Detroit proclaims redevelopment of long-vacant American Motors Company website

Earlier this month, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced that a forsaken 56-acre site along Plymouth Road on the city’s west side that once played headquarters to the long-defunct American Motors Corporation (AMC) will be potentially redeveloped into a 728,000-square-foot Class A Industrial Space. Missouri-headquartered project developer NorthPoint Development will work to secure a tenant for the proposed facility, which the city has said is suitable for a new automotive parts supplier and is expected to generate more than 300 permanent jobs once it becomes operational in late 2023 or early 2024. The city also noted in a press release that NorthPoint will seek out a tenant that has committed to preferencing Detroit residents in its hiring process in lieu of tapping out-of-town prospects.

If the estimated $66 million project is green-lit in early 2022 as anticipated after a slew of required approvals from various city agencies and the Detroit City Council, environmental remediation and demolition work would begin later next year.

Referred to by the city as “another massive vacant eyesore,” the old AMC complex is anchored by a sprawling landmark structure that has sat empty since 2010. The complex’s main administration building, with its art deco office tower and three-story factory and power plant tucked behind, was designed by Amedeo Leoni and William E. Kapp for Detroit architectural firm Smith, Hinchman and Grylls (now SmithGroup) and completed in 1927 for pioneering home refrigerator manufacturer the Kelvinator Corporation.

In 1937, Kelvinator merged with Wisconsin-based Nash Motors and the building became headquarters to Nash-Kelvinator. In 1954, Nash-Kelvinator merged with Hudson Motors to form AMC, and the facility was subsequently converted from a design and research facility for home appliances into a major auto hub. During its mid-century heyday, AMC designed a slew of classic American vehicles at the Plymouth Road facility including, most (in)famously, the Gremlin and Pacer. Following AMC’s 1987 takeover by Chrysler, the facility remained active as a research and design outpost for Dodge Trucks. Chrysler later decamped in 1996, although the plant wasn’t ultimately shuttered until 2009. A twisty, decade-long real estate saga followed in which the vacant building fell into an advanced state of disrepair.

“One by one, we are taking down the massive vacant buildings that for too long have been a drain on our neighborhoods and our city’s image and putting something new in their place,” said Duggan in a statement. “We’re seeing that happen now at the former Cadillac Stamping Plant where Northpoint is building a new parts facility for Lear, we’re about to see them do it again here at the former AMC headquarters. I expect we will announcing plans for other such sites in the city very soon.”

While news of the historic building’s demolition hasn’t (yet) led to considerable uproar from preservationists, some have wondered if the building could perhaps be spared from the wrecking ball, restored, and incorporated into the redevelopment scheme. Wrote Amy Elliott Bragg for a recent commentary piece published by Crain’s Business Detroit:

“[…] Detroit has failed for decades to take a comprehensive, proactive approach to preservation that would protect sites like the AMC. Detroit has always had bigger problems to solve, or so the argument goes whenever the fate of a single historic building is weighed against other interests: job creation, economic opportunity, neighborhood revitalization — even though we have plenty of examples, in Detroit and abroad, of how historic preservation can accomplish all of these goals.

The AMC Building is worth saving as a time capsule of Detroit industry. It illustrates our manufacturing dominance beyond the motor, the rise of electric refrigeration, the Arsenal of Democracy and milestones in automotive history. It’s also architecturally striking, with an art deco-detailed central tower that is a neighborhood landmark.”

In a statement shared by Detroit News, Duggan said that the building has been “so stripped down by past owners that nothing is salvageable.”

The old, publicly-owned AMC site actually comprises just a chunk of the larger redevelopment zone. As detailed by the city, its not-yet-approved $5.9 million deal with NorthPoint also entails the acquisition of roughly 26 adjacent residential parcels owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority as well as an 8.5-acre parcel to the west that was recently purchased by the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

In addition to finding a tenant committed to hiring locally, NorthPoint has also pledged to embark on a series of green infrastructure projects on both sides of the redevelopment site to better manage stormwater and provide a natural buffer between the complex and nearby residential areas. Per the city, NorthPoint will also invest in enhancements at Mallett Playfield, which is located immediately west of the AMC site, and a new greenspace beltline located between the east side of the development and Shirley Street.

Like Duggan, who has said that the redevelopment of the AMC campus marks a major effort to further “erase the ruin porn from the city’s landscape,” some area residents have long-lamented the presence of the iconic but decaying building and deemed it as an eyesore. In a statement, Pastor QuanTez Pressley of the nearby Third New Hope Church said that “[…] this plant has come to represent the decline and disinvestment this community has endured for years.” He noted that news of the site’s redevelopment “signals to community residents and stakeholders alike that we have not been forgotten. We hope that this investment will spark other businesses and corporate partners to see the great potential this community has.”

AN will share further details as this major Detroit redevelopment project progresses.