Packard
plant est un chantier symbolique à Detroit car l’usine représentait, avec celle
de Ford, l’âme de la ville au temps de sa splendeur, son renouveau (tout comme
les stigmates encore visible rappelle la chute dans les années 2000 de Detroit)
ne peut que rappeler des temps glorieux et figurer comme un acte fort du retour
de la ville au premier plan.
L’article détaille les différentes phases qui avaient été programmées et annonce la reprise du calendrier. Les projets sont également listés dont une pépinière d’entreprises technologiques et un centre d’affaires.
L’article détaille les différentes phases qui avaient été programmées et annonce la reprise du calendrier. Les projets sont également listés dont une pépinière d’entreprises technologiques et un centre d’affaires.
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Article
JC Reindl, in Detroit Free Press, August
8, 2016
Packard-plant
redevelopment could actually happen soon
The
sprawling ruin of the Packard Plant on Detroit’s east side has been a magnet
for metal scrappers, a post-apocalyptic movie set and an emblem of the city’s
past industrial glories and more recent distress.
Now,
for the first time in many decades, the old factory could be an active
construction site.
A
planned 10- to 15-year redevelopment of the property could get under way if Detroit
City Council acts next month on a tax-freeze plan that would cover the
project’s first phase, said Kari Smith, director of development for Arte
Express Detroit, the firm belonging to plant owner Fernando Palazuelo.
Participants
of a tour of the Packard Plant in Detroit walk through one of the plant's many
underground tunnels on Sat., Oct. 24, 2015. The one-time tour benefited the
Detroit Area Art Deco Society and was hosted by Kari Smith, Director of
Development for the Packard Plant Project. Brian Kaufman, Detroit Free
Press :
“We
expect it’s going to take a number of years to pull a profit — but that’s not
our main goal,” Smith said. “Our main goal is the architectural renovation of
these buildings and the benefits that this transition is going to have for the
community.”
The
start of construction would be a key milestone for the Spanish-born Palazuelo,
who attracted considerable curiosity and media attention after picking up the
blighted Packard Plant for $405,000 in late 2013 in a Wayne County tax foreclosure
auction. He then pledged the improbable — to restore and reopen the factory
complex as a modern mixed-use commercial, residential and cultural development.
Packard
Plant owner Fernando Palazuelo talks about plans to restore iconic bridge and
administration building.
But
2½ years later, no redevelopment has actually taken place at the historic
40-acre site on Detroit’s east side. And many remain skeptical that the
enormous effort will ever succeed — or even get off the ground — given the
nearly half-billion-dollar price tag of the project that Palazuelo has
envisioned.
His
Arte Express has reported spending about $3 million on the project, including
costs of the24-hour security patrols that stopped the previous scrapping,
trespassing and arson epidemics on the site.
Mayor
Mike Duggan’s office would not comment on the latest plans revealed by Arte
Express and referred the Free Press to Detroit City Council, which is on recess
and scheduled to reconvene on Sept. 6.
Councilwoman
Mary Sheffield, whose district encompasses the Packard site, said she is aware
of the tax-freeze proposal and likes the idea to help boost development in the
area.
“It’s
exciting just to see this scale of development outside of Midtown and
downtown,” she said. “I see it as a catalyst development. Hopefully things will
begin to spread out of that area.”
This
initial work would involve Phase I and Phase II: a gut renovation of the former
Packard Motor Co.’s corporate offices into modern office space, and the
creation of a recreational complex whose details are still to come. Work crews
could start on the first phase as soon as council approves a plan to freeze the
site’s property taxes at current levels for 12 years, Smith said.
A
Phase III and IV would take shape later and involve various entertainment and
cultural attractions, including a proposed techno club, hostel, artist
live-work space and European-style spa. More phases would then follow.
To
be sure, progress has so far gone slower than Palazuelo first anticipated. He
also has missed several self-imposed deadlines for building an apartment for
himself inside the Packard Plant to observe construction. (Those apartment
plans have been pushed back until buildings are actually finished.)
Palazuelo’s
biggest hurdle is still assembling the financing — an estimated $400 million to
$500 million to achieve his Packard Plant dream. Arte Express claims to have
the $11 million to $12 million for the project’s initial phase and an
undisclosed sum that is needed for Phase II, yet beyond that, financing plans
are more tenuous.
Palazuelo
has redeveloped more than 100 old buildings in his native Spain and current
home of Lima, Peru. But never before has he tried an undertaking of the Packard
Plant’s size and complexity. He visits Detroit about once a month, although he
was not in town last week and had his project manager, Smith, share details of
their progress.
“We
have a lot of buildings out here to renovate,” Smith said. “We are looking
forward to actually getting to work.”
Phase
I
Phase
I would involve restoration of the four-story, 120,480-square-foot
administration building on the plant’s north side that was the automaker’s
headquarters office. This once-ornate building has been heavily damaged and
vandalized of all its original marble. Restoration will cost $11 million to $12
million, Smith said, and could be mostly finished by late 2017 if work can
start this September, when they anticipate City Council would take up the
tax-freeze request.
The
phase’s financing is already secure and largely comprises private equity from
Arte Express Detroit’s parent company in Peru, she said.
Already
there are tenants for about 70% of the administration building’s future office
space, Smith said. Their names will be announced at the project’s
ground-breaking ceremony — tentatively set for October — and include marketing,
architectural and environmental firms, as well as a job training center and
Arte Express Detroit’s own office.
Phase
II
Full
details have yet to be released for Phase II. Smith said it will create a
recreational complex with a racing component and be situated in a building
across from the administration building, on the other side of the plant’s East
Grand Boulevard bridge. Construction could begin as early as next spring if all
goes well.
“It’s
a way to have more to do on the east side of Detroit for the residents who are
here,” Smith said.
Adding
to Phase II’s complexity is the fact that its specific land parcel was
inadvertently left out of the Packard Plant bundle that Palazuelo bought in the
county’s 2013 tax foreclosure auction. That means the land is still owned by
the City of Detroit. “It was a big surprise to us,” Smith said of the botched
auction.
Arte
Express is in talks with the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. regarding the best
way to either develop or purchase this parcel.
A
DEGC spokesman declined to comment last week on the situation for this report,
or answer why the parcel wasn’t simply given to the developer because of the
error.
Phase
III
Subsequent
phases of redevelopment could begin as early as 2018. Phase III calls for an
aggressive rehab of a five-story section of the plant next to the
administration building into live-work spaces for artists, an art exhibition
gallery and a ground-floor restaurant. The number of live-work spaces has yet
to be determined.
Phase
IV
Arte
Express would partner with renowned Berlin techno club owner Dimitri Hegemann
for this particularly unique phase of the project slated for a seven-story
building next to Phase I and Phase III.
While
Hegemann previously expressed interest in Detroit’s empty Fisher Body Plant No.
21 at 6051 Hastings St., he has turned his attention to the Packard site. This phase
would create a ground-floor music venue, another restaurant, a large hostel
and, on the redeveloped building’s top floor, a European-style spa.
“According
to Dimitri, he’s going to be bringing in a lot of young people from Berlin who
are extremely interested in Detroit,” Smith said of the entertainment and
hostel concept. “Berlin, of all the cities I’ve been in, loves Detroit more
than any other city.”
The
famous German is also interested in the concept of gaining a special nightlife
designation to allow a Packard Plant venue to serve alcohol past Michigan’s 2
a.m. last call. Alcohol can be served at all hours in parts of Berlin, where
club-goers often don’t even arrive until 1 a.m.
Future
phases
Palazuelo’s
team sees Phase IV as a midway point — not the project’s end. They still hope
to add a Packard car museum, perhaps open a Tommy (Hitman) Hearns boxing gym,
build out more residential on the plant’s north side and attract some light
manufacturing and distribution companies to the south side.
‘Biggest
development’
Developer
Peter Allen, also an adjunct lecturer of real estate at the University of
Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the A. Alfred Taubman College
of Architecture and Urban Planning, reviewed Arte Express’ redevelopment plans
last week.
“This
is the biggest development in terms of size and complexity that we’ve seen — to
my knowledge — for decades,” he said.
In
an interview, Allen said it appears that Palazuelo and his team are taking the
right steps to get the project started. If they can successfully refurbish and
lease out the administration building, their redevelopment could gain important
credibility for its future financing needs, Allen said.
Nevertheless,
he said any Detroit project of the Packard Plant’s scope needs significant
public subsidies to succeed, such as the proposed 12-year tax freeze as well as
potential historic tax credits and “new markets” tax credits.
“I’m
not rubber-stamping this thing as a great deal — proceed,” Allen said. “I am
saying he’s doing everything he ought to be doing and he’s doing it the right
way.”
Palazuelo
did encounter a setback early this year when one of his Peru-based financial
supporters backed out of a $80-million commitment for the project. But Smith
said that issue does not affect funding for Phase I.
“The
situation over there is getting better,” she said of the Peruvian economy.
“They haven’t dropped into a severe recession, which it looked like in the
beginning. So the funder that was once there may join again in the future.”
A successful
redevelopment would be a big deal for the neighborhoods around the blighted
factory ruins. This part of Detroit is far detached from the greater downtown
area that has been experiencing revitalization and the opening of newly
renovated office buildings, new market-rate apartments, fashionable
restaurants, coffee shops and trendy retailers.
So
far, none of that momentum has reached the Packard Plant’s area of the city.
Even
without finished renovations or rent-paying tenants, the Packard Plant has been
generating some revenue from the numerous movie crews and photographers who
come for its dystopian-like setting.
About
25 to 30 such crews have passed through since Palazuelo took ownership of the
property, Smith said. The visitors have included a British photographer whose
live tiger accidently got loose in the plant last year and a team from
Paramount that has been on site this summer for an undisclosed film project.
All location fees go toward the project’s redevelopment, Smith said.
Just
don’t try to book the Packard Plant for your destination wedding — at least not
yet. Arte Express has received about 20 wedding location requests, but turned
down all of them because of safety concerns.
But
there could be wedding bells in the future.
“Once
things are cleaned up, we would love to offer a space for events such as
wedding receptions,” Smith said.
***
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