The last auction for the 3,200.000 square foot factory had a minimum bid of $21,000.00 and a buyer has yet to be found.

Does anyone want to move to Detroit to save the Packard Plant? (See site below.)


Video: The Packard plant by drone cam | Mac's Motor City Garage


Such a sad commentary on the state of the auto industry in Detroit --- the Motor City.

This was sent to me by an old friend with a 1956 Packard "The 400" coupe, such a grand old dame of an automobile.

Honestly I agree, after watching the tour, it cannot and MUST not be saved.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

^^ Dude, back off, will ya? It's my home.

Meet Allan Hill, the man who lives In Detroit's abandoned Packard Auto Plant - YouTube

Wow, I'm usually the first to believe in saving old buildings but there's literally not a brick or pane of glass to be saved in that place! The structure is so weak, I would never try to build anything on top of it.

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

I'm also betting it's heavily contaminated with heavy metals, solvents, etc -- whoever buys it is buying costs of environmental remediation as well.

Looks like it was bid up to $6MM with that bidder failing to perform, so the ante is now at $2MM. Plus $1.5MM of liens, possibly. The current "winner" wants to convert it to housing and condos for GM workers.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20131103/NEWS/311039926/packard-plant-no-quick-turnaround#

A developer did this with the old American Tobacco Company down town. The result has been extremely successful but the American was in 1000% better shape after it was abandoned in the '80's.

American Tobacco Campus Web Site

__________________
-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

"Packard plant" conjures images of beautiful cars. Sounds almost romantic until you see it.

RDU is also not Detroit -- it's a growing city, not a shrinking one.

Their are a couple of brown sites like that around here. It will stay vacant forever until Detroit gets there act together and redevelops it.

$21k to buy an probably $100M to clean up.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

What a $h!thole! It's sad to see such a piece of American auto history reduced to rubble. What the hell do some people think there is to salvage? Outside of some bricks and carved stonework there doesn't seem to be anything that's salvageable structure-wise.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Picked clean of anything of value by vagrants and substance abusers. Set ablaze by the same.

Need to bulldoze it.

I'd imagine there's some value in the land if not too badly contaminated.

Time to bring in the wrecking ball.

I had hoped that perhaps the bridge and portion of the buildings support the bridge could be saved as a memorial to one of the greatest makes ever, however, I doubt that the bridge is even in a condition worth attempting to save it.

"There are two makes of cars; Packard and Mercedes and then there is just everything else."
Matt Short former curator of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum

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Current:
1985 300D aka Miss Margaret
1991 300SE aka Alarice
1995 SL320 aka Samantha
1997 K1500 Silverado
Past:
1999 E300 ex-wife got it and let her son ruin it
1984 190 2.3 ex-wife got it and let her son destroy a great car
1985 300D (CA version) aka Maybelline lost to deer at high speed.
1981 300D aka Madeline (went to salvage at near 400k) rusty, yet best car I ever drove
Wishlist:
McFarlan TV6 (only a few privately owned)
ReVere with Rochester engine
1917 Premier (only one left)

Never though about it before but was unaware that Packard was also produced in Detroit. A company that under good management should have still been producing cars somewhere.

When they dropped the ball they like a few other makes really did it in spades. The multi level plant concept I thought was dead by the 1950s when they were still producing some cars.

It is a shame that it only takes a few to ruin a company that once was a good one. Sometimes only one man to do it as well. I was also trying to figure out what I would describe the left over wreckage as. It is in pretty bad overall condition.

It's a building, not a monument. Knock it the rest of the way down, put up a marker if you want and put the land back into use. Make it an open space park or something. There is nothing special about a former industrial site.

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now