DETROIT (WWJ) – The city of Detroit on Thursday began tearing down the old Packard Automotive Plant on the city’s east side.
The plant, the Motor City’s largest abandoned auto factory, was declared an immediate hazard back in April. A judge sided with the city in a lawsuit and Peruvian owner Fernando Palazuelo was ordered to demolish it.
But after missing the deadline to apply for demolition permits and failing to pay more than $1.5 million in taxes, officials said “his non-compliance has allowed the City of Detroit to move forward with demolition plans for the parcel,” according to The Detroit News.
Palazuelo purchased the property back in 2013 and had made promises to revitalize the sprawling 3.5 million square-foot plant with a $350 million mixed-use development.
Nearly a full decade later, nothing has ever been done at the plant.
Mayor Mike Duggan said Thursday after a long legal battle, it was time to bring it down.
“It took a lot of legal action. First the court ordered the owner to take it down. He ignored it. Then he ordered him to pay us when we take it down. He’s ignored that, too,” Duggan said.
The mayor said the demolition, which will take about two years, will cost the city $1.6 million. The first phase of demolition is expected to be complete this December.
Duggan said the city will “examine every inch” of the plant throughout the demolition process to determine if any parts of the plant can be saved.
“We owe real gratitude to Gov. Whitmer and the state legislature that funded us with industrial site clearance money as well as President Biden and what he did in the American Rescue Plan because we finally have the resources not just to take this down, but to reuse this site and make it a source for jobs,” Duggan said.
Demolition director LaJuan Counts says it’s a win, especially for the community around the plant.
“Detroiters who have lived nearby should not have to endure this type of nuisance each and every day just to go out and pick up their mail or to say hello to a neighbor,” she said.
Neighbors have long complained of falling masonry and wild animals and rodents roaming in the area.
The property is still for sale for a reported price tag of $5 million. It’s not clear what would replace the Packard Plant, once a beacon of the city that put the world on wheels. The plant stopped production in 1956 and other smaller businesses worked out of parts of it until the 1990s.
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