Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
The current hotel is a dump, and has very low rates. So maybe the hotel use is safe, but not that operator & brand. That tower will need a full redevelopment. And it's enormous, something like 1,300 rooms. Very hard to fill when there isn't a special event.
I'd bet a hotel use would be combined with residential, which is likely a safer long-term play. Do a luxury 400-room hotel, and convert the rest to high end rentals.
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I'm not sure that the shape of the building is conducive to residential, but I'll leave that to the architects to discuss. I do have a hard time believing that Marriott is ready to walk away from that property. Marriott just upgraded all of the rooms in the Westin Book Cadillac. Marriott also just signed on to bring the first JW Marriott to Metro Detroit at the former Joe Louis Arena site, which is just a a stone's throw from the RenCen. They are by far the most bullish hotel chain on downtown Detroit, so it would be a big surprise to me if they pulled out of this property.
I think what is most likely to happen is the demolish most of the office towers and then build residential towers in their place. They'll also try to restore some of the street grid and reconnect it to the rest of downtown. The redevelopment of that site will center on the hotel tower. They'll also probably try to develop an urban destination center with retail, restaurants, and probably a grocery store. Probably something like a small scale Deutsche Bank Center (formerly the TimeWarner Center).
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