What's going on at American Axle?

[rb336]

drove by it yesterday and saw a huge pile of demolition debris right at the Holbrook/St Aubin corner

[MikeM]

It's being demolished.

[davewindsor]

drove by it yesterday and saw a huge pile of demolition debris right at the Holbrook/St Aubin corner

Google is your friend.

First link from search.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...EWS/306239999/

American Axle hopes demolishing complex will attract buyers for land

By Dustin Walsh

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.'s historic Detroit Manufacturing Complex is set for demolition this summer as the Detroit-based supplier pushes forward with a plan to sell the shuttered property.

The supplier announced June 14 that it would demolish 1.9 million square feet of the complex south of Holbrook Street within the next eight months. It plans to receive the proper permits from the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck in the next three weeks, the company said.

American Axle hopes the move will spark interest in the area, which has been idle since February, after the last 300 jobs at the site were terminated.

Chris Son, American Axle's director of investor relations, corporate communications and marketing, said the company is in talks with potential buyers and that the property is ideally suited for a logistics company.

"We have some discussions with potential buyers, and they feel that by doing the demolition, the transition of the property gives a buyer the things that they need," Son said.

Logistics companies need close access to I-75 and the rail line that runs through the property, he said. Son declined to reveal the interested parties or the cost of demolition.

About 540,000 square feet of manufacturing space, or two plants, will remain on the seven-plant complex, the company said. Plant 6 and Plant 3 will remain, Son said, with American Axle maintaining Plant 3 as a storage site. Plant 3 holds tooling and equipment for the supplier's $1.2 billion backlog, he said.

Plant 6 is being leased to a small logistics firm, Son said.

Lauren Scarpace, senior vice president at commercial real estate company CBRE Inc. in Southfield, said the aging plants have stifled the sale of the property.

"To have an investor try and take the entire project down at one time is extremely challenging, given the potential issues at a 100-year-old manufacturing complex," Scarpace said in an email. "Once leveled, I believe the interest for parcels will be rather high."

Owners of other outmoded plants are following suit.

The Revitalizing Automotive Communities Environmental Response Trust, the entity responsible for selling sites that General Motors Co. removed from its holdings in bankruptcy, also announced June 14 that it was getting interest from redevelopers on the land, not the buildings at various sites.

The RACER Trust plans to demolish a 2.1 million-square-foot former GM plant in Indianapolis.

In 2011, American Axle nearly leased 300,000 square feet of floor space to Detroit Manufacturing Systems LLC, a then-new joint venture between Wayne-based Rush Group and French supplier Faurecia S.A.

However, Rush CEO Andra Rush ended talks with American Axle over the space because the $2 million investment and time to retrofit the plant were too steep.

Detroit Manufacturing Systems ended up leasing space at the Gateway Industrial Center in Detroit, near I-96 and the Southfield Freeway.

The inability to lease space at the complex also killed American Axle's hopes of securing an extension to its renaissance zone tax exemption for its world headquarters across the street from the complex.

Detroit City Council members were skeptical of extending the zone because of American Axle's layoffs of more than 1,000 workers at its Detroit manufacturing complex since 2008, after the council extended abatements that had saved the company as much as $534,000 annually over the past decade.



GM originally built in 1917 on the lot where the complex sits. American Axle took control of the space in 1994 after Richard E. Dauch co-founded the supplier as part of an investment group that acquired five GM plants in Michigan and New York state.

The Detroit Manufacturing Complex has been contentious since American Axle acquired the space. Dauch famously battled alcohol and drugs in the workplace in the mid-1990s by buying and bulldozing a dozen bars, drug houses and party stores.

The Detroit complex borders Hamtramck and once housed eight factories. As recently as 2007, it employed about 2,200 workers.

But the operations suffered irreparable harm in 2008 when 3,650 United Auto Workers members staged a bitter strike at five American Axle plants, including the Detroit Manufacturing Complex. The strike halted or disrupted output at 30 factories of its largest customer, GM.

Management took a hard line against the UAW and closed plants after it couldn't reach what it considered a competitive agreement. The moves included the 2012 closing of its Cheektowaga, N.Y., plant, American Axle's last remaining plant in a state that once had several plants and employed 2,800 in 2000.

American Axle closed the heralded Detroit complex in February 2012 after failing to reach an agreement with the plant's remaining 300 UAW workers. The company wanted to reduce compensation, including benefits, to $30 an hour from $45.

