Police: Man dies at Packard Plant playing hide-and-seek

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the gender of the victim.

Detroit — A 21-year-old man was found dead at the abandoned Packard Plant Saturday morning, police said. 

Police said the man was with a group of friends playing a game of hide-and-seek inside the building on St. Aubin near East Ferry.  Police said the building is an extension of the 45-building plant. 

The group was playing the game between midnight and 1:30 a.m. on the ninth floor of the building. He ran off to hide and possibly fell through the elevator shaft on the ninth floor, police said.

Friends were unable to find him and left the building. They returned in the morning with flashlights to search for him. They found his body inside an elevator shaft on the first floor covered by debris, police said. 

Friends called Detroit police Saturday morning. 

Developers of the Packard Plant project at Arte Express purchased the property, with its 43 dilapidated buildings and 45 acres of decayed landscape, in 2014. 

The first phase of the project broke ground in May 2017, which included revitalizing the administration building and a nearby building. The project is estimated to cost $23 million and developer Fernando Palazuelo is financing the entire project himself. 

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The entire project, which has four phases across the property’s 45 acres, is expected to take up to 15 years.

srahal@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @SarahRahal_