Private landowners complicate reshaping of Detroit

The Detroit News reports:

Michael G. Kelly favors sweatshirts to suits, drives a Ford F-150 and filed for bankruptcy about a year ago claiming he had only $431 in his checking account.

He also controls more Detroit properties than any other private landowner.


The Grosse Pointe Woods investor has quietly spent two decades amassing 1,152 parcels in Detroit, city records show. Most are barren lots and empty buildings picked up for $500 or so apiece at tax foreclosure sales. The city says many are so dilapidated that Kelly's firms owe $100,000 from 139 blight violations since 2005.

"If you walked up to him on the street, you wouldn't know that he was a land baron," said Avery Williams, a city attorney. "He's a guy in blue jeans walking around looking like he's working on somebody's building."

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