What is going on at Red Wings arena site?

[royce]

I couldn't disagree more. If Olympia wants to restore the Eddystone as a trade off for tearing down the Park Avenue, then they damn well better actually commit in writing to doing so. A commitment to submit a PROPOSAL to renovate it with no obligation to follow through is totally meaningless. It would be easy to agree to this requirement if they are serious about restoring the Eddystone; if the entire project were to get delayed because of this it speaks volumes about their true intentions.

Right on point!

Now, my issue with tearing down the Hotel Park Avenue is this: Does Ilitch want to tear it down for safety reasons, outlined by Homeland Security, or tear it down for a loading dock? Which one is it? I can buy the security reason somewhat, but tearing it down for a loading dock is a bunch of crap. You mean to tell me that Olympia didn't predict that they would need a loading dock when they originally made plans for the new arena? What, they didn't think they needed one? Or are the saying they need more than one now? I mean it sounds like they had intended to use the area for a loading dock, but didn't want to admit it as the reason for tearing down the old hotel.

Also, looking at the plans, if they didn't need the loading dock that they now claim to need, then wouldn't tearing down the hotel make more room for the parking deck to be extended and therefore make more parking spaces? I'm not understanding why they want to reduce the number of parking deck parking spaces when they now have room to add more.

It's apparent to me and to many around here that Olympia only wants to spend money on the arena and not much on parking decks. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Ilitches have only built two parking decks to my knowledge, the one behind Hockeytown Cafe and the one just north of Comerica Park. They know that parking decks cost more money than having surface parking lots. If they're not forced or required to build them, it's obvious that they're not going to do so. So when people question their promise that they are going to rehap the Eddystone, I understand their skeptism. I'm skeptical as well.