An ambitious and multifaceted development plan featuring housing, manufacturing, an indoor skate park and a techno music museum has been proposed for the site of the former Packard Plant factory in Detroit that recently was demolished.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on Monday, Dec. 1, joined with Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield and the plan’s local developers — Mark Bennett and Oren Goldenberg — to announce the signing of a letter of intent with the developers and unveil the project, which would cover 28 acres on the southern half of the 40-plus acre property.
Many critical details, including costs and potential development subsidies, are still being worked out, but the development team could break ground as early as 2027 and finish in 2029.
The overall project, called Packard Park, is described as a “public-private-philanthropic partnership” that will also include the Albert Kahn Legacy Foundation and the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. or DEGC. Albert Kahn Associates — the namesake firm of the plant’s original architect — would be the new project’s architect.
“They are going to take a historic site and create a destination right here on Grand Boulevard,” Duggan said at the announcement, which took place in a heated tent next to the site on the city’s east side south of I-94 near East Grand Boulevard.
The proposed development would have:
The lead developers, Bennett and Goldenberg, have done several projects in Detroit in recent years. Bennett was a codeveloper of a 16-story residential high-rise near Greektown known as The Exchange and the 318-unit Lafayette West near Lafayette Park, both of which recently opened.
Goldenberg was a codeveloper for the 76-unit Dreamtroit project, which rehabbed the former Lincoln Motor Factory near New Center into affordable housing and artist studios.
“For decades, as the mayor mentioned, the Packard Plant stood as one of the city’s most visible reminders of disinvestment and decline,” Sheffield said. “But today, we declare, collectively, that those days are over.”
Once an eyesore
The city gained ownership of the site and used federal pandemic-era stimulus funds to demolish most of the old buildings between 2022 and fall 2024.
Demolishing the massive industrial ruin had long been a goal for Detroit officials and many nearby residents, who saw the abandoned factory as an eyesore, safety hazard and an unwelcome symbol of the city’s struggles.
The original plant built its last Packard car in the mid-1950s, yet it continued to house a significant number of industrial and commercial tenants into the 1990s, including storage space for people’s cars and boats and tons of dumped tires.
The old factory grounds also were known during the 1990s for hosting unsanctioned, all-night rave parties with electronic music.
The city finally moved forward with demolition after a 2022 court judgment against the property’s last private owner — flamboyant Peruvian developer Fernando Palazuelo — and the showering of millions of federal stimulus dollars on Detroit to cover the roughly $16.5 million demo cost.
Palazuelo bought the graffiti-covered plant at Wayne County’s 2013 tax foreclosure auction and had attempted to preserve and redevelop the barely intact buildings, but his vision never came to be.
Early on, Palazuelo’s plan called for transforming the old plant into office and events space, an art gallery, a spa, a hotel or hostel, a “recreational” amenity perhaps with go-carts — plus a techno club collaboration with the famous German nightclub owner Dimitri Hegemann.
When progress stalled he eventually switched gears, and in 2020 began marketing the entire 40-plus acre site for more conventional uses: potential industrial logistics centers, warehouses or distribution hubs. Soon afterward, he soon lost the property in court to the city.
Last year the DEGC put out a request for redevelopment proposals for the site. There was one respondent, Kansas City, Missouri-based NorthPoint Development, which proposed building two large warehouses on the site of 444,000 square feet and 292,000 square feet.
But the NorthPoint plan didn’t include any adaptive reuse of the two still-existing Packard Plant buildings that once connected over East Grand Boulevard and which Duggan said he really wanted to see preserved. The DEGC ultimately turned down that proposal.
Speaking with reporters after Monday’s announcement, Goldenberg said that his Dreamtroit development, which opened last year, is now 90% occupied in its residential units and 100% occupied in its commercial space.
Asked why they expect their Packard Plant project to succeed when Palazuelo tried but failed, Goldenberg said, “We’re working closely with the city and, you know, Detroit has seen a lot of amazing developments come up. So we’re just confident in the future of this place, and with the new administration, we’re really excited.”
Goldenberg deferred to the city when asked about the development’s costs. The city says the potential costs are still being determined, but will likely exceed $50 million.
A developer representative said a key difference between the new redevelopment vision and those of the recent past is that they have a specific plan regarding the size, scope and uses.
(This story was updated with new information.)
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New ambitious Packard Plant redevelopment plan unveiled
Reporting by JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
