A Hotel for downtown Royal Oak?

[Bham1982]

One, just because you can't get financing in an era of the most restrictive lending market in 50 years does not prove a point about hotel room demand.

Not true. There are U.S. cities with dozens of hotels rising. Hotel financing isn't difficult when there are positive market fundamentals. We have weak fundamentals, so banks aren't willing to finance locally.

Two, the fact that you and others are lumping together "hotel rooms" into one pool demonstrates a total lack of knowledge about hotels. Three and four-star hotel customers do not defer to one-star accomodations when there are none better... they find somewhere else to go.

How do you think hotels get these stars? Based on demand and corresponding upgrades. If there were demand, these hotels wouldn't be crappy one-star hotels. They would be upgraded. There's nothing preventing other hotels from matching the Townsend.

There are few middle-upper and upper-end hotel offerings in the metro area, including Oakland County.

Exactly! There isn't demand. If there were demand, then existing hotels would upgrade, and new hotels would be built.

There's nothing preventing, say, the Somerset Inn in Troy, or the Kingsley Inn in Bloomfield Hills from becoming a luxury hotel, except for the convenient fact that there's no demand!

The Kingsley Inn has $65 rates. If it were in a high demand market the hotel would generate $200 rates, and would receive the appropriate upgrades.

Three, the only "high-rise" hotel in Southfield that I know of vacant is the former Holiday Inn,

The Park Plaza hotel is also abandoned. The Northland Inn was abandoned and demolished. The former Sheraton is some fleabag independent.

This hotel in RO and the ones in Birmingham are very attractive sites, that provide a great location for business travelers and tourists.

So attractive that no financing is available, and no operator has signed on, even though both cities have been pitching sites for a decade or more?

Only two non-subsidized luxury hotels have opened in Metro Detroit in the last 20 years. If you want more luxury hotels, fine, but taxpayers will subsidize the hotels, and older hotels will suffer in a zero sum game.