The former American Motors Corp. headquarters on Detroit's west side -- a distinctive but unmistakably blighted industrial complex, will be demolished to make way for a $66-million redevelopment, city officials announced today.
The former AMC Corp. site on Detroit's west side (Photo: Google)
Crain's Detroit Business reports:
The plan is to demolish the buildings for 728,000 square feet of "class A industrial space" that is "suitable for a new automotive parts supplier" and employ more than 300 people, according to a news release.
...Under the proposed development agreement, Kansas City, Mo.-based NorthPoint Development LLC would pay nearly $5.9 million to acquire 56 acres of publicly-owned property, including the city-owned AMC site, approximately 26 residential parcels owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority, and an 8.5 acre parcel immediately to the west recently purchased by the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, the release states.
The AMC Corp. moved to Southfield in 1975, and the Detroit site has been abandoned since 2010. The deal would require City Council approval. Crain's, again:
With the AMC project's proposed price tag, if it is approved as-is, it will not require a community benefits agreement. The city's Community Benefits Ordinance requires real estate developments with public buy-in costing $75 million or more, or tier 1 projects, to make certain commitments to mitigate negative impacts on neighbors. Northpoint's project falls under that threshold. It qualifies instead as a tier 2 project and all it's required to do under the same ordinance is to vaguely "partner" with the city as it goes about its work.
