“As urban ruins go, not much tops Detroit’s Packard plant, a sprawling corpse of steel and brick that hasn’t produced a car since 1956 and that became a haven for scrap thieves, arsonists and the homeless.
“Where others see 40 acres (16 hectares) of devastation, Fernando Palazuelo of Lima, Peru, sees charisma, architectural challenge — and a bargain. He paid $405,000 in a tax-foreclosure sale to obtain the industrial wreck by year-end. He plans to make it a vibrant hub of automotive suppliers, offices, shops, lofts and maybe even a go-kart track in the city that filed the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy.”
“’It’s the best opportunity in the whole world,” Palazuelo, a 58-year-old developer, said in an interview in Detroit. He said he’ll use his experience restoring dozens of buildings in Lima and his home country, Spain, to begin a $350 million makeover in Detroit. He plans to live at the site.'”