Packard Plant to live on

[plwindish]

An article in the Hemmings Daily tells a Chicago based developer has agreed to purchase the Packard plant and the 40 acres it sits on for nearly a million dollars in unpaid back taxes. The developer plans to renovate the vacant and deteriorated buildings into a commercial, residential and entertainment complex. Albert Kahn Associates, the firm that had built the factory in 1903, has been hired to do the building transformation. The new buyers are interested in preserving the reinforced concrete construction of the buildings as well as use the brand identity of the Packard name in the project.
(My editorial comment here) - Hopefully the city will use the money to pay some of their backlogged mountain of unpaid bills.

[tjanowia]

To bad he wasn't around before they tore down the engineering building in South Bend. Could've been restored to be really neat. About all that's left is administration building and body plant out of about one hundred acre complex.

[sweetolbob]

I hope for the sake of Detroit and the folks in that area that it will be successful. Let's check back in a couple of years, until then, I'm from Missouri.

Just to many failed projects of similar nature have met an unsuccessful end in Detroit, Flint and Saginaw.


Bob

[Dan White]

Looks like the developer did not follow thru!

http://www.leftlanenews.com/packard-plant-auctioned-starting-at-21000.html

[Swifster]

it's smart business. Why pay a $1M if you can get it for $21K...?

[BobPalma]

Paul, the deal cited in the OP fell through.

Here's the latest:

http://www.freep.com/article/20131008/BUSINESS06/310080146/Detroit-Packard-Plant-first-bidder-21-000

BP