250 jobs: Detroit sells land to Moroun for auto project

Billionaire businessman Manuel (Matty) Moroun is planning to build a new automotive supplier facility in Detroit that will add 250 new jobs at the long-fallow I-94 Industrial Park.

The Detroit Economic Development Corp., an arm of city government, voted this morning to sell 40 acres of land in the park to Crown Enterprises, a development firm owned by Moroun. Crown is working with a still-unnamed auto supplier and one of the Detroit Three to build a brand new 400,000-square-foot facility.

The 40-acre footprint is bounded by St. Cyril, Georgia, Sherwood, and Miller streets. The purchase price is $56,000 per acre, or $2.24 million.

The deal, if completed, would create a big boost for the I-94 Industrial Park, which up to now has remained something of an embarrassment for the city. Planned since the mid-1990s, the nearly 150-acre tract of land on Detroit's east side was cleared by the city in the expectation that new industry would be attracted by the site's combination of open land and proximity to expressways and rail lines.

But new development did not come, and for many years the site was overgrown with scrub vegetation and was the site of illegal dumping. One of the few enterprises already operating there is a logistics operation owned by Moroun that opened there in 2004.

A presentation this morning to the EDC board indicated the new project would be up and running later this year. Michael Samhat, president of Crown Enterprises, declined to name the supplier. Ans it was unclear this morning if it would be a manufacturing facility or a logistics operation of some kind.

"Today's announcement underscores the fact that the I-94 District is well-positioned to take advantage of the resurgence of the automotive industry," said Brian Holdwick, executive vice president, Real Estate and Financial Services, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

"This is an important project for the I-94 Industrial Park and the City of Detroit. It will create a significant number of jobs for Detroiters during construction, in addition to new jobs when the tenant is up and running by the end of this year," Holdwick added.

Various conditions need to be met for the sale to go through, including negotiation of a formal development agreement with the EDC, which controls the site on behalf of the city. Crown Enterprises would be responsible for any environmental clean-up costs.

Crown grew from Moroun's in-house corporate real estate management entity into a development and management company that focuses on transportation-related facilities throughout North America.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep