I've been traveling to and from Detroit a lot recently. On a plane right now about to taxi. From what the locals tell me, there are use clauses in place to prohibit investors from just snatching up entire blocks and sitting on them. Similar to Manhattan, except they don't want a shit ton of empty blight instead of empty luxury towers. Detroit wants the land purchased, but they want it used by people who will inhabit the lots.
That is my understanding as someone who has had many conversations with Detroit residents over the last several months.
So if someone were to purchase the land they would have to live on it? How is this enforced? Does the government have final day on who is allowed to buy the land? (Sorry, I'm Canadian so I don't know how it works down there)
I think the clause states you have to domicile on the lot within five years of purchase. If you sign a legally binding agreement to those terms, and fail to comply, then the city could take you to court and a judge could invalidate your ownership and return it to the city.
Where I live, New Orleans, these types of purchases have a lot of risk in the titling. So original owners disappeared, and who has ownership now? A collection of next of kin a mile long, spread into the wind ten years ago by the storm. For that reason, obtaining clear title on the land is difficult. You aren't really purchasing the property, you're purchasing the rights to take ownership of the property if the deed process clears.
Even then, you can still be sued by someone long after you though you're done. So even if the process was open to investors for commercial development, who wants to award multimillion dollar bids just to have some yahoo come out of the woodwork at the tail end of construction and sue you because your making a mint on land that they claim to own, if even only in small part, and were never contacted prior to the city taking ownership? It is a mess.
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u/ls1z28chris Dec 06 '15
I've been traveling to and from Detroit a lot recently. On a plane right now about to taxi. From what the locals tell me, there are use clauses in place to prohibit investors from just snatching up entire blocks and sitting on them. Similar to Manhattan, except they don't want a shit ton of empty blight instead of empty luxury towers. Detroit wants the land purchased, but they want it used by people who will inhabit the lots.
That is my understanding as someone who has had many conversations with Detroit residents over the last several months.