Photo gallery: Mysterious demolition work on Detroit's east side generates speculation for third straight week

DETROIT, MI - Mysterious demolition work continues within a six-block radius between St. Aubin and Chene on Detroit's east side, and its led to plenty of speculation in the neighborhood.

For the third straight week, demolition crews that appear to be from Oakland and Genesee Counties have been hard at work tearing down blighted buildings and grading soil for a secret project.

Why is the project secret? None of the demolition crew members I caught up with over the weekend appear able or willing to say.

All they could say was that they're getting orders from people who often patrol the area in black FBI-looking sedans.

Detroit resident Marc Alan, who owns several buildings and parcels of nearby land, claims he's under the impressive crews are clearing the way for urban farmland.

"It's going to be an extension of Eastern Market," Alan said from his car parked near Chene and Erskine. "I'm convinced; they're clean it all up.

"It will be a farm; I will bet on it."

Alan told me he recently sold 30 lots he owned in the city, and then he handed over a business card with his number and the name "J.C. Moneymaker" on it.

"I'm always ready to sell," said Alan, who claims to own buildings and land from St. Aubin to McDougal, including the Downtown Boxing Gym on St. Aubin. "You'll see Detroit boom 20 to 50 years from now, but you need about five years to stabilize first.

"But it's 20 to 50 years from now where people will start picking up greenspace."

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Photo gallery: Mysterious demolition work on Detroit's east side generates speculation for third straight week