New retail for Detroit?

[stasu1213]

Hard Rock, like most of the themed restaurants, Planet Hollywood, Espn Zone, etc. have been closing all over the country. How do you know the rent was high? Gilbert has been keeping the rent very low on his downtown retail until there's a critical mass to sustain it. Why did he make an exception here?
I wouldn't worry about free Q Line fare. Hardly anyone pays anyway.

I was told by an inside source. Hard Rock was doing good at that location and the restaurant had closed that restaurant long before the restaurants started closing nationwide. Hard Rock was looking for another location in the city of Detroit but I guess there were none available amongst the many of empty storefronts that are in the downtown midtown area. The reason why few people get away not paying to ride the Qline is due to there was hardly a person there to make riders pay their fare. The Qline was set up to fail from the start

[bust]

The reason why few people get away not paying to ride the Qline is due to there was hardly a person there to make riders pay their fare. The Qline was set up to fail from the start

All it would take would be contemporary equivalents of a "meter maid" employed to randomly require proof of payment and authority to issue a fine. Only a few of them. They can work in shifts to cover all hours, and even though most often you can board a car they don't check, there's a persistent small chance one will -- and consequences. Easy peasy.

Why don't they do that?

[K-slice]

All it would take would be contemporary equivalents of a "meter maid" employed to randomly require proof of payment and authority to issue a fine. Only a few of them. They can work in shifts to cover all hours, and even though most often you can board a car they don't check, there's a persistent small chance one will -- and consequences. Easy peasy.

Why don't they do that?

They were doing this pre-pandemic. I would often get my ticket checked at peak operating times back then. The problem was, the people checking would just ask you to go buy one, no punishment for trying to avoid the fare.

In Toronto I saw police semi-restrain and escort off the train someone who was on the streetcar without a ticket. That's the kind of enforcement Detroit needs, both for the bums drinking beers on there, and the suburban sports fans who think "eh, it's Detroit, who cares".

More on topic though, Hard Rock was a Downtown pioneer who's time was over, as with the other chain theme restaurants noted here. They're basically an Applebee's with more expensive crap on the walls. That being said though, the physical hole they left in OCM is hard to ignore.

Walking downtown this weekend there seemed to be some activity in the building just north of Greyson, perhaps prepping for a new tenant.

They are also doing some demo work in What About Bob's over on Griswold.

The Fowler is also coming along. I imagine the retail space in that building is awesome.