Detroit Plans $50 Million Electronic Music Museum, Indoor Skate Park Inside Iconic Abandoned Packard Plant
The ambitious redevelopment in the birthplace of techno is expected to be completed by 2029.
Detroit officials have unveiled plans to transform the abandoned Packard Automotive Plant, one of Michigan’s most notorious ruins, into a mixed-use development centered around the city’s electronic music heritage.
Mayor Mike Duggan announced Tuesday that the city has signed a letter of intent for a 28-acre redevelopment of the 3,500,000-square-foot complex that will include the Museum of Detroit Electronic Music (MODEM), affordable housing units and the city’s first indoor skate park. The project aims to preserve a dilapidated yet historic building while creating new economic opportunities for the surrounding neighborhood.
“Five years ago, the Packard Plant was still standing as Detroit’s most iconic ruin, continuing to drag down the surrounding neighborhood,” Mayor Duggan said. “It took an incredible amount of work to gain title to the property and tear down everything that could not be saved in hopes for a day like this.”
Designed by Albert Kahn and built between 1903 and 1911, the site was once one of the world’s most advanced and expansive automotive manufacturing complexes, symbolizing Detroit’s rise as the center of American industrial innovation by playing a pivotal role in the early development of mass-production techniques. After Packard ceased operations in 1956, the vacant site deteriorated over decades into one of the nation’s most infamous examples of industrial decline and Detroit’s long economic downturn.
Often cited as the birthplace of techno, Detroit fostered the genre in the early 1980s as local innovators harnessed the city’s electronic experimentation as it grappled with that post-industrial upheaval. Pioneered by the Belleville Three (Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson) Detroit techno began in basement studios and underground clubs before laying the foundation for an international electronic music movement while remaining a vital expression of the city’s identity. Detroit now hosts the country’s preeminent techno and house music festival, Movement, which is poised for its 20th anniversary in 2026.
The estimated $50 million development will feature a new 393,000-square-foot industrial building expected to generate 300 manufacturing and construction jobs. The renovated 117,000-square-foot Kahn building will house MODEM as well as 42 “make/live” affordable units, creative programming spaces and more than two acres of public recreation areas.
Detroit Mayor-elect May Sheffield emphasized the project’s cultural significance.
“For more than 60 years this site sat idle,” he said. “Today, we declare that those days are over. This is how we honor our past while building our future — by preserving history, creating jobs, expanding housing and investing in culture and community all at once.”
The project will be funded through equity investment, commercial debt, philanthropy, tax credits and state and local economic development programs, according to MLive. Construction is projected for completion by 2029.
