ICE looks to sell Romulus warehouse initially planned for detention center

Filed 1h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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Covert Affair

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Presidio of Monterey · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The federal government is selling off a Romulus, Michigan warehouse bought earlier this year for $34.7 million as an ICE detention center, along with six similar properties in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas and Utah, after plans for all of them were scrapped over the summer. The purchase price was 57% above the warehouse's previous sale value, and the current asking price has not been made public.

Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is marketing the vacant properties individually or as a bundle, describing the portfolio of more than 5.3 million square feet as offering investors ‘substantial value creation’ through lease-up. The Romulus facility drew sustained local opposition after its purchase, including a lawsuit from Michigan's Attorney General alleging DHS skipped required environmental review and failed to consult local officials.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Paying a premium for a warehouse, abandoning the plan, and then relisting it as a rare investment opportunity is quite a trick to pull off with taxpayer money. Somebody down the road who flips houses for a living would call that a bad flip, not a strategy. The lawsuit over skipped paperwork suggests the planning was about as thorough as the resale pitch.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Covert Affair · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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