Late last year, a real estate investor from Lima, Peru, named Fernando Palazuelo asked if he could purchase the derelict old Packard plant in Detroit, probably the most iconic abandoned building in the city.

The deal was closed December 31, after he was declared the winner of a county-run auction and was required to pay $405,000 or €300,000 for it – based purely on the surface area of the site, that equates to 15 cents per square foot…

Now, the plan is to invest almost one thousand times more than that (an estimated $350- or €260- million) to turn it into a mixed-use development with residential and commercial spaces.

Mr. Palazuelo, 58, who rehabilitates decaying buildings around the world explained: “I am a real estate developer, but a very special one. I have always been entering cities that have problems in the past.”

He’s known for converting old, dilapidated buildings into useful spaces and even if “so many people have said to me that this is the very last place I want to be investing money, but for me, Detroit is my new home,” he concluded.

Check out the (older) video below – it shows one of the residents that will be evacuated once actual work begins…

By Andrei Nedelea

Story References: NY Times

Photo Credits: Wikipedia

VIDEO