Two years ago, American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. decided to close most of its 2.5 million-square-foot Detroit Manufacturing Complex after a collapse in labor negotiations with the UAW. Then last June, the company announced that almost all the complex was going to be demolished.

Now, after the last 300 jobs at the complex were terminated and 1.9 million square feet of it were razed last year, an out-of-state buyer is close to purchasing about 72 acres of vacant land at the 111-acre site at I-75 and Holbrook Street.

Stuart Lichter, president and chairman of the board for California-based Industrial Realty Group LLC, confirmed to Crain's he expects to close on the purchase this week and plans build-to-suit industrial projects there. Lichter said he has at least one tenant lined up for a build-to-suit building but would not identify who it is.

Lichter's company website says Industrial Realty has developed more than $1 billion in corporate and governmental properties and has more than 80 million square feet under ownership or management. He said Detroit's industrial market is primed for development because of a lack of modern space.