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The fat lady sings

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AmeriMan View Drop Down
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    Posted: Apr/12/2013 at 6:21pm
The end...

larue390@comcast.net
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SEdmonds Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/23/2013 at 1:00am
That's when I started buying extra parts for my car (which was still a daily driver) as I knew there would be zero support from Chryco.

Edited by SEdmonds - Apr/23/2013 at 1:01am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AMC instigator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/04/2013 at 9:25am
I rememeber when it happened unfortunatelyCry. 25 plus years already.  That makes all the Eagles old cars as well.  Amazingly enough after 25 years Chrysler is getting bought up too. SH
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote purple72Gremlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/04/2013 at 10:59pm
Originally posted by AMC instigator AMC instigator wrote:

I rememeber when it happened unfortunatelyCry. 25 plus years already.  That makes all the Eagles old cars as well.  Amazingly enough after 25 years Chrysler is getting bought up too. SH
I remember it too..........................and in 2001, I started getting my Gremlin ready for 2002 Kenosha...............and thats when I found out that their wasnt hardly any AMC's in the junkyards...................very sobering.....ShockedOuch
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SC397 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/06/2013 at 11:47am

AMC’s Plymouth Road headquarters future in doubt

Daniel Strohl at 8:59 am   |   12 comments

AMXatPlymouthRoad_1100
SCCA AMX in front of the AMC Plymouth Road headquarters. Photo courtesy Eddie Stakes.

A quote from William Thompson, Lord Kelvin – “I’ve thought of a better way” – once graced the lintel above the entrance to the onetime American Motors Plymouth Road headquarters in Detroit. Nowadays, in contrast, the incomprehensible scribblings of graffiti painters mar the entrance to the otherwise stately building, an automotive landmark now facing an uncertain future.

PlymouthRoadsatelliteview_800According to a story last month in the Detroit News, the current owner of the office complex and facilities at 14250 Plymouth Road, Terry Williams, hasn’t paid $930,000 taxes on the property in the three years he has owned it and has admitted to “gutting it out.” He has denied accusations that he’s merely stripping the complex for its scrap value, however, and told the Detroit News that he plans to convert the buildings into a home for autistic children.

“Today, the rear loading docks have gaping holes and the grounds are littered with mountains of dirt and debris, including twisted metal from a partial demolition of the back buildings,” Christine MacDonald wrote in the Detroit News.

A look at recent satellite images shows that the powerhouse and a later addition to the plant have been torn down, leaving only the original Kelvinator facility. Williams was reportedly convicted in 2004 of running an automotive chop shop, but city officials said they found no evidence of scrapping activities at the plant. If Williams does not pay the taxes on the property, the county could repossess it as soon as spring 2014.

Kelvinator1927_700

Built in 1927 for Detroit-based appliance maker Kelvinator, the Amedeo Leoni-designed Plymouth Road facility became the headquarters for Nash – and later, American Motors – following the January 1937 Nash-Kelvinator merger. Though Nash and AMC automobile production remained in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Plymouth Road headquarters did turn out Sikorsky Model R-6 helicopters during World War II, as well as house the offices for Nash and AMC executives and the companies’ design and engineering staff. AMC sold off Kelvinator in 1968 and moved its headquarters to the 26-story American Center in Southfield, Michigan, in 1975, but kept the Plymouth Road facility as its engineering headquarters, a role the facility would fill until Chrysler bought AMC in 1987.

PROC_700

Chrysler then kept the Plymouth Road complex as its Jeep and truck engineering offices until June 2009, when it relocated those engineers to the Chrysler Technology Center. Following Chrysler’s spring 2009 bankruptcy, the disposal of the 1.4 million-square-foot, 54-acre complex (an old listing for the site pegged it at 1.5 million square feet and 57 acres) fell to Old Carco, the company formed to handle the assets Chrysler shed in its bankruptcy proceedings; Old Carco then put the complex up for sale with an asking price of $10.5 million, but sold it a year later for $2.3 million as part of a package deal to Manchester Plymouth LLC of Mount Clemens, Michigan.

Unlike RACER Trust, which was formed to handle some of GM’s discarded assets post-bankruptcy (including the former Kaiser-Frazer and Hydra-Matic assembly plant at Willow Run), Old Carco was under no obligation to sell former Chrysler assets to companies committed to creating jobs and revitalizing the surrounding community.

Of the former Nash/American Motors headquarters, only Plymouth Road and the American Center remain. Chrysler demolished the Kenosha assembly plant and headquarters in 1989.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AMC instigator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2013 at 12:58pm
Nice info Rick, thanks for posting it. SH
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote musictoyz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul/08/2013 at 5:53pm
awesome info and pics
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote SC397 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul/12/2013 at 12:10pm
I have met one of the 3 guys in the RWB Jackets. His name is Phil Tony.  He gave me a couple pictures of that race car. Kinda cool..
 
Here is a post from when they shut the Plymouth Road facility down.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SC397 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug/27/2013 at 11:16am

Months ago, Detroit News reported that the historic home of Kelvinator, American Motors, and Jeep-Truck Engineering, known in recent years as the Plymouth Road Office Complex (PROC), was reportedly being slowly destroyed as its new owner was tearing out valuable metals.

When the old Chrysler Group went into bankruptcy, PROC was not transferred to the new Chrysler Group; the bankrupt entity sold it to a new owner, who flipped it to Terry Williams, convicted in 2004 of running a “chop shop”, and who reportedly owed $930,000 in taxes on the property by April 2013. Williams claimed that he was not actually destroying the facility to get scrap metal, and said he had a federal grant to convert the building into a home for autistic children. The Detroit News appeared dubious about his evidence for having such a grant, and these photos, taken recently by former JTE electrical engineer Robert Klacza, show good cause for their skepticism.

The building was opened in 1927 as a refrigerator factory for Kelvinator.  While the building itself is in good shape and has a grand facade, and has been modernized to support truck and Jeep engineering and prototyping, it failed to sell during the mid-2000s with an asking price of $10 million.  The picturesque complex in an unsavory section of Detroit has multiple buildings, with 1.5 million square feet of space on 50 acres; that includes 370,000 square feet of R&D space, 500,000 square feet of engineering/computer room space, warehousing, and administrative/office space. The complex also had a health activity center, auditorium, and cafeteria.

The city was to have foreclosed in 2014, but appears to have moved forward more quickly, most likely as a result of newspaper coverage.

While efforts are under way to save old Ford plants in Detroit, no such rescue attempts appear to have been organized for this grand facility which has no shortage of historical significance; it may, indeed, be too late for any attempt at preservation or serious re-use, with cabling likely torn out. However, it is ironic that as Chrysler runs short on office space in Auburn Hills, a development center which was until recently used to design and prototype Jeeps and Dodge trucks is in the hands of the district court, exposed to vandals, thieves, and the elements.

 


 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote amcglass Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/08/2013 at 6:50am

Originally posted by AMC instigator AMC instigator wrote:

I rememeber when it happened unfortunatelyCry. 25 plus years already.  That makes all the Eagles old cars as well.  Amazingly enough after 25 years Chrysler is getting bought up too. SH


I remember this as well.   and to think  when I heard of it  I was kind of happy it wasnt Ford or Chevy that bought AMC   I was thinking that at that point of time that Chrysler would actually do something for the Hobby of AMCers and produce some parts for us.    Back in 89 I started my own mini Junk yard of only AMCs to try and save as much as I could   still have many parts and cars  but as we know they are getting harder and harder to get your hands on 

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