Winning Packard plant bidder to make modular homes

10/28/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DETROIT  — A Texas woman who placed the winning bid for a sprawling former Detroit car plant says she wants to build modular homes and offices at the site that’s become a symbol of the city’s economic decline.

Dr. Jill Van Horn won the property tax foreclosure auction last week with a bid of $6 million. The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News report she’s a family practice physician from Ennis, Texas.

Van Horn spokesman Davis Marshall says the “modular homes and offices will be constructed on the site and shipped all over the world.” A statement says Van Horn is joined by “partners and investors from Detroit, Wall Street and international firms.”

If Van Horn’s team doesn’t produce the $6 million, the property would be offered to the next-highest bidder.