County treasurer cancels Chicago developer's $2M bid for Packard Plant

Wayne County now down to $405,000 bid for old automotive plant site

DETROIT – Wayne County has moved on to the third bidder in the sale of the old Packard Plant site.

Wayne County Treasurer Ray Wojtowicz met with Chicago developer Bill Hults last week Friday and agreed to extend until this afternoon a deadline to complete payment of the amount owed in relation to his bid to purchase the Packard Plant.

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Hults had paid $200,000 to the treasurer as a nonrefundable deposit on the purchase which was to be just more than $2 million. The treasurer had agreed to a timetable wherein the funds were to be received by 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15. The funds have not been received and there has been no communication from Hults, according to the county.

"This bidder has failed to perform and we will proceed to the third place bidder, Mr. Fernando Palazuelo. We will engage him for purposes of determining his intentions," said Wojtowicz. "Consistent with our procedures we will eliminate from the bid process those bids placed by the first two bidders and that will place the bid for Mr. Palazuelo at $405,000. We continue to look for the best conclusion of the auction process that is mandated by state law and hope work on the Packard Plant can commence soon."

Palazuelo is a real estate investor from Peru.

A Texas investment group originally won the bid for the site, planning to pay about $6 million for it. Wayne County leaders canceled that deal because of "failure to perform."