The first Packard is built at Packard Electric, founded in Warren, Ohio, by brothers James and William Packard.
Detroit investors, led by Henry Joy, buy controlling interest in Packard Motor Car Co.
Packard moves into new factory, designed by Albert Kahn, along East Grand Boulevard.
Kahn designs Building #10, the first factory ever built of reinforced concrete. He revolutionizes the design of factories nationwide.
Packard builds Liberty engines at the plant for U.S. military aircraft.
Packard becomes the dominant luxury car in the U.S., outselling Cadillac and other competitors combined.
Packard builds aircraft and marine engines for the U.S. military and World War II allies. At peak production in 1943, the company has 36,000 employees, almost all at the Detroit plant.
The last Packard is built at the East Grand Boulevard plant; Packard buys out Studebaker, a higher-volume carmaker based in South Bend, Ind., and becomes Studebaker-Packard.
Last Packard built in Detroit, at a facility on Conner Avenue.
The last Packard is built in South Bend; the last caretaker of the plant on East Grand Boulevard is laid off. The company sells off parts of the plant and leases out others. The site becomes an industrial and warehousing center.
Packard Properties of Illinois takes out a mortgage from Land and Norry Associates, a partnership of Edward Land and Irving Norry. The partnership now has a mortgage interest in the plant.
1987: Aug. 12
Packard Properties sells the plant to Bioresource, a company founded by businessman Aziz Khondker. Bioresource does not pay its property taxes.
The City of Detroit and State of Michigan foreclose on the property.
Bioresource shareholders oust Khondker. Edward Portwood, a master electrician and tenant in the plant, becomes president of Bioresource and manager of the 3.5-million-square-foot property, which has tenants but becomes a site for late-night dance parties that draw drug users.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finds combustible liquids and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination on the southern end of the property and launches a $1-million cleanup.
Facing foreclosure, Bioresource files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
1997: July 1
Now owned by Portwood, Bioresource agrees to start managing the plant for the city, including the collection of about $46,000 in monthly rents from tenants.
1998: Aug. 21
Portwood collapses at his desk in the plant and dies of a heart attack at age 36. Soon after, Dominic Cristini appears at the plant, asking to buy it from Portwood's widow. Probate records show she put the value of Bioresource at $3,000. Cristini takes over the plant and Bioresource that fall.
1998: Nov. 20
The Detroit City Council votes to oust Bioresource as property manager. The Detroit Police Department's gang squad is assigned to months of 24-hour surveillance of the property.
The city tells tenants they must be gone by Feb. 1, 1999. The state signs a $4-million deal with Diamond Dismantling to tear down the plant. A second contractor is hired to remove some 400,000-500,000 illegally dumped tires.
Demolition crews begin work, but the job is fraught with problems, including asbestos removal.
1999: Feb. 11
A new entity, called OPPMAC, is created to acquire Land and Norry's mortgage interest. (OPPMAC is believed to be an acronym for Old Packard Plant Mortgage Acquisition Corp.) Court records later show that Cristini is president of OPPMAC.
OPPMAC sues the city and wins a court order to halt demolition.
2000: Aug. 10
Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Callahan allows OPPMAC to redeem the property by paying back taxes. He concludes that the city failed to notify Land and Norry of the 1993 foreclosure.
2000: Oct. 6
Three businessmen -- Romel Casab, Fouad Sitto and Gasper Fiore, or their companies -- pay $700,000 in back taxes to redeem the property amid rumors that it could become a casino site.
2004: May 12
Cristini is charged with conspiracy to distribute the drug ecstasy from an abandoned school across the street from the plant, where he lived.
Cristini pleads guilty and is later sentenced to 70 months in federal prison.
The Michigan Supreme Court declines to hear arguments over ownership of the plant.
2007: Feb. 15
The city concedes that the plant belongs to Bioresource and tenders possession of the property to the company, but fails to update its own property records, which, for the next three years, show the city as the owner.
Concerned about increasingly dangerous conditions, the Detroit Fire Department orders its crews to stay out of the plant when it catches fire.
2008: Feb. 29
With Cristini in prison, Casab identifies himself in court records as an owner of Bioresource.
2011: April 1
Cristini is released from federal custody.
The Detroit City Council approves demolition orders for the plant.
The EPA returns to the plant to remove seven drums containing hazardous paint waste. It sends Bioresource a bill for $35,000 for the cleanup but says it gets no response.
Wayne County begins foreclosure proceedings against Bioresource for unpaid taxes, which total $747,663.
Sources: Free Press research; Packard historian Jim Balfour; records from the Environmental Protection Agency, State of Michigan, City of Detroit, Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office and Wayne County Circuit Court
• READ THE SERIES: The Packard Plant: Big. Ugly. Dangerous.
• INTERACTIVE PHOTOS: The Packard Plant: Then and now -- interactive comparison pictures
• MAP: Interactive aerial photo of the Packard Plant: Decades of neglect
• TIMELINE: History of the Packard Plant
• PHOTOS:Packard Plant present day
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