FYI, Dano and Jed Davis did consider the purchasing and renovating the actual old Ford Factory, but given the structural deficiencies of the over-water pilings, they couldn't make it work.
That sounds concerning. Is the building salvageable if the pilings it's sitting on are not?
About half of the pier needs to be repaired. Its been falling into the river for years now. This is from 2010, and its worse now. What you can't see from this picture is how many of the pilings underneath need to be replaced. Its not in danger of collapsing in on itself (depending of course on how much load its carrying up top), but it requires a substantial number of new pilings to stabilize it for the long-term.
The pier and building can be fixed... but how much money are you willing to spend in order to do so? That a wealthy, civic-minded family decided to spend quite a few pretty pennies to build something new in order to house a type of use that itself will likely lose money each year, gives you a sense of how much money it will take to salvage the structure. The former factory building is currently used for storage- the type that does not require heavy loads nor requires temperature control; as well as a docking facility for a ship repair business.
