What started out as an ambitious stage complex and an industry training center but became a financial albatross to the city of Allen Park is in the process of being sold for $12 million.
The former Unity Studios, now known as Southfield Lease Properties, has entered into a purchase agreement with New York-based Time Equities, Inc., according to Joyce Parker, Allen Park’s state-appointed emergency manager.
Under the agreement, Time Equities will purchase the site under a land contract for $3.6 million at closing, Parker said, with the remaining $8.4 million to be paid out over a 7 1/2-year period.
If all goes well, the sale should close after due diligence is completed in up to 45 days.
Once the deal is finalized, Allen Park plans to use the sale proceeds to refinance the outstanding debt. It also won’t need to pay for taxes, insurance and other site costs, the Detroit News reported.
In 2009, Michigan native and LA-based post company owner Jimmy Lifton announced he was building a $146 million state-of-the-art production complex on 104 acres of land in Allen Park. When it is up and running, he said, the studio expected to employ 3,000.
“We will be constantly creating product on the lot, utilizing the Detroit area’s best asset – the creativity of its people.”
In August, 2009, Allen Park’s city council unanimously voted to sell $40 million in bonds to buy and improve 104 acres so Lifton could develop the studio as a tenant of the city.
A year the later the city evicted Unity Studio from the property for non-payment of rent – which Lifton denied. Lifton vacated the studio and disappeared back in LA, leaving Allen Park with a bad case of remorse.
The property purchase and some other financial issues led the city into receivership, and Parker was appointed as its emergency manager in October 2012.
A real estate company hired at the time to sell or lease the property evaluated it at about $20 million, but said it would probably sell for about $15 million.
