DETROIT, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A would-be investor from Texas said a Wayne County official in Michigan may have decided in advance to cancel her $6 million bid for an abandoned 40-acre lot.
"It seemed he had already made up his mind to talk to the second bidder," said Texas doctor Jill Van Horn in an email to The Detroit News, the newspaper reported Thursday.
Van Horn was referring to Wayne County Treasurer Chief Deputy David Szymanski, who canceled her bid to buy the former Packard Plant after she missed a payment deadline.
The newspaper said county officials expressed concern over a thee-page statement released by a member of Van Horn's staff that was riddled with mistakes and said Van Horn was prepared to purchase every vacant property in Detroit.
Van Horn said the statement was "unscrutinized and unfortunate."
"I don't mean to say that our team is not good because they are but you can't expect all investors to be spelling bee champs either. I'm not going to defend it further since I did not write it," Van Horn wrote.
The Dallas Observer reported that Van Horn's bid had raised concern. The family physician from Ennis, Texas, proposed using the site, "to manufacture modular homes and offices."
The concern came from the point that Van Horn has "no apparent experience in manufacturing or development, nor does she have any evident connection to Detroit," the Observer said.
The newspaper added that Van Horn's Facebook page has "an alarming number of photos [that] feature cats."
The Detroit News said Szymanski had moved on, setting a deadline of Thursday for the second highest bidder, Bill Hults, a developer from Chicago, to come up with just over $2 million, which was the price before a bidding war, which included Van Horn, drove it up to $6 million.
