Packard to be demolished?

[Richard]

The process at the time it was being built was fairly new,so they kinda figured what they thought it should have been and then doubled the formula,way overbuilt by today’s standard.

That area is zoned heavy industrial and is pretty much the only part in the city that carries that zoning so it has value,the rail line and easy highway excess makes it a desirable property,but only if they can remove the drama otherwise it will be last in line unless somebody with really deep pockets buys everybody out.

The other building where the aircraft engines were manufactured during the war,is attached but owned separate,it has been listed for sale for a long time.

The actual SQ listed is not continuous,it is a combination of parcels that jump around.

Kinda like one owns 6 houses out of 20 on a block and sells them based in total SQFt kinda forgetting about the neighbors in between that chop it all up.

I think really the Russell complex is the only one that actually has the sqft in one spot that can be marketed as such.

When you are looking at over 2 million sqft.

[canuck]

The listing states that it is zoned heavy industrial. Any chance of it becoming GM's battery factory for e-cars of the future like the.much vaunted Telsa gigafactories?

There is a huge one in Buffalo.

[401don]

The listing states that it is zoned heavy industrial. Any chance of it becoming GM's battery factory for e-cars of the future like the.much vaunted Telsa gigafactories?

There is a huge one in Buffalo.

GM is spending over 2 billion on converting Lordstown to a battery plant. Also I believe Buffalo just makes solar panels in a joint Tesla/Panasonic deal which may be in trouble.

[canuck]

GM is spending over 2 billion on converting Lordstown to a battery plant. Also I believe Buffalo just makes solar panels in a joint Tesla/Panasonic deal which may be in trouble.

Yes, okay.

Also, I suppose most of these massive projects are in suburban and semi-rural settings nowadays.

Too bad the light industrial/craft people were kicked out of Packard by the city. Huge mistake.

[softailrider]

It’s not like a normal office building or apartment building that you can bring back from a shell. It always seemed to me that it was too massive a project for anyone to take on.

[Richard]

Its not really massive,it’s like buying 20 random commercial properties across the city.

Here they did the same thing,it’s just that they are all located in a 1 block location.

Take one building fix it and lease it out,no different then what is happening downtown.

The arch joined the administration building and the building it was attached to across the street the city owns,they offered to sell it but under the condition that they saw progress on the others,they have not sold it,so progress must be very limited.

When I did the due diligence on it back then,I found major tenants for it,those contracts was how I was able to raise the funds if the deal had gone through.

I raised $10 million for just blank empty space at that time,3.5 million on the purchase,4.5 would have cleared the space,windows,electrical etc. make ready and the initial investment would have been returned in less then 3 years.

That would have only occupied 1/4 of the property.

At that time also the economy sucked,Detroit was at its lowest point possible and I still was able to find others to have confidence.

If people are going to invest it does not matter as long as you can make the numbers work and they can see a return,come out of the gate with some grandiose plan right out of the gate and it scares people.

Maybe NYC or Miami okay it would be different,but it is a property in Detroit,you have to use what you have to work with and center the building around that.

Without the drama behind it,I still think it is a prime piece of property with an amazing potential for the city if played right.It checks all of the boxes on location with rail and easy highway excess.

It was built as a factory and employment center and that is still its highest and best use.

Thats that whole KISS theory.

[motorcity]

So he's a shithead for being the only one to invest money and try like hell for several years to do something with that site after it sat empty for about 50 years?

He paid peanuts for the site, sat on it for years, fake proposals, and will now flip it. Money for nothing. That's a speculating slumlord by every definition.

[mikefmich]

Sleepy this morning, and when I clicked on the DYes home page I thought I saw "2020 Detroit Lions to be Demolished". Then I was able to "unmerge" the two headings................

LOL.....might be safe to say the Lions will be demolished.

[renf]

Do I recall that Carlos Sims supposedly purchased the Marquette Building in downtown Detroit for something like $8 million and flipped it to Adivent less that three years later for more than $20 million or is that just a story? Some have generated a great deal of profit flipping real estate in Motown.

[401don]

Some have generated a great deal of profit flipping real estate in Motown.

Which is good news. It means it's finally worth something. Nothing wrong with flipping provided you stabilize/maintain it while under your care.