The city is cleary victim of poor management, poor political decisions, etc,  etc but,  at this point there is a common effort to bring Detroit back...

And like you I have learned my lessons by stepping in pitfalls and land-mines over the years and have made conscious effort to not repeat my mistakes and take my licks..

MY your efforts be rewarded with great profits in the future. 

You can probably cash flow better there on paper than most areas, but it might require more effort on your end.

This combined with the fact the insulation would be coming out of the two walls we needed to fix, reenforced the decision to insulate the entire main level with closed cell spray foam.Once the subfloor was up, we learned the unevenness of the slab was more so than anticipated; The stairs to the second floor were not hung properly - I'm amazed they never moved in the past 20 years.Since we were now into more than a full gut on the main floor {with the framing repairs}, a decision was made to "patch-up" the second floor, rather than gutting it as well, as an effort to reduce the newly forecasted spend. 

When we purchased they were really pushing revitalization, but the efforts seem to be stalling.  

That would save you the cost and effort of eviction and get your apartment open sooner for an actual paying tenant.

I very much appreciate the effort you put in to research the area.  

@Matt Slakey- I have about as much experience in global overland travel as I do in REI, but I know several people who've spent several years on the road and have done countless hours of research into budgets and logistical questions.

If I as the buyer am going to be the one putting in the time, money and effort to realize the $350 a month and take all the risks that accompany that including the risk that the idea totally fails, then that's my profit to be made and not something I'm going to pay the seller in advance for as part of the purchase price.