Whitehead, private equity firms had exactly your idea ready for Detroit. When GM went bankrupt in 2009 they saw it as an opportunity to clean the slate. With the existing infrastructure and few unions to have to fight private equity was looking at dozens of possible manufacturing startups.
With Obama's bailout of GM and the other big car companies, and with the unions still firmly in control private equity took flight like so many butterflies never to be seen again in Motor City.