Hank

Hello Joe:

Hmmm... are you aware what the "..local region of PAC" (its called Motor City Parkards) has been doing to save not only the PPG, but also the PMCC Plant? By the way, there is no "..local PI region."

I am just a small cog in the wheel, but I have been working on committees to save the PMCC 15+ years and the PPG 10+ years.

MCP has over 200 family memberships, but we cannot do this alone - it needs to be a NATIONAL effort. That is why the Packard Motor Car Foundation exists. Many MCP members also do double duty and do volunteer work for the PMCF at the PPG.

We are just lucky enough to be living here and to have the privilege to serve and work there to try and save the place.

You too can get involved. Look at the PMCF websitehttp://www.packardmotorfdn.org/our_trustees.htm Click onto "Our Board of Trustees" and you'll see there are Packard enthusiasts from New Jersey to California and points in between. Anybody/Everybody is encouraged to help. You can do a lot with a computer and a phone and you don't have to be in Detroit to do it.

Has everyone bought a PMCC souvenier wood floor block??

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8511&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

If not, then now is a good time to do it.

It will take a long time to demo the PMCC Plant. Consider this my personal invitation to attend the PAC National Meet in the Motor City in June 2013.

Best, --Roger--

haven't you heard....world ends this year lol!

you really think it will take them that long...in the article they were talking about fencing it off in the next few weeks. i'd like to actually go inside it a bit.

and i did buy a block ;0)

Hank

I don't mean to be on a rant here, but many of the historical artifacts have been sold off by the owners or his partners.

One of the two sets of doors was bid up at auction to $160,000 to a private collector from Texas who made his millions as a personal injury attorney so money was NOT an object with him. He then went on to buy as much of the sandstone/limestone artifacts as he could - including the radiator shells mounted on the bridge over East Grand Blvd.

He set a high bar on the prices for the artifacts and that made it only that much more difficult for the PMCF to cut a deal for the second set of doors. That second set of doors now reside at the PPG. If you want to save artifacts, then it takes money - bottomline.

Rant over.

--Roger--