Walked through the old Packard Plant property yesterday, what a mess

I finally got a chance to tour the Packard Plant site with a buddy from the city planning office. Honestly, I knew it was bad but the amount of crumbling concrete and exposed rebar is way worse than any drone video shows. Some of those beams are just hanging there, looks like one bad windstorm could take out a whole section. Has anyone actually looked into the structural cost to make even a corner of that site safe for redevelopment?

3 comments

3 Comments

charliestone14d ago

Ever been on a roof that's been rotting for 30 years? That's basically what the whole Packard Plant is... one giant liability. Honestly, the structural steel alone is probably so rusted through you'd need to tear down and start over. The cost to shore up even one building would eat up any developer's whole budget. I've seen quotes for basic demolition on old industrial sites and it's brutal, way more than what people think. That place is a money pit no matter how you slice it.

scott.jana14d ago

@charliestone is totally right about the steel. My uncle worked in structural demolition for 30 years and he said the Packard's steel beams are basically just rust holding hands with more rust at this point. You'd be looking at millions just to stabilize one corner before you even think about building anything new.

angela68713d ago

Actually the steel thing gets oversimplified a lot. Not all the beams are in the same condition - some sections have way less exposure because they were enclosed longer before the roof collapsed. I've been inside parts of the Packard and the north side of building 103 still has decent structural steel in spots. The problem is nobody wants to pay for a proper assessment, they just assume everything is gone. You'd be surprised what a good engineering firm can find if you let them actually test the columns instead of guessing from the outside.