Palazuelo purchased the Packard Plant in 2013 for $405,000 with his sights set on making it a mini city with commercial sites, restaurants and residences. The plan, with a 15-year timeline, ultimately fell through and the city ordered demolition of the buildings starting with 6199 Concord, which adjoined Display Group.
“These grand plans of redevelopment with the previous owners of what’s now been demolished were great,” McConnell said, “but it just seemed to turn very quickly to not realistic.”
A bulk of the demolition work began in the fall of 2022 under an emergency order because the building on Concord was deemed structurally unsound and at risk of collapsing.
The occasion was met with much fanfare from the city, which was eager to remove what Mayor Mike Duggan called at the time “a source of national embarrassment.”
Now that the demolition is done, the complex has been reduced to a portion of two buildings: 1580 E. Grand Blvd. at 112,000 square feet and 1539 E. Grand Blvd. at 116,000 square feet.
The buildings are expected to be able to stand for a while as each awaits redevelopment, said Timothy Palazzolo, director of Detroit’s Construction and Demolition Department. The city is working with engineers to assess potential needs for stabilization.
“It’s still surreal for me to conceptualize or wrap my head around that fact that we are mostly done with the project,” Palazzolo said.
After some cleanup, the next step is to pass the site on to the DEGC, he said: “They’re going to do what they do and try to find someone who is interested in redeveloping it.”
The site continues to attract interest from developers since it closed out its RFP in July, according to the DEGC. The organization received one submission during the initial request for proposals.
“While the proposal was compelling, we are looking for a project that maximizes the economic opportunity of the size and location of the site through jobs and private investment while celebrating its historic significance,” said Lanard Ingram, spokesperson for DEGC. “We haven’t relaunched a formal RFP process, but remain committed to exploring all opportunities that may exist for that site.”
In the previous RFP, the DEGC and city sought proposals for a “high-quality industrial or manufacturing project” for the site. The city requested designs focused on sustainability, equity and community impact. The proposal also noted a potential need for environmental cleanup. Developers also were required to include a plan to preserve the two historic buildings on E. Grand Blvd.
Dan Kinkead, director leader of SmithGroup’s national Urban Design Practice, said the potential future use of the Packard Plant site, with its infrastructure originally designed for industrial purposes, could support similar activities.
“Particularly if you think about the relationship between where this is located, and, for instance, the Poletown plant that’s immediately adjacent and what’s called now Factory Zero,” he said. “In that area, those corridors, those long-running generally more south-running corridors in the city were industrial corridors that led down to the river to be able to transfer goods and services and so forth. I think that narrow run that the Packard Plant has inhabited could be the site of future reinvestment and redevelopment.”
That future could involve auto-related work in some form, Kinkead said: “Things that might be focused in and around the auto industry that’s part of a supply chain and so forth. I don’t really know, but I think that given the site’s previous utilization systems that may still be there, there are certainly opportunities for that.”
Assets or obstacles?
Kinkead applauds the city for keeping two portions of buildings along E. Grand Boulevard.
“The administration building on East Grand Boulevard really for many Detroiters is the identity of the Packard Plant,” he said. “I think it signals that, yes, some facets of our built environment come and go, but there are facets that can remain. They can mark our own history and they can define our own space in the city. So I was very pleased to learn that that building was going to remain.”
Jeff Horner, an urban studies and planning professor at Wayne State University, said the two older structures might be a deterrent for some developers.
“If you’re setting up a big warehouse and you’ve got long conveyor belts and so forth, having that historic preservation piece, which is literally right in the middle of a parcel, that’s going to throw a big wrench in things,” he said. “There might be some developers out there who know that there’s plenty of demand for warehousing, especially as close as it is to the GM plant that’s right there. And there’s a lot of suppliers and so forth that are right there.
“So I’d be shocked if there wasn’t any interest from say, simple warehousing, which is relatively inexpensive to build. But because the city wants to keep the historic portion of it … that may nullify a whole bunch of proposals by keeping it. What developers want is a big shovel-ready site, and they don’t quite have that here because of the need to preserve those buildings.”
If the DEGC and city were to issue another RFP, Horner suggests it highlight the value of the railroad connection near the site.
“Something that always fascinated me about the Packard Plant — I would take tours there and students and so forth — is that there was always this little railroad spur that kind of ran right between the middle of the buildings. And those tracks are in pretty good shape,” he said.
“I’m sure that most of the developers who took a look at this are probably local, they’re probably familiar with the railroad connections. But if the city puts out another RFP, I would play that up very high and hard, because I think those tracks are in good shape and could be useful if they’re trying to redevelop this as an industrial site.”
Horner acknowledged the city’s cautious approach, which has evolved following previous challenges with the Packard Plant.
“I like that people in government now are not just willing to sell off land to the first bidder and hope the best thing happens,” he said. “But let’s face it: the city got burned with the Packard Plant 10 years ago with a developer who made a lot of promises and didn’t follow through. They want to develop it right, and I’m sure they want to preserve the neighborhood as much as possible.”
Ten years ago, Rick Portwood, founder of Display Group, purchased the company’s building on Concord. The business had moved from Corktown and found that the new building would provide them with a lot more space.
“Initially I had ignored it because it was connected to the Packard,” he said. “But then when I drove by one morning with my wife, I was kind of like, ‘Wow, this place is in great shape, you know, much better shape than everything I’ve looked at.’ So I was able to buy it from the owner, who was very keen on selling it to somebody that would use it, not a speculator, which was great.”
Portwood said he initially had a great relationship with Palazuelo, who shored up the previously connected building. But he then let the building continue to deteriorate. In the meantime, Portwood purchased and preserved 1600-1634 E. Grand Blvd., which houses a variety of businesses, including an auto charging firm, ambulance company, automotive service and a public relations firm.
The city’s demolition process has been a good experience overall, Portwood said. Moving forward, however, he’d like to see the city be more receptive to ideas outside the scope of the previous RFP, particularly when it comes to the historic buildings.
“Personally I love to preserve buildings if you can, but at the same time this is an area that’s been pretty desolate for a long time,” he said. “And I think that if you want to get the best developers in there, you need to let them do what they want to do. In a perfect world, like, yeah, let’s rehab those buildings. But if you’re building industrial distribution space and that’s what you do, you might not be somebody that rehabs building.”
It’s noble for the city to try to save the buildings, Portwood said: “Ultimately, they may have to, for progress to happen, they might have to change that a little bit. It’s hard for me to criticize the city. I’m so happy that they got it down. It’s very nice to be a standalone building now.”