Marathon is Buying Oakwood neighborhood

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · November-03-11, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

On the other hand, when someone offers you $50K for your $10K home in Oakwood Heights, a lot of people will say "Thank God, now I can afford to move and buy a nicer house, for cash".

True. I see your point. Just hope they stay in the D.

**kryptonite** · November-04-11, 07:23 AM

I love driving in that neighborhood occasionally, it is one of Detroit's most unique areas. I hate to see it come to an end. But then again if I lived there would I turn down such an offer? To receive a good deal more than my home was worth to sell and move out?

Another thing I fear from this is say they offer 400 buyouts, and get maybe 300 takers. Of that 300 my best guess is 10-20 would stay somewhere in Detroit.

But the writing has been on the wall for decades, the future of Delray, Oakwood Hts, etc. does not include new residential and commercial. There is just too much pollution there, this is 2011 not 1911 and there is not a huge demand for factory workers to live in homes within a short distance of the thousands of factory jobs in the area. Oakwood Hts is a remnant of Detroit's past, and a bit of an anomaly. Still i hate to see it go.

**nativegirl** · November-04-11, 09:46 AM

Ok, even if a homeowner in Oakwood Heights doesn't want a mortgage why not rent in a good stable neighborhood like EEV, Rosedale, Sherwood Forest [[yap, there's house there for rent).

**jackie5275** · November-04-11, 10:06 AM

I had heard the going price was going be btwn $40-60K per house. Warrendale can use some new residents. The houses in that area aren't as old as Oakwood Hgts either.

**Det_ard** · November-04-11, 12:12 PM

Local TV news last night interviewed some residents as they left the Marathon informational meeting. The residents they interviewed were saying they wanted more than what was being offered, more like $90K said one woman.

This is not the Lotto. This is looking a gift horse in the mouth. If $50K - $60K isn't enough for your $10K house then stay. The woman who wanted $90K said her husband hasn't lived at home for three months because it wasn't healthy. But she was going to hold out for $90K or she wouldn't move. WTF?

**JBMcB** · November-04-11, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

Local TV news last night interviewed some residents as they left the Marathon informational meeting. The residents they interviewed were saying they wanted more than what was being offered, more like $90K said one woman.

According to Zillow, most homes in the area are worth between $20 and $30K. It doesn't look like any single-family house as sold for more than $25K. If they think they can get $90K, more power to them, but odds are the people who don't sell will be getting nothing.

**animatedmartian** · November-04-11, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

This is not the Lotto. This is looking a gift horse in the mouth. If $50K - $60K isn't enough for your $10K house then stay. The woman who wanted $90K said her husband hasn't lived at home for three months because it wasn't healthy. But she was going to hold out for $90K or she wouldn't move. WTF?

Hey, just because the cow has soiled milk doesn't mean you can't milk it until it's dead.

**Dexlin** · November-05-11, 05:19 PM

Yeah, god bless her for playing hard ball. This is how you negotiate, particular with a multi-national oil corporation with revenues in the tens-of-billions of dollars. We're not talking about some local mom-and-pop oil refinery, here; this isn't Marathon's first real estate rodeo. At the end of the day, she'll take $50,000 and be done with it just like the rest of them.

lilpup · November-05-11, 05:22 PM

If she holds out too long and becomes one of the last remaining few she won't even get that much.

**Curbed Detroit** · January-28-12, 01:31 PM

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...-buy-out-1.php

**Downriviera** · January-28-12, 08:30 PM

I don't think Marathon wants this neighborhood for a buffer or green zone. They want the access to the Rouge River.

SteveJ · January-28-12, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by Curbed Detroit

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...-buy-out-1.php

Read the article but why the would anyone from Brooklyn want to buy in Delray. I've been in the neighborhood a few times for a few hours and I always felt sorry for the residents. The pollution and the stench is beyond disgusting. Those homes aren't even worth $100. Nobody in their right mind would move there with all that pollution. I know old people can be stubborn but its time to shut down that neighborhood just for health reasons and 50k will buy a decent house in a better part of Detroit.

