EOW March 2014

Transatlantic cable

last autumn at public auction and promptly ordered a 24-hour patrol to secure the plant from trespassers and metal scrappers. In a nod to the illustrious automotive past of the site, one of Mr Palazuelo’s redevelopment intentions is to attract auto suppliers as tenants. (“Packard Plant Deed Transfers to Peru-Based Developer,” 2 nd January) In a November interview with Mr Reindl, the new owner outlined plans for a mixed-use project, unfolding over 10 to 15 years or more and saving and restoring some of the old Packard buildings. Mr Palazuelo envisions six components – residential, retail, o ces, light industry, recreation and art – at an estimated cost of around $350 million. An upscale go-kart racing track is under consideration. The eldest sons of the family were top-ranked racers in their native Spain. The Free Press noted that Mr Palazuelo is no neophyte in realty redevelopment. His newly formed limited liability corporation Arte Express Detroit is an o shoot of a rm that has restored and repurposed more than 100 old buildings in Spain and Peru. The new Packard proprietor, who once lived in a restored castle, has said he will establish his personal apartment inside the plant later this year. † Although Mr Palazuelo has a reputation for amboyance, his demonstration to prospective tenants that the Packard plant is a t place for a residence may have a practical motivation. On Christmas Eve, photographers discovered the frozen body of a 21-year-old man in an old lavatory inside the plant. Although the cause of death was not immediately determined by the Wayne County medical examiner’s o ce, the man’s neck bore ligature marks.

half (53 per cent) of those polled said they believe the US automotive industry has the same or greater potential for growth as other major industries. The study also revealed a growing optimism among consumers about the automotive industry, with 44 per cent of respondents seeing it as stronger ve years from now than it is today. And 55 per cent of respondents said the industry will be vital to the US as it strives to compete with other major economic powers over the next decade. A developer from Peru plans a bright future for the blighted Detroit plant where Packards once rolled o the assembly line “The Packard complex has slowly deteriorated… and it lost most of its remaining industrial tenants in the late 1990s. Today it has become an international symbol of Detroit’s downfall and its sprawling ruins attract sightseers from as far as Japan.” The blighted industrial property described by Detroit Free Press business writer JC Reindl comprises roughly 40 acres whose centrepiece was one of the world’s most modern manufacturing facilities when it was opened in 1903. The plant turned out Packard cars, an immensely popular line, for half a century. When production ceased, in the mid-1950s, the multi-storey factory layout was obsolete, and the problem of what to do with the site has resisted every attempt at a satisfactory solution. Now, the Packard property on Detroit’s east side is in the hands of Fernando Palazuelo – of Lima, Peru – who won it for $405,000

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March 2014