A Remarkably Simple Idea to End the Cycle of Abandoned Factories

Buildings crumble much less easily than the companies inside them do. And because of this reality, whole communities, particularly in the industrial Midwest, are littered with ghostly manufacturing plants that once produced automobiles, or the parts that went into them, or the components of those parts.

More than half of the auto plants originally built in Michigan have closed, according to the Center for Automotive Research. Nationwide, the statistics are roughly the same. Some of these properties are eventually repurposed. But at last count, 135 former auto plants around the U.S. are now simply sitting there empty, sprouting weeds and dragging down the property values around them. And that's just the auto industry. This same story story recurs any time the commercial owners of a gas station, or a strip mall, or a factory belly up and walk away, leaving structures that may be environmental hazards as much as eyesores.