The city on Monday unveiled a proposal for a 28-acre section of the long vacant Packard Plant that will redevelop the site with housing, an indoor skate park and an electronic music museum.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said the city has signed a letter of intent with Packard Development Partners, LLC, for the $50 million plan to reactivate the southern section of the sprawling site, including a legacy Albert Kahn-designed building along E. Grand Boulevard.

The project, Packard Park, will be a mixed adaptive-reuse via a public-private-philanthropic partnership, led by Packard Development Partners, LLC, the City of Detroit, Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the Albert Kahn Legacy Foundation and Detroit Regional Partnership, which accelerated the effort through its VIP Site Readiness Grant Program. 

Packard Development Partners, LLC is led by Mark Bennett, a developer behind six multi-family and mixed-use developments across Detroit, and Oren Goldenberg, who led and co-owns Dreamtroit, a mixed-use redevelopment of the Lincoln Motor factory.

The development team said Packard Park will create jobs, preserve history, establish new housing options and build culture and community. The project will include:

• A new 393,000-square-foot, Class-A industrial building, designed to create 300 permanent good-paying manufacturing jobs, plus construction jobs
•  A renovated 117,000-square-foot legacy Albert Kahn Building, for community, culture, housing, and creative uses, including: 42 “make/live” affordable housing units and Detroit’s first indoor skate park
• MODEM – the Museum of Detroit Electronic Music
• More than two acres of indoor/outdoor public space and recreation areas.

Duggan noted that the plant, which represented 3.5 million square feet of industrial space over 47 buildings, was once known as the “Arsenal of Democracy,” before closing in 1956. 

“Five years ago, the Packard Plant was still standing as Detroit’s most iconic ruin, continuing to drag down the surrounding neighborhood,” Duggan said. “It took an incredible amount of work to gain title to the property and tear down everything that could not be saved in hopes for a day like this.”

Until 2022, the Packard property was owned by Fernando Palazuelo-controlled Arte Express, which, for nearly a decade, had owned more than 1 million square feet of the sprawling plant. Palazuelo accrued more than $1.5 million in unpaid taxes, water drainage costs and blight tickets before losing most of his portions of the plant to Wayne County due to the unpaid taxes. The city has since demolished multiple dangerous sections of the Packard structures on Concord and E. Grand Boulevard. 

An opportunity for redevelopment of the north side of the site will be overseen by Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield, Duggan said. Sheffield takes office as Detroit mayor on Jan. 1.

Sheffield joined Duggan and others for a Monday news conference, praising the project plans and saying that she’s committed to seeing the redevelopment project through.

“The Packard Park will be a symbol of what is possible when Detroiters, public partners, and committed developers work together with imagination and purpose,” said Sheffield. “This is how we honor our past while building our future — by preserving history, creating jobs, expanding housing, and investing in culture and community all at once.”

The project’s nonprofit partner, the Albert Kahn Legacy Foundation, will be Packard Park’s fiduciary in connection with the project’s philanthropic capital campaign for the legacy Kahn building, which faced demolition before the Packard Park plan was created.

The initiative began at Duggan’s request during the grand opening of Dreamtroit. He suggested the same adaptive-reuse strategy be used at the Packard Plant site, with a focus on reactivating the legacy Kahn building.

The Packard site is the birthplace of Albert and Julius Kahn’s pioneering reinforced-concrete system, which reshaped industrial engineering worldwide. When built it was the largest industrial facility worldwide with more than three million square feet and more than 36,000 employees. 

“I am thrilled to see this plan, which also will provide much needed recreational opportunities, community spaces and jobs on the east side of Detroit,” said District 3 Councilman Scott Benson, who now has the plant in his district due to redistricting. “We have waited a long time for progress, and this redevelopment plan represents better days ahead for the Packard site.”

Funding for the project will come from equity investment, commercial debt, philanthropy and various tax credits, along with state and local economic development tools.

“Where other efforts have stalled, we feel momentum and a spirit of collaboration to finally redevelop the Packard site as Packard Park,” said project co-developer Mark Bennett. 

The project is expected to be complete by 2029.

Interested parties can contact Packard Park’s leasing representatives John Boyd or Joe Stack of Signature Associates at jboyd@signatureassociates.com or jstack@signatureassociates.com. 

Additional information can be found at www.packardpark.com