New Life for Old Fleabag: Corktown Inn to get $9 million makeover

[Lowell]

I always thought that location had potential with the right amount of money and management in that is is close to everything and has ample parking. Now it is happening according to Crain's Detroit Business.

An investment group with Detroit ties purchased the hotel a year ago and has rebranded it as the Trumbull and Porter. Barry Caplan, managing principal and COO of Orlando, Fla.-based Access Hospitality, said his company is renovating the third and fourth floors of the building, which was built in 1964.

The purchase price was $2.7 million, according to a source.
The senior-position loan closed Sept. 18, according to Mike Schick, director of Birmingham-based Q10 | Lutz Financial Services, which arranged the two-year loan on the $9 million project.

Caplan, a 1986 Michigan State University graduate who still owns a home in West Bloomfield Township, said the hotel will have multiple bar areas, a swimming pool, restaurants, a fitness center, artwork by Detroit artists, a coffee bar and a private meeting room that can seat about 50.

“We want to make this an authentic Detroit hotel,” Caplan said, adding that things like Anthology Coffee, local craft beer and spirits and the Detroit Bikes bike service will be available.

Photo by Patrick Thompson Design LLCRendering of the planned Trumbull & Porter hotel, formerly the Corktown Inn

Caplan said the hotel had a reputation for illicit activity.

“Day rates, crack, you name it,” he said. “There was a joke that underwear was sold in the vending machines.”

The Trumbull and Porter, however, will be “affordable luxury,” he said.

Nightly rates will range from $129 to $209, depending on the season, he said.
He said there will be 79 queen-size rooms, 57 king-size rooms and eight specialty suites that feature things like Jacuzzis.

“The renovated hotel will be a great addition to the growing and revitalized neighborhood,” Schick said.

[EastsideAl]

In its former, former glory. The promise of at last eliminating that awful, musty, old Corktown slum, and finally having more room to park and more fun lounging by the pool.




And now, Corktown rises to take over. Scenes above soon to be ironically replicated?

[Bigdd]

In its former, former glory. The promise of at last eliminating that awful, musty, old Corktown slum, and finally having more room to park and more fun lounging by the pool.




And now, Corktown rises to take over. Scenes above soon to be ironically replicated?

They're nuts. There's NO WAY they ever recover their money. The neighborhood is not great, and the views in all directions is horrible. Vacant lots, graffiti, etc. And there's no shopping, restaurants, bars, etc near by.

Who would pay $209 a night to stay there when you could get a king size room at the Hotel St.Regis for $149? Or the Book Cadillac for $198?

They're going to need to be $89 out of season and $129 peak to have any chance. And then they're going to need to fix up the neighborhood, have free shuttles, etc, etc, etc.

I don't see them ever getting they're $6+ million back.

[detroitsgwenivere]

^^Fix up the neighborhood how? It's in Corktown, you know, historical urban area full of working professionals, young hipsters and old skoolers? If you mean somehow force out the businesses and people you deem unacceptable then good luck with that. If someone wants to stay in a hotel in a suburban setting, or by the airport, then they will. Maybe these owners will lose out big on their investment [[$200+ per room is way too much) but not because of location. If anything this hotel will probably bring a bunch of nonsense into the neighborhood, like we've already been dealing with all summer.

The Book Cadillac had been sitting across from ugly vacant sh*t for years, and that didn't stop their success. If anything it helped spur some surrounding revitalization. Maybe the Corktown Inn will just add more character to our "not great" neighborhood.

BTW, the view facing east from Trumbull is amazing.

[Bigdd]

^^Fix up the neighborhood how? It's in Corktown, you know, historical urban area full of working professionals, young hipsters and old skoolers? If you mean somehow force out the businesses and people you deem unacceptable then good luck with that. If someone wants to stay in a hotel in a suburban setting, or by the airport, then they will. Maybe these owners will lose out big on their investment [[$200+ per room is way too much) but not because of location. If anything this hotel will probably bring a bunch of nonsense into the neighborhood, like we've already been dealing with all summer.

The Book Cadillac had been sitting across from ugly vacant sh*t for years, and that didn't stop their success. If anything it helped spur some surrounding revitalization. Maybe the Corktown Inn will just add more character to our "not great" neighborhood.

BTW, the view facing east from Trumbull is amazing.

I wasn't suggesting moving anyone out. I was saying that you'd have to completely remake the neighborhood to make it succeed,.. which is why the plan is silly.

Yes the Book Cadillac was across from some ugly stuff for years,.. but it is also 2 blocks from Campus Martius, Woodward Ave., a dozen restaurants [[including both the famous and historical coney places), the Roasting Plant, and it's also 3/4 of a block from the People Mover, which means people staying for a convention are likely to stay there. Also, people wanting to go to a game, or to Greektown, Casino etc. None of that is in the cards for the Corktown Inn.

Facing west from the Corktown Inn is an empty field,.. and to the South is an old commercial building covered in graffiti. When I travel, I Google StreetView the hotel first. [[It's amazing how different a place can look v.s. the photo in the hotel's advertising). If I did that for the Corktown Inn,... I'd end up staying elsewhere.

Yes it would add to the neighborhood,.. but it would also find it had to severely cut rates to get any occupancy,.. and in a few years it would default on it's loans,.. and be empty once again.

That's just my opinion,.. having been in the hotel / Motel / apartment business for 40 years.

[ABetterDetroit]

have free shuttles, etc, etc, etc.

We always can count on DetroitYES! posters to point out the good small stuff. Besides the rest of the folks to staff a Inn, this one is going to have couple of full time shuttle drivers as well. Keep the jobs coming!

[mwilbert]

Yes it would add to the neighborhood,.. but it would also find it had to severely cut rates to get any occupancy,.. and in a few years it would default on it's loans,.. and be empty once again.

