The Silver Dome sold...CHEAP

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**Empchild**

The Pontiac Silverdome

Williams & Williams

Location: Pontiac, Mich.

Price: $583,000

When Hulk Hogan bodyslammed Andre the Giant here during Wrestlemania III in 1987, it probably didn't hurt nearly as much as the stadium's selling price hurt Pontiac. The enclosed stadium, the home of the Detroit Lions and Pistons, cost $55.7 million to build before opening in 1975. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $220 million today.

With all due respect to Michigan's struggles with the auto industry, a used car salesman would make more selling a 1975 AMC Gremlin than the 0.01% return Pontiac got when a Canadian developer won the Silverdome auction with a $583,000 bid last month. This was the home of Super Bowl XVI.

Reported by Jason Notte in Boston.

Copyrighted, TheStreet.Com. All rights reserved.

**Gornall**

Yeah... I can't believe it sold that cheap. Frankly, when I first heard someone talking about it I thought they said $583 MILLION. Let's be honest, the raw materials in there is worth more than the selling price, even after salvaging costs I'd imagine.

**Empchild**

that's what I was saying to a coworker at lunch. Tear it down sell the metals and then sell the land and BAMPH huge profit

**Lordhat**

Empchild wrote:that's what I was saying to a coworker at lunch. Tear it down sell the metals and then sell the land and BAMPH huge profit

I think you mean "Less of a loss". Demolition can cost quite a penny itself. Hazardous materials MUST be disposed of properly, and in a building that's 34/5 years old... there are going to be a LOT of hazardous materials, USUALLY coating the very stuff you want to sell to recoup your losses. It's entirely possible that just selling the property to a developer was the best plan for seeing maximum return. Now the cost of demolition/renovation is in the buyer's court, and the city is only out what they've already paid.

**Empchild**

understandably on the cost of demolition, but that can be recoupped by selling the building materials. Heck copper which im sure that place is coated with sells for a ton. All this wuill clear way allowing the real estate to be used for something more practical. The land is the true value in the deal the building is well just in the way.

**Bookwrack**

You don't seem to have any real concept of the costs involved, or what anything is worth. Copper is pretty valuable, at about three dollars a pound IIRC. That's a pretty neat deal when you can steal a hundred pound coil, not so good when you have to pay people to strip it out of a demolished structure.

Also, if the land was incredibly valuable, then the sale price would've reflected that, even if the buyer was considering demolition costs.

**Empchild**

Bookwrack wrote:You don't seem to have any real concept of the costs involved, or what anything is worth. Copper is pretty valuable, at about three dollars a pound IIRC. That's a pretty neat deal when you can steal a hundred pound coil, not so good when you have to pay people to strip it out of a demolished structure.

Also, if the land was incredibly valuable, then the sale price would've reflected that, even if the buyer was considering demolition costs.

actually I do have a very strong idea.. why you ask because I work for the GOV't. I know very well the cost of commercial explosives being as I order them for my states gaurd units . Also you sell the product to other companies who pay for things like that. The come in and tote it out and pay their people to break it down. Now onto your last point.....the property was valued at $220million if you read through the articles on it. All over yahoo have at it. It was put on public auction and no one expected it to go that cheap,BUT IT DID. So go google then please come back with a rebuttle NEXT!!!!

**Shadowbrand**

Go canada!

**Lordhat**

Empchild wrote:the property was valued at $220million if you read through the articles on it.

It was valued at that much, but apparently it was only WORTH 583k. Remember, something is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

**Empchild**

Agreed Lordhat, but remember it was put to auction and is why it sold so cheap.

**Bookwrack**

Empchild wrote:So go google then please come back with a rebuttle NEXT!!!!

Lol, Lrn2Rd noob.

$220 million was how much they originally paid for it, adjusted for inflation. As for how much it was WORTH, well... Like I said, if the land and salvage rights were so spectacularly valuable, that price would've been reflected in the auction.

And your 'government experience' is just about as devalued as the Silverdome. The price of explosives is about as irrelevant as you can get, or do you think that 'building demolitions and salvage' means piling a whole bunch of explosives in the middle of the arena, blowing it to smithereens, and then just collecting the copper wiring magically left behind afterwards?

