Last Updated: September 20. 2010 1:00AM
Detroit charges Packard agent
City claims structural steel was being removed from closed auto plant without proper permits
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The city is accusing a representative with the long-closed Packard Motor Car Co. plant of sending a crew in to illegally cut steel beams from the decrepit facility late last month.
But Peter Adamo says workers were only cleaning up debris from illegal scrappers, preparing the site for the owners' planned demolition of the plant in about a year.
The city charged Adamo of Clarkston with 23 misdemeanors on Aug. 30, after inspectors found a crew removing structural steel without demolition permits, city officials said. Police impounded the crew's equipment, including a truck, a track loader and a Dumpster packed with beams. Each misdemeanor carries up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.
Adamo, who said he is an agent for a Packard owner he won't identify, said he doesn't understand why the city charged him because he wasn't on-site at the time of the inspection.
"They are just out for us," said Adamo, a Detroit real estate speculator. "The contractor was just hired to do a cleanup. The Packard is going to be coming down."
"The end result is to make that a viable property."
The 100-year-old plant is one of Detroit's most notorious symbols of decline and despair. Its ownership has been disputed in court for years. This summer, the city pledged to force the owners to either demolish or secure it.
Adamo said the city's threat is not why the owners are starting the process to bring the plant down, which he estimates could take two to three years.
The crew was preparing the site for a concrete crusher, Adamo said. He said the owners want to separate out the concrete and brick remains of the plant so the material can be crushed and sold for road material.
It was Mike Stramaglia's crew that was on-site doing the work. Stramaglia said they were only picking up the materials scrappers left behind. He contended officers let trespassers stay on the Packard grounds while they were impounding the crew's equipment near Concord and Frederick.
"All we were doing was cleaning up what they already took down," Stramaglia said.
Now he wants to sue the city for damages because he's been unable to work without his pickup.
City officials say they won't release the equipment until a judge orders it. A court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 14.
Karla Henderson, the city's group executive for planning and facilities, wrote in an e-mail that the Packard owners haven't applied for any demolition permits and called it "one of Detroit's most troubling symbols of blight."
Demolition hearings are being scheduled for this fall, said city spokesman Dan Lijana.
The plant has gotten more attention in recent weeks after a local art gallery removed a mural painted at the plant reportedly by famed graffiti artist Banksy. One of the Packard owners, Romel Casab, is suing 555 Nonprofit Studio and Gallery to reclaim the artwork. Bioresource Inc. claimed in the lawsuit that it owns the Packard Plant and that Casab is the company's president.
After the lawsuit was filed, Detroit officials threatened to demolish the plant and bill Casab.
Casab has been rumored to be the owner of the plant for years. But prior to the lawsuit, the only owner or agent of Bioresource on record was Dominic Cristini, who is in prison in California on Ecstasy charges.
In 2007, the Michigan State Supreme Court denied the city of Detroit's appeal of a lower court's decision that put the property back in the hands of the private owners.
The city had wanted to clear the 35-acre site and sell it to developers.
Movie crews also are on site filming "Transformers 3."
Adamo and Stramaglia were among a group of construction and wrecking companies ordered to pay a record $36 million fine in 2002 for illegally dumping construction waste in Macomb, Wayne and Barry counties.
cmacdonald@detnews.com [[313) 222-2396
