The Guardian - Not Impressed with District Detroit

[bust]

If I had to guess, I’d say:

1. After Mikes death, the family is fragmented and can’t come to a unanimous decision on moving forward, or

2. They can not secure skilled trades labour to start building.

If I had to guess, I'd say the intent from the very beginning was the following:

Step 1: Promise they'd replace the cass corridor with xanadu to secure the DDA giveaways, public investments, tax abatements, and the necessary permission and forgiveness to demolish away.

Step 2: Build only those things they really wanted: the arena, the parking, the parking, and the parking, their headquarters, and the Woodward Avenue B School memorial to the patriarch [[for sentimental reasons, and to count toward the $200M in related development they needed to gain an extra $74M reimbursement beyond the $250M they initially secured).

Step 3: Wait, delay, prepare excuses, and only if they decide they really want to, build anything else.

In other words, it's all going per plan.

Anyone who expected them to fulfill all those ridiculous PR promises was taken for a fool.

I say this every time: I hope the Ilitches prove me wrong. But several years later, they still haven't.