[rb336]

It would be a good location for a logistics company -- but not the part that was knocked down. I hope they get squat. GM is PO'd at them because their inefficient plants in whatever country they are in can't create the output needed for GM's trucks. I have heard that GM is shopping around for a new supplier

[poobert]

The good news is that Dick Dauch is in hell now. Turns out all that money he made from moving operations out of the United States and breaking the union after reaching and agreement with them couldn't save him.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130802/BUSINESS0105/308020121/

[Honky Tonk]

Google is your friend.

First link from search.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...EWS/306239999/

American Axle hopes demolishing complex will attract buyers for land

By Dustin Walsh

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.'s historic Detroit Manufacturing Complex is set for demolition this summer as the Detroit-based supplier pushes forward with a plan to sell the shuttered property.

The supplier announced June 14 that it would demolish 1.9 million square feet of the complex south of Holbrook Street within the next eight months. It plans to receive the proper permits from the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck in the next three weeks, the company said.

American Axle hopes the move will spark interest in the area, which has been idle since February, after the last 300 jobs at the site were terminated.

Chris Son, American Axle's director of investor relations, corporate communications and marketing, said the company is in talks with potential buyers and that the property is ideally suited for a logistics company.

"We have some discussions with potential buyers, and they feel that by doing the demolition, the transition of the property gives a buyer the things that they need," Son said.

Logistics companies need close access to I-75 and the rail line that runs through the property, he said. Son declined to reveal the interested parties or the cost of demolition.

About 540,000 square feet of manufacturing space, or two plants, will remain on the seven-plant complex, the company said. Plant 6 and Plant 3 will remain, Son said, with American Axle maintaining Plant 3 as a storage site. Plant 3 holds tooling and equipment for the supplier's $1.2 billion backlog, he said.

Plant 6 is being leased to a small logistics firm, Son said.

Lauren Scarpace, senior vice president at commercial real estate company CBRE Inc. in Southfield, said the aging plants have stifled the sale of the property.

"To have an investor try and take the entire project down at one time is extremely challenging, given the potential issues at a 100-year-old manufacturing complex," Scarpace said in an email. "Once leveled, I believe the interest for parcels will be rather high."

Owners of other outmoded plants are following suit.

The Revitalizing Automotive Communities Environmental Response Trust, the entity responsible for selling sites that General Motors Co. removed from its holdings in bankruptcy, also announced June 14 that it was getting interest from redevelopers on the land, not the buildings at various sites.

The RACER Trust plans to demolish a 2.1 million-square-foot former GM plant in Indianapolis.

In 2011, American Axle nearly leased 300,000 square feet of floor space to Detroit Manufacturing Systems LLC, a then-new joint venture between Wayne-based Rush Group and French supplier Faurecia S.A.

However, Rush CEO Andra Rush ended talks with American Axle over the space because the $2 million investment and time to retrofit the plant were too steep.

Detroit Manufacturing Systems ended up leasing space at the Gateway Industrial Center in Detroit, near I-96 and the Southfield Freeway.

The inability to lease space at the complex also killed American Axle's hopes of securing an extension to its renaissance zone tax exemption for its world headquarters across the street from the complex.

Detroit City Council members were skeptical of extending the zone because of American Axle's layoffs of more than 1,000 workers at its Detroit manufacturing complex since 2008, after the council extended abatements that had saved the company as much as $534,000 annually over the past decade.



GM originally built in 1917 on the lot where the complex sits. American Axle took control of the space in 1994 after Richard E. Dauch co-founded the supplier as part of an investment group that acquired five GM plants in Michigan and New York state.

The Detroit Manufacturing Complex has been contentious since American Axle acquired the space. Dauch famously battled alcohol and drugs in the workplace in the mid-1990s by buying and bulldozing a dozen bars, drug houses and party stores.

The Detroit complex borders Hamtramck and once housed eight factories. As recently as 2007, it employed about 2,200 workers.

But the operations suffered irreparable harm in 2008 when 3,650 United Auto Workers members staged a bitter strike at five American Axle plants, including the Detroit Manufacturing Complex. The strike halted or disrupted output at 30 factories of its largest customer, GM.

Management took a hard line against the UAW and closed plants after it couldn't reach what it considered a competitive agreement. The moves included the 2012 closing of its Cheektowaga, N.Y., plant, American Axle's last remaining plant in a state that once had several plants and employed 2,800 in 2000.

American Axle closed the heralded Detroit complex in February 2012 after failing to reach an agreement with the plant's remaining 300 UAW workers. The company wanted to reduce compensation, including benefits, to $30 an hour from $45.

Sounds like they ain't movin' back from Mexico......

[piczka]

Thanks for the memories!!!!!!!!!!!!