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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Studebaker Hawk, post: 11619780, member: 51267&quot;]I happen to have intimate knowledge about this plant, it&#039;s history and the reasons for it&#039;s demise. My lifelong membership in clubs for Studebaker and Packard, and being close friends with renown Packard historians provide insight usually passed over by the MSM when this topic comes up.</p><p>In a nutshell, The Studebaker and Packard automobile companies merged in Oct of 1954. Technically Packard bought Studebaker, neither did due diligence on the other. To quote popular press of the merger: &quot;It was like 2 drunks trying to hold each other up&quot;&nbsp; Both companies were in obsolete facilities in Detroit and South Bend, both were in dire financial straits with sales falling like a rock. The Packard plant produced it&#039;s last real Packard in Detroit in June of 1956. That is when the plant closed for automobile production and was subsequently sold by Studebaker Packard who needed the funds for continuing operations in South Bend, IN </p><p>Investment companies purchased it for a bargain, and for many years successfully leased portions of the plant to many different companies. It was a quality bit of industrial real estate full leased until the middle 1970&#039;s.</p><p>Enter Coleman Young, mayor of Detroit from 1974 to 1994.&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Young" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Young" rel="nofollow">Coleman Young - Wikipedia</a></p><p>&nbsp;He changed the real estate tax structure for the city to tax businesses at higher rates to pay for his administrations lofty social programs.&nbsp; Not only did the businesses in the Packard plant flee the city very quickly, businesses of all kinds left the city. Detroit is indeed the poster child for poorly run major cities. It is common knowledge how bad the city is and will continue to be.</p><p>Just thought you might like to know.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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