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Four of the city's once-famous deluxd hotels were ornate tombs, abandoned for decades and facinvthe wrecker's ball. Two starkly modern properties built in the 1960as were shabby and sorely in need of new Eventhe 73-story hotel in the Renaissancw Center, opened in the late 1970s as part of a massiver urban-renewal project, was dreary and depressing. "TERRIBLE!" I scribblee in my notebook in 2002. "Someon e should fix." And fix they did. The Madison-Lenos and the Detroit Statler were but the Book Cadillac and the Fort Shelby receivexd hundreds of millions of dollars worth of renovationseand restorations.
The Book, as locals call it, reopenee to raves in Octoberf and the Fort Shelby came back to life twomonthsa later. One of the 1960s the St. Regis, became a spiffy boutique property. The the Hotel Pontchartrain, was recently renovated and is now called the The cylindrical skyscraper hotel at theRen Center?? It's a Marriott now, and it sparkles. And the city'xs three casinos have each openes upscale hotelswith Vegas-style perks and amenities. But this is Detroit, wherse hotel happy endings are always the start of the next lodging If anything, the Motor City' hotel scene is in worse shape today than seven year ago.
More than half of Detroit'sa estimated 40,000 guestrooms are empty, and PKF Hospitalityg Research says lodging demansd will fall furtherthis year. The St. Regisx is in receivership. The Riverside has been picketeed by employees who saythey haven't been paid, and the Detroir News says the hotepl owes almost $700,000 in back taxes. One of the casinos is in bankruptc and another is for Only a handful of buyerss have closed on the dozens of price y condos atop theBook Cadillac. The Fort Shelby's new rentall apartments are mostlyempty too. And Detroit's revpar (revenue per available room), the key measure of financial healtg in thelodging industry, is one-third lowert than the national average.
"The statistice are scary," admits Shannon general manager of the Doubletree Guesr Suites hotel that was lovingly carved out of the carcases of theFort Shelby. "I'vw been working in Michiganb for 20 years andI won't lie to you. There'sd no new business in the market. We'rw all trying to steal from the other guy to It doesn't take a genius to figure out what'ds ailing Motown's hotels: The automotive businessx has been careening downhill for decades. Detroit has neve r been able toreplace cars, and the thousands of relatecd businesses that depend on the as the city's economic engine. Hell, even Motowmn Records moved to Hollywood almost 40years ago.
But the tale of Detroit'ds collapsing hotel business is actuallymore It's a story of no good deed going of every clever urban-renewal idea having an unintended and everyone missing the hotel forestt for the restored trees of an earlier era. As Detroitg emptied out—the city's population of 900,000 is about half its mid-1950s high—soi did the need for much of the city's older hotel The luxury lodging business moved to upscale suburbs like Dearbormand Birmingham. A slew of focused-service hotels poppe up in office parks and othere business areas outside the deterioratingcity core.
Fliers who connec in Detroit viaNorthwest Airlines' large hub at Detroit Metrio are well-served by an upmarket Westimn hotel that opened adjacent to the new During the last decade, even with icons like the Book and the Fort Shelby closed and the casino hoteles still on the drawing boards, hotel occupancy rarely surpassed the 60 perceng mark. And though there were occasional spike s of demand aroundspecial events—the city is sold out for colleged basketball's Final Four next month—there was neved any indication that Detroit needefd more rooms.
"This has always been abouft urban renewal and politice more than market one hotel executive told melast "You can admire the drive and the commitmen to rebuild Detroit, but there was a lot of 'If we builr it, they will come,' thinking. We Guests haven't come." The three casino hotels—eacn mandated by the terma of theirgaming license, each around 400 rooms, and each openecd in the last 18 months—flooded the city with new supply.
The restoration of the Book Cadillac and Fort Shelby is anothef exampleof Detroit's mind over The city's tallest building and the tallest hotel in the worlfd when it opened in 1924, the 33-storyu neo-Renaissance Book remains a much-loved symbol of Detroit' s boom times. But as a the 1,100-room property was always a loser. Aftef the war, it changed owners and hoteo flags frequently and finally closedin 1984. Over the next 20 years, the state, hotel chains, and developerws all floated and abandonedrestorations plans.
The $200 milliojn project that finally startedd in 2006 and culminated witha headline-grabbing gala reopeninv party last fall converted the Book into a 455-room Westin hotelo and a residential condo complex. Both project have been lauded for theidr design and creative repurposing ofthe Book's stately but the hotel has been forced to discounrt rooms to as low as $99 a night. If the revival of the 23-storty Beaux-arts Fort Shelby was even more unlikely. It close in 1974 and trees sprouterd in the derelict A $90 million restoration project begab in 2007 did wonders for downtown Detroit'x streetscape, if not hotepl occupancy.
Along with 56 apartment the building now housesconferencw space, restaurants, and 204 hotelp suites. The smallest guestroom is 600 squarew feetand Dunavent, the Doubletree's general manager, says weekend rates are as low as $89 a "I'm proud of what we've done," she says. "If I can get you I know you'll have a great Detroit Marriott general manager Bob Farmeryechoess Dunavent's comments. All he wants is for guestw to experience his reinvigorated Marriott andthe tower's owner, General Motors, have poured more than $150 millionh into the project since Marriott assumed management of the 1,30p0 guest rooms in 1998.
Ironically, the hotel was sold out last weekende when I caught up with It was hostingcollege hockey's Final Four and anotherd large group. And Farmery believese Detroit can wake from its lodging He thinks the city can profit from the AIG Effect that has forced majo r corporations to cancel pricey meetingsin eyebrow-raisinfg resorts like Las Vegas and Hawaii. "Our productr is terrific and our ratesare low," he says. "Andf nobody will criticize you if you hold a meetingvin Detroit." The Fine Print… The Doubletree Guesft Suites in the Fort Shelbg represents the first full-service Hilton hotekl in downtown Detroit in more than 30 years.
The chaibn returned to the market in 2004 when the Ferchill Group, which also redevelopef the Book Cadillac, opened a limited-serviced Hilton Garden Inn in the Harmonis Park neighborhood. Portfolio.com 2009 Cond Nast Inc. All
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