Have you ever wanted to possess your very own symbol of American decay? Something that says "we used to build a lot of cars, but now we build less of them?" A real fixer-upper? Well now you can, as the old Packard Plant in Detroit is coming up on the auction block, and the bidding starts at just $975,000.


The enormous factory was originally built from 1903 to 1911, and pretty purple Packards (you can't say that seventeen times fast, but if you can, upload a video of it to Youtube and send it to ballaban@jalopnik.com where it will go right to my spam folder) like the one below until 1958.


It's seen various uses since Packard shut down, but it's been essentially entirely abandoned since the late 1990's. Ever since then it's been used mainly by graffiti taggers and the bunch of guys who found a dump truck on the fourth floor and decided to push it through a hole in the wall:

That being said, it's still an enormous site and could be used for... anything, really. The auction is likely to take place sometime in late September, according to Crain's Detroit Business. The only problem is that we all know it's cheap, but nobody really knows what you'll be buying:

"That would be considered a steal in a lot of situations," said David Szymanski, Wayne County chief deputy treasurer. But as he also noted, this is not a normal situation.



The plant has long been a victim for scrappers, arsonists, graffiti taggers and vandals.



"There are more questions than answers" when it comes to assessing the condition and value of the property, Szymanski said.

At the very least, you'll be buying a place to host fully-sik-yo parties and some swanky art galleries, judging by the graffiti that's already in there:


If nothing else, maybe they can put in another Whole Foods. As Aaron Foley pointed out, it seems to be doing pretty well. What would you put in there?


Photos Credit: Bob Julius, Daniel Haaser, Rex Gray, Memories_by_Mike