Packard-Plant Buyer Predicts Rebirth for Symbol of Detroit Decay
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As urban ruins go, not much tops Detroit’s Packard plant, a sprawling corpse of steel and brick that hasn’t produced a car since 1956 and that became a haven for scrap thieves, arsonists and the homeless.
Where others see 40 acres (16 hectares) of devastation, Fernando Palazuelo of Lima, Peru, sees charisma, architectural challenge -- and a bargain. He paid $405,000 in a tax-foreclosure sale to obtain the industrial wreck by year-end. He plans to make it a vibrant hub of automotive suppliers, offices, shops, lofts and maybe even a go-kart track in the city that filed the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy.