The former Packard Motor Car Co. is back in the spotlight. Rather than the prospect of another round of restorative hope for the Packard Plant on Detroit’s east side, which ceased operations in 1958, a concrete redevelopment plan has finally emerged.
A community-focused industrial project, a concept never before utilized in Detroit on such a grand scale, seeks to transform what officials refer to as the “largest and most notorious ruin” in the city. By all accounts, it’s the last of an ill-fated breed.
In December, the city, which owns and recently demolished most of the 40-acre site that spans the north and south sides of East Grand Boulevard near Mount Elliot Street, signed a letter of intent with a development team to redevelop 28 acres of the parcel.
Now poised for action, the startup effort mirrors, in some ways, the early struggles of the Packard automotive operation. The original factory, built in 1902 by a group of investors led by Henry Bourne Joy, sat vacant for more than a year.
The challenge then was that James Ward Packard, who co-founded what became Packard Motor Car Co. with his brother, William, among others, wouldn’t commit to moving the fledgling auto company to Detroit from Warren, Ohio.
While Packard had agreed to be part of the new enterprise, a buyer for his separate electric company refused to go through with the sale unless the inventor stayed put in Ohio.
Exasperated, and under intense pressure to monetize what was the largest automotive plant of its time, Joy detailed the operation’s dire straits years later in a letter to Russell A. Alger, one of the original Packard investors (his estate along Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Farms is now part of The War Memorial).
“I remember well the depths of difficulty in which we were sunk, when after we built our carefully planned factory on the Boulevard and were ready to welcome Mr. Packard to move the factory from Warren and take charge of the institution here, he announced to us that he could not move,” Joy wrote Alger.
After months of trying to find a solution, Joy hired a few of Packard’s key employees, and the Detroit plant began to mass-produce cars after multiple attempts. It went on to become one of the most celebrated luxury auto companies in the world.
Today, new ground is literally being broken at the site on several fronts. Packard Park, to be located on the south side of the boulevard, will include a new 393,000-square-foot, Class-A industrial building, as well as a renovated four-story, 117,000-square-foot structure that originally was designed by noted architect Albert Kahn.
The redevelopment by a Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnership that includes Packard Development Partners — along with the City of Detroit, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the Albert Kahn Legacy Foundation, and Detroit Regional Partnership — will offer 42 apartments, community programming areas, recreational spaces, and a 2-acre community park.
Led by urban developers Mark Bennett and Oren Goldenberg, Packard Park is expected to open in 2028.
Meanwhile, to the north, the city is actively marketing the remaining 12 acres of the site, which includes Packard Motor Car Co.’s original administrative offices.
If the two projects are successful, Detroit will finally shed itself of the last of its “ruin porn” sites and replace it with a future built on imagination, repurpose, and community support.