**Empchild**

Ahhh children Ok... Auctions start at a low given price for commercial property 500,00 is a good start. You hire demolitions experts for proper placement, and then you sell all of thematerials to another company. They tote them away and you only have to pay for basic demolitions, and later on some land terraforming. Now don't start getting stupid and pissy brook because I canlled you a child inanother thread. Keep it to the topic as really your straying and attempting personal attacks.

**generalgrog**

Darn it, if I had known I could have bid on it and, BANG, instant mansion. With my own football field to play on.

GG

**Empchild**

generalgrog wrote:Darn it, if I had known I could have bid on it and, BANG, instant mansion. With my own football field to play on.

GG

Can you imagine the property taxes you would pay on that. Wonder if they were shooting for something similar to those gov't renewal programs where you buy a building for a buck and restore it.

**reds8n**

If we could please refrain from personal attacks and name calling and return to any discussion of the OT that would be good.

The building may once have been worth much more than it was bought for, but ultimately it is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. And any such auction is likely to have factored in the value of the land, reclaimed materials and so on versus the cost of getting them, removal of waste materials and so on.

Play nicely now.

Darn it, if I had known I could have bid on it and, BANG, instant mansion. With my own football field to play on.

Indeed, if we'd known it was going to go that cheap then we'd have organised a Dakka whipround and bought the place for our own fell and terrible purposes.

**Bookwrack**

Empchild wrote:Ahhh children Ok... Auctions start at a low given price for commercial property 500,00 is a good start. You hire demolitions experts for proper placement, and then you sell all of thematerials to another company. They tote them away and you only have to pay for basic demolitions, and later on some land terraforming. Now don't start getting stupid and pissy brook because I canlled you a child inanother thread. Keep it to the topic as really your straying and attempting personal attacks.

If you say, 'hey, I know explosives, it'd be cheap and easy!' and I call you out on why it wouldn't be cheap and easy, that's called 'punching holes in your argument,' not 'personal attacks,' but who am I to contradict the declaration of a mighty mod like you?

It's nice that you know how auctions start, and think you need to explain that to us. You see, after that low start, if there is interest in a property, bids will continue to come in. If a property has significant real estate or salvage value, then people will continue to bid on it, basing their bids on how much worth they think they can get out of the property. So a final bid of less than $600k demonstrates...

**Empchild**

Brook I was not at the auction and I cannot tell you why it didn't sell for more. Hence part of the overall discussion here. As per the explosives yes they are cheap, and most major demolition companies have explosive experts on hand with engin. degree to handle building implossions. It is cheaper to blow a building up then to take a wrecking ball to it on that point you have to agree.

**Bookwrack**

In terms of making it an ex-building, yes. In terms of salvaging anything from it? Either way you still need to dispose of thousands of tonnes of concrete, rebar, and then things that can't just be thrown in a landfill, which alone will run into the millions.

You're stating that the land could be very valuable as well as the scrap cost of the facilities. I'm pointing out that if either of those were true, then it should've sold for much more. Which leads to the conclusion that however valuable the real estate is, it's not enough to offset the cost of tearing down the dome.

For something that size, salvage costs are never going to come to offsetting the price tag on demolition. They're just too many tonnes of waste that need to be disposed of. It'll help ease the pain, but that's about it.

It's an aging sports facility with the associated upkeep costs, and nobody really wants that.

**Empchild**

Ok I see your point on that, but all I was implying is that Im sure their are companies out their willing to buy up the rubble and remove it.

**Bookwrack**

That's a given, but those wouldn't be the companies interested in buying the Silverdome. They'd be the ones the buyers contacted sometime after the fact, which means the buyers are paying out even more on top of the dome's purchase price.

**Empchild**

No your right brook the buyer is paying something heavy in escro(or however that is spelled), but obviously they have something big p,lanned for that land that will net them some good money otherwise that canadian would not have bought it.

**dogma**

The land is worthless right now, as Detroit is next to worthless as a city. I recall reading that something on the order to 30% of it is uninhabited, with many homes priced as low as 10k.

It seems most likely that the buyer intends to retain the land in the hopes that property values will normalize over time. At which point he will either re-develop the property, or sell it off for a tidy profit.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Empchild wrote:Agreed Lordhat, but remember it was put to auction and is why it sold so cheap.

It wasn't valued at 220 million. That's what it would have cost to construct it in inflation adjusted dollars. That's not the same thing as value. The value of the stadium is determined by what a seller is willing to accept, or a buyer is willing to pay. In this case 583,000 dollars.