Replying to a couple of different comments:

1. Jefferson does not qualify for light rail or bus rapid transit. Ridership on existing fixed-route bus is not sufficient. Gratiot qualifies to contend for BRT funding but not light rail, and Gratiot has vastly more transit ridership than Jefferson.

2. The location of the Omni was isolated from everything else going on in Detroit. Not by a huge distance, but enough to make it nonviable as a location for a hotel in a weak economy. Let me use a contrast: say you stay in a hotel at the Ren Cen, what is within walking distance of that? Now: say you were staying at the Omni, what is within walking distance?

The east riverfront has not taken off in the way the city might have hoped, and the Omni was a victim of that.