I don't know if you are right about its prospects as a boutique hotel, but if it went belly-up after having had nine million of dollars in renovations, my guess is that it would remain open or at least not remain empty, as someone would buy it at the bankruptcy auction [[or equivalent). That location isn't so bad that you couldn't run a successful motel there at a lower price, which you could do if you bought it cheap.

[softailrider]

I don't know if you are right about its prospects as a boutique hotel, but if it went belly-up after having had nine million of dollars in renovations, my guess is that it would remain open or at least not remain empty, as someone would buy it at the bankruptcy auction [[or equivalent). That location isn't so bad that you couldn't run a successful motel there at a lower price, which you could do if you bought it cheap.

Isn't that what it is now?

[Bobl]

I'd rather go to Corktown Tavern and have those great two dollar 'burgers.

[Chicago48]

They're nuts. There's NO WAY they ever recover their money. The neighborhood is not great, and the views in all directions is horrible. Vacant lots, graffiti, etc. And there's no shopping, restaurants, bars, etc near by.

Who would pay $209 a night to stay there when you could get a king size room at the Hotel St.Regis for $149? Or the Book Cadillac for $198?

They're going to need to be $89 out of season and $129 peak to have any chance. And then they're going to need to fix up the neighborhood, have free shuttles, etc, etc, etc.

I don't see them ever getting they're $6+ million back.

I stayed there this past summer and it was a fleabag. I wrote a review on Yelp. But I will say, it has potential. But $9mil probably isn't enough to totally rehab the place. The plumbing is bad; in my room alone the drip drip drip from the faucets probably caused a high-ass water bill
But it does have potential. In an ideal location. Quiet. Off the freeway. When I was there, the other hotels were booked with conventions. The Corktown had the college sports teams [[low-rent) and people from Canada passing through for a night or two.
I wish them luck and I would stay again once it's rehabbed.

[canuck]

In its former, former glory. The promise of at last eliminating that awful, musty, old Corktown slum, and finally having more room to park and more fun lounging by the pool.




And now, Corktown rises to take over. Scenes above soon to be ironically replicated?

That there couple you don't want to see in a swimsuit no more, period.

[mwilbert]

Isn't that what it is now?

Well, there is more than one possible price point under $200/night. After $9 million in renovations, I would guess it would not be what it is now.

[pocketchange]

If you consider on average:
queen rooms go for 150
kings for 180
suites for 200

You would have to book every room, every night for a year to bring in 9 million bucks

[Hypestyles]

build another level with more rooms!

[detroitsgwenivere]

Facing west from the Corktown Inn is an empty field,.. and to the South is an old commercial building covered in graffiti. When I travel, I Google StreetView the hotel first. [[It's amazing how different a place can look v.s. the photo in the hotel's advertising). If I did that for the Corktown Inn,... I'd end up staying elsewhere.

That's just my opinion,.. having been in the hotel / Motel / apartment business for 40 years.

The area Corktown is adjacent to is called Westside industrial, so most of the properties in that pocket are commercial /light industrial [[The historical neighborhood was slated for the bulldozer many years ago to make room for more of this type of development). The former owners of the Inn thought that their draw would be some of those businesses' partners and customers, but that never really came to fruition with the downturn and all. This was besides the fact that the place needed a major overhaul and had prostitutes working out of it. And the security guard in the parking lot that didn't require a salary...

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/D...n-Inn/19850728

There are no vacant fields around, maybe you're confusing the Dean Savage Park across the street? The building south of the Inn is called the Detroit Hispanic Development Corp. which is pretty kept up, and the "graffiti" is actually artwork mostly done by the local kids who frequent their facility. I get what your saying if the demographic you're looking to attract to your hotel is the type that looks on streetview first and cant distinguish gang tags from art pieces, but most 20/30 somethings, these days, can.

40 years huh. Did you work in the hotel business in this region or somewhere else? My sibling worked in the hotel business for awhile, in an area in the middle of nowhere MI. That place had absolutely nothing around it other than a gas station and a McDonald's and they are still in business. But there weren't other hotels around and the freeway was right there, maybe that had something to do with it.

[EastsideAl]

I think it has real possibilities as an "alternative" hotel for hipper, younger visitors, who may be much less interested in staying right downtown. Particularly with the growing cachet of the Corktown area and the amount of activity there. Hotels like these have been taking off in other cities as part of the growing "new urbanism", and often actually benefit from being in 'grittier' surroundings. Oftentimes, these places are aimed to draw guests as much from the surrounding area, for people out for a 'big city' event or a night or two of fun in town, as they do from longer-distance travelers. Although I think this place may also have real appeal for the growing number of younger foreign visitors to Detroit.

The proposed rates may seem high for Detroit, but are not really out of line for 'hip' city hotels on a national basis at all. And there will, no doubt, be a fair amount of seasonal discounting offered online for those who know how to hunt for and find such things. In any event, it's nice to see this type of place draw some investment and confidence at last. If it works, there may be more to come.

[bailey]

If you consider on average:
queen rooms go for 150
kings for 180
suites for 200

You would have to book every room, every night for a year to bring in 9 million bucks

the comments on the loan amount keep getting made... we all get how financing works right? I mean they aren't going to have to pay the note in full the day they open....

I'm just glad to see that there are no pension plans investing, no sweetheart deals to connected insiders to not have to pay back that public money or any other shenanigans to get this off the ground.

[ABetterDetroit]

Free parking, some shuttles, a little less $ a night and a great continental breakfast, the word will spread fast, they will be fine.

[Richard]

So where do the hookers and crackheads go now?Their affordable housing choices are becoming limited.

[mikefmich]

The 1st & 2nd floor areas/rooms don't need renovation? Am I missing something here?