So what do you think about the blight bundle buyer?

[Scottathew]

Well that didn't last too long...

Developer Herb Strather said Wednesday he withdrew his offer to buy and develop 6,000 parcels of Detroit

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...-buy/18554153/

[Honky Tonk]

"because Wayne County was putting impractical conditions on his plans"

A payment?

[ronaldj]

Who woulda thunk? The fix was in somewhere but hard to follow the thread of the tangled web of this saga. Strather makes the bid based on the assumption the City willuse federal funds to help demolish the unsalvagable properties. The City refuses his request. Strather gets a case of buyer's regret and the City says if the deal falls through the Land Bank is ready to accept title to the bundle.

Who's making the money? Will Strather now be required to pony up his refundable deposit to cover off his outstanding liens and judgments? I believe he is talking about presenting a plan to refurbish and peddle 2,000 properties. Am I reading this right?

[Danny]

Having developers buy black and blighted ghetto hoods in Detroit have its complications.

[motz]

Who's making the money? Will Strather now be required to pony up his refundable deposit to cover off his outstanding liens and judgments? I believe he is talking about presenting a plan to refurbish and peddle 2,000 properties. Am I reading this right?

His deposit will be kept, and he'll still owe his outstanding liens and judgments. The dude took a really bad gamble [[har har) and lost. It sounds like that is mostly his MO, since he's been a piss poor investor but keeps stumbling into piles of money to blow on fantastical ideas that have no chance of panning out.

[raptor56]

Sounds like the guy didn't read the fine print before bidding.

Last week he [[Strather) told Bloomberg Businessweek that he’d hoped to keep some of the best parcels for his investment fund and find a way to get the city to use federal funding to demolish the decrepit properties. The Wayne County’s deputy treasurer, David Szymanski, said a plan like that wasn’t “going to fly,” and the land bank said it’s allowed to demolish only properties it owns. Szymanski told Strather that the winner bidder would be required to pay for the demolition.
Those expectations were public before the auction closed, and Szymanksi says, “I don’t know how somebody could interpret” the original guidance to allow a plan to offload the worst properties on the city. Szymanski says Strather also met with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan before withdrawing his offer

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/...ures-collapses

I did see one factual error in this article: "the land bank said it’s allowed to demolish only properties it owns." should be "the land bank said it’s allowed to demolish only properties it owns or properties owned by Olympia Entertainment".

[Hypestyles]

I see no momentum at all regarding redevelopment in the next five years on these properties.

[Richard]

City was doing this to fast track the demo process,there was really no intention of anybody to buy them,but they were offered to the public first with no takers.

The sick part is a private person even thinking the taxpayers should have paid for his profit potential.