**RaumVogel** · January-29-12, 12:23 AM

Only people that have lived there for years could get used to that smell. They need to move, for their own health. It would be great if the people who fought hard against the criminals could band together in another part of the D.

**MikeM** · January-29-12, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by Downriviera

I don't think Marathon wants this neighborhood for a buffer or green zone. They want the access to the Rouge River.

They already have a terminal on the Rouge, just south of Fort.

**KOMPOST** · January-29-12, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by RaumVogel

Only people that have lived there for years could get used to that smell. They need to move, for their own health. It would be great if the people who fought hard against the criminals could band together in another part of the D.

Yeah, when will these citizens of the United States get it through their thick skulls: move out of your neighborhood when a corporation takes over. It's like if Verizon started buying up land around your neighborhood. You'd very quietly and cordially put your home up for sale and move.
Furthermore, I am so sick of the abuse corporations are taking lately. Jeez, all they want to do is buy up this land for next to nothing, pollute the living f*ck out of the air and land around it and turn record profits, all while lobbying for lower tax rates and no regulations. This is still a free country, right?
I agree. These residents should tuck their tails and leave.
I pledge allegiance to the...

SteveJ · January-29-12, 11:06 AM

I agree it sucks and this country is run by corporations... but the alternative is worse for these residents. Staying there just means breathing more crap in.

**Downriviera** · January-29-12, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by MikeM

They already have a terminal on the Rouge, just south of Fort.

Thats why I think they want the neighborhood, to build a large pipeline from the refinery to that terminal. Its a straight shot.

**MikeM** · January-29-12, 12:27 PM

What would they do with it? Ship product out or crude in?

**downtown_racine** · January-29-12, 01:00 PM

Thank GOD for first world problems, the schitt people will complain about in this country is ABSOLUTELY MIND BOGGLING.

**mikeg19** · January-29-12, 01:02 PM

Is the oil they refine shipped in through the Rouge already in tankers or is it shipped in trucks? I would think its tankers [[logically because of the volume they hold compared to a tanker truck), but I'm not familiar with Marathon's operation there. If they have access to the Rouge already, do they have a pipeline setup? And a bit off topic, but how big of a ship can the Rouge accommodate? It doesn't look that wide but I don't know the depth of the river either.

**MikeM** · January-29-12, 02:19 PM

I think the terminal on the Rouge is used for shipping out asphalt; not sure about other products. I thought most of the gasoline refined there was consumed locally and probably shipped by truck or pipeline to other local terminals. The river can probably handle most of the 600'-700' freighters on the lakes.

GUSHI · January-29-12, 03:29 PM

At least the city not going to have to pay to teardown all those empty houses houses in oakwod/delray,lookat the glass half full instead of half empty.

**Dexlin** · January-30-12, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by mikeg19

Is the oil they refine shipped in through the Rouge already in tankers or is it shipped in trucks? I would think its tankers [[logically because of the volume they hold compared to a tanker truck), but I'm not familiar with Marathon's operation there. If they have access to the Rouge already, do they have a pipeline setup? And a bit off topic, but how big of a ship can the Rouge accommodate? It doesn't look that wide but I don't know the depth of the river either.

Not sure about what is shipped out of the marine terminal, but you are right about the refinery. Most of the crude processed there is indeed used for local usage. And, as of 2008, Marathon was building a pipeline to bring in even more crude to the facility. The route of that pipeline, I have no idea.

The refinery expansion is part of the Detroit Heavy Oil Upgrade project, whose complete date is this year. Anyone know if this Canadian crude being pumped in is that nasty-assed tar and oil sands?

BTW, whatever reason they want the neighborhood for, it's pretty clear that they are increasing refining capacity, so no one should ultimately want to stick around an already dirty refinery refining even more crude. Whether it's some kind of conspiracy or not as Curbed is trying to paint it seems to me to be almost irrelevant considering that the result is no a larger refinery. This project is already happened, already approved in 2008, so what's going on, now, is simply formalizing it with the residents of the nearby neighborhood.