Detroit officials announce proposed 28-acre redevelopment for old Packard Plant site, including new manufacturing facility

DETROIT (WWJ) -- One of Detroit's most iconic ruins is set for a massive transformation.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced Monday that the city has signed a letter of intent to redevelop the former Packard Plant site, on the city's east side.

Duggan says proposed plans for "Packard Park" include a new 393.000 square-foot manufacturing plant on the southern half of the site — along with community space, an indoor skate park, and an electronic music museum.

"It took about ten years to knock down 45 buildings, but we got it done," Duggan said, making the announcement alongside developers, and Detroit's Mayor-elect, Mary Sheffield. "And now we have people with a track record of redeveloping the Lincoln Motors site, but you oughta go over to the site and see it, but they did a beautiful job of reusing industrial space."

The old Packard Plant stopped production nearly 70 years ago, and was completely abandoned in the 1990s. "It has been a bad mark for the city of Detroit as far as a reminder of the industrial heyday gone wrong," WWJ's Jon Hewett reported.

The mayor's office says "Packard Park" will be a 28-acre mixed adaptive-reuse Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnership (P4), led by Packard Development Partners, LLC, alongside the City of Detroit, DEGC, the Albert Kahn Legacy Foundation and the Detroit Regional Partnership (DRP) which provided significant acceleration through its VIP Site Readiness Grant Program.

The project is expected to take a few years, potentially being completed by 2029, at a total cost of around $50 million.

"This 28-acre transformation site represents the kind of inclusive development that our residents deserve," Sheffield said. "We're talking about 300 good-paying manufacturing jobs, a world-class industrial facility, the restoration of a legacy historic building that will soon house 42 affordable housing make-live units."

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The city says funding for the project will come from a layered financing capital “stack,” including equity investment, commercial debt, philanthropy and various tax credits, along with state and local economic development tools.

It's not yet clear what might be made at the proposed plant. Officials did not immediately share any further details about the planned manufacturing facility.

Learn more about the "Packard Park" project at this link.