Packard Plant sold... for OVER $6,000,000 [Update: No it isn't]

**softailrider** · October-31-13, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by 401don

According to Crain's, Mr. Hults' plans include a "very, very high-level hotel." Yeah, I've always thought that site was ripe for a luxury hotel. This really does get more laughable by the minute.

If they over book that high level hotel, they could send guests over to the Packard Motel - it's right nearby. If that gets sold out they could go to the Pink Inn on 14th Street right near where I-94 cuts in. That's just a 8 -10 minute expressway ride.

**Jimaz** · October-31-13, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

There's ALREADY one "very, very high-level hotel" right there....

Street View links always help.

What?! No pool?

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · October-31-13, 03:34 PM

I'm starting to wish an asteroid would just crash into the place.

I don't know financial numbers, but I have to think there are several [[beyond just fixing the buildings) obstacles to both financing and implementing a plan for the Packard site.

1) There is in all likelihood asbestos, lead, and manufacturing chemicals all over the place [[judging by other old manufacturing sites). That takes time and money to take care of; the exact time and money won't be known until the work is underway. A developer could start the work, spend millions, and then realize that it will cost much more than they budgeted for.

2) Because the site is enormous, you can't start small. No one would want to live or work in a nice space in the middle of ruins. Renovations and development at the site will be of little value until the whole site is reliably underway. It's the prototype of a "go big or go home" project.

3) Unlike industrial sites along the river or on the fringe of downtown/ Corktown, the Packard Plant is not bordering a cool or asset-filled neighborhood. The Packard site would be the attraction, when it's done. Until and unless it's done, it is isolated from anywhere you'd want to be.

4) The government would need to assist with infrastructure money [[steets, sidewalks, lights in the area; improved mass transit in and around the site, etc). It would also be helpful for the city/county to assemble vacant parcels in the area, so that the Packard redevelopment could act as a catalyst in the general area. Ideally the redevelopment of the Packard Plant would be an anchor to a revitalized area, not a pretty island in the middle of blight.

To successfully redevelop the Packard site, there would need to be a confident entrepreneur with the money, vision, and perseverance to develop the whole place, and on a relatively rapid schedule. A half-finished site would be totally vacant. I don't know if there is a person/company who could do that. Even those billionaires we talk about might not be the right choice; they have other places they can make more money, and change in the city, more quickly.

If a serious development isn't sealed and underway in year, the site should be demo'd at taxpayer expense, and the land sold clear and free or donated to one of our universities on the condition they develop it.

Just my thoughts.

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · October-31-13, 04:09 PM

It's being reported now that Hults has until tomorrow to come up with a $100,000 down payment by 3pm tomorrow. I think anyone scratching around for $100,000 lacks the ability to raise the hundreds of millions the project will cost. If Hults does land the site, we will be debating what should be done with the site 10 years from now.

**townonenorth** · October-31-13, 04:54 PM

Anyplace downwind of the incinerator is probably not worth the money to buy. I guess that maybe the bidders never got a whiff of the odors from that site. Or maybe the effects don't reach that far? I haven't spent enough time at the Packard to have a really informed opinion of the air quality at the site. All I know is that within a few blocks of the incinerator, there are days it reeks to high heaven.

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · October-31-13, 05:00 PM

A little ignorant here. Where is there an incinerator?

**townonenorth** · October-31-13, 05:03 PM

Down the road about 1.4 miles from the front door of the Packard.

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · October-31-13, 06:14 PM

Hmmm. Also abuts railroad tracks, expressway, near large active auto plant. Is there a landfill nearby to make it perfect? My brother lives in Canton, and on the way to his house we pass a trailer park [[I have NOTHING against trailer parks) that is located with the expressway on one side, the dump on another, and railroad tracks in the third.

**KJ5** · November-01-13, 12:28 AM

Originally Posted by softailrider

Fisher Building looks fantastic - every time I walk through that building I fall in love with the place all over again.

The Guardian too. I feel transported every time I walk in there. There's actually lots of places in Detroit that don't look fucked up. Enough to fill another thread.

**mikeg19** · November-01-13, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn

It's being reported now that Hults has until tomorrow to come up with a $100,000 down payment by 3pm tomorrow. I think anyone scratching around for $100,000 lacks the ability to raise the hundreds of millions the project will cost. If Hults does land the site, we will be debating what should be done with the site 10 years from now.

I agree with your entire statement, besides the part about him debating what will be done with tit for ten years. I believe the terms and conditions state that the developer has 6 months to secure and begin cleanup of the property, otherwise it reverts back to the city for ownership. Even if the foreign guy from South America gets the plant, he stated it would take roughly a decade to have the property redeveloped.

I think that a lot of us can agree, we all hope that Hultz doesn't pay up and the Peruvian guy lands the plant. At least he has a very successful track record of rehabbing buildings.

**finster** · November-01-13, 07:28 AM

Have to agree with all of you that the Puruvian guy at least seems semi-legitimate but I do find it telling that these investors all seem to be outsiders with stars in their eyes about saving the once great Detroit. Maybe some fresh eyes are needed and just what the doctor ordered [[no pun intended) but their has to be a reason anyone with any real experience around here wouldn't touch that place with a ten foot poll if it was handed to them on a silver platter.

**corktownyuppie** · November-01-13, 04:00 PM

http://www.freep.com/article/2013110...oper-Palazuelo

Well it looks like Hults is our man. Presuming that the Cashier's check clears, he's out $100,000 in non-refundable money unless he comes through with the balance of the $2MM he owes by Monday.

**detroitpride313** · November-01-13, 04:17 PM

I'm still skeptical about whether or not the deal will close with Hults. If he couldn't even pay the $100k on time how's he going to pay the $2 mil on time? I hope it falls through and they give it to Fernando Palazuelo because he seems like the only legit person who was in the top 3...

**corktownyuppie** · November-01-13, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by detroitpride313

I'm still skeptical about whether or not the deal will close with Hults. If he couldn't even pay the $100k on time how's he going to pay the $2 mil on time? I hope it falls through and they give it to Fernando Palazuelo because he seems like the only legit person who was in the top 3...

Not sure what you mean. He met the extended deadline. I don't know much about him or the Peruvian, though I was more impressed with the Peruvian investor. Sometimes delivering funds is not as simple as wiring funds...especially when the source is from multiple investors. The last deal I worked on involved moneys getting collected into 2 main accounts and then having one account wire into the other account in order to have a cashier's check drawn.

But the idiot on the 2nd account didn't send it to us by wire. He instead sent it by ACH electronic transfer. So instead of a 90 minute turnaround, it was a 48-hour turnaround.

Thankfully, we were able to get a 48 hour extension by paying the first half of it non-refundable so that the buyer knew that we were serious. But -- especially when working with multiple parties -- sometimes getting all the cash to the right place is in itself a giant clusterf**k.

**detroitpride313** · November-02-13, 12:12 PM

What I was referring to was how the original 3pm deadline had to be extended to 5pm. I just felt that if he had the money it should've been a simple transaction, but I think you make a good point about how sometimes it's "not as simple as wiring funds."

**KJ5** · November-07-13, 03:15 AM

I'm sitting pretty with the 200th highest bid of $1. The Price is Right, baby! When everybody else defaults the Packard will be mine! Bwahahaha!

**finster** · November-07-13, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by KJ5

I'm sitting pretty with the 200th highest bid of $1. The Price is Right, baby! When everybody else defaults the Packard will be mine! Bwahahaha!

I don't know why but the website just let me place a bid of $3.52, no earnest money required. They might be getting desperate so as soon as I find enough pennys under my drivers seat it looks like I may be sitting in the cat bird seat. Sorry, KG5, but you can come and visit anytime you want!

**Vic01** · November-09-13, 04:01 AM

The Wayne County treasurer has given Chicago-area developer Williams Hults a final Nov. 15 deadline to deliver themoney for his $2-million bid on Detroit’s old Packard Plant.
Hults has produced $200,000 in nonrefundable deposits for the dilapidated auto factory but has yet to assemble the remaining $1.8 million. After he failed to make a scheduled $300,000 deposit on Monday, county officials lowered the required amount.
Hults finished second on Oct. 25 in the property’s tax foreclosure auction behind top bidder Jill Van Horn, a Texas doctor who was disqualified when she didn’t make a $2-million deposit on her $6-million offer.
If Hults fails to perform, the Packard Plant site would go to next-place bidder Fernando Palazuelo for about $400,000.
The roughly 40-acre property went to online auction after Hults couldn’t produce a $1-million payment in September to cover the property’s back taxes and take possession. The site’s previous owner was Bioresource, a company owned by convicted drug dealer Dominic Cristini.

Hults envisions saving and restoring parts of the Packard Plant and transforming the site into a mixed-use residential, commercial and entertainment development. It would be his first development project of such magnitude.
“The efforts to return the Packard Plant to useful purposes continue,” Treasurer Raymond Wojtowicz said in a statement.

http://www.freep.com/article/2013110...-Plant-pay-bid

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · November-09-13, 07:13 AM

I think there is virtually no chance that Hults will come up with the money. In the unlikely chance that he does, he will neither develop the site nor keep current with taxes, and the site will be re-auctioned in a couple of years.

**Scottathew** · November-09-13, 07:44 AM

Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn

I think there is virtually no chance that Hults will come up with the money. In the unlikely chance that he does, he will neither develop the site nor keep current with taxes, and the site will be re-auctioned in a couple of years.

I agree, if he can't even pay for it, how is he going to come up with the millions needed to redevelop the site?

**Cliffy** · November-09-13, 08:49 AM

He will probably show up with 50k on Tuesday and they will play along. Its time to move on. I can't believe how stupid the county is for stringing this along for weeks.

**daddeeo** · November-09-13, 09:05 AM

Are they playing limbo in the county offices? How low can they grovel to help this guy out? Hults plan makes no sense and he's scraping to make a down payment. Seems like a waste of time and makes the Treasurer look like he's trying to save face in this debacle. It's a real bad joke.

**401don** · November-09-13, 09:24 AM

Ya know I'm not sure but there may already be a thread or two this could have gone into.

**Lowell** · November-09-13, 10:46 AM

It would be kind of ironic if Hults can't make the rest of his bid after tossing $200K in the hat and then watch the next guy pick it up for only double that amount.

IMO it appears that the bidding process should have required that bidders to produce loan pre-approval of whatever amount they intended to bid.

I learned that lesson once when selling a house. After the first buyer could not produce the cash I made sure my next ad said "pre-approved buyers only".