Metropolitan Building to become Starwood Hotel

[bassab]

The Metropolitan Building is being rehabbed into a Starwood extended stay Element Hotel:

http://www.dbusiness.com/May-June-20.../#.V0MVySz2acw

[Eber Brock Ward]

1. Awesome. This and Wurlitzer will change a lot on that corner.

2. We're running out of buildings to rehab. Basically a handful left that aren't "in the works" or owned by the Ilitch organization.

[Lowell]

Amazing. Can we officially declare that the story of downtown Detroit redevelopment is an avalanche? The last of the rotting teeth are being crowned. The Metropolitan is truly one of the crown jewels of downtown.

[Gistok]

Sadly the Lafayette and Madison-Lenox Buildings were prematurely pounded to rubble before they could be given a second chance.....

[mikeg19]

Sadly the Lafayette and Madison-Lenox Buildings were prematurely pounded to rubble before they could be given a second chance.....

What you don't remember how much of an emergency it was to get those buildings down? They were killing people

Add the Statler to that list as well.

[Lowell]

Sadly the Lafayette and Madison-Lenox Buildings were prematurely pounded to rubble before they could be given a second chance.....

Agreed. Lost the Charlevoix too. Still I am amazed at what has been saved. For a while I thought it might all be lost.

[canuck]

Agreed. Lost the Charlevoix too. Still I am amazed at what has been saved. For a while I thought it might all be lost.

That is a really sweet building and will be a nice hotel. I like the angles on the façade.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

That is a really sweet building and will be a nice hotel. I like the angles on the façade.

Yes, its a gorgeous building. A few years ago I would not have banked on either it or the Wurlitzer surviving.

Downtown Detroit really seems to be a "glass half full/half empty" conundrum to me. So many buildings were lost which would now be candidates for rehab if they still existed. On the other hand, its wonderful that so many abandoned buildings in fact survived for 20, 30 or 40 years to live again.

[Detroit500]

Glad they're doing this. Still surprised they haven't brought a W Hotel downtown yet.

[Mind field]

Really hoping the exterior lighting on the upper facade comes to fruition!

[Hypestyles]

hopefully the jobs website is open for applications there.

[ABetterDetroit]

Great job to the Roxbury Group. They are repeatedly involved in coalitions of partners that are saving and restoring empty buildings and bringing them back into the people business. Amazing pace of these endeavors lately, makes you think if the right people are involved anything can be accomplished.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I am not going to argue that no buildings we've lost downtown were worthy of saving. But, when thinking of all that were torn down, I think downtown would be a lot less inviting if there were an additional 100+ downtown sitting decaying, graffiti covered. 10 or more years ago there was an eerie void of a city downtown, with ghost building after ghost building. More than a little daunting to businessmen, large and small. I think we are still managing to save & restore more buildings than most cities. I regret a number of losses, but not most of them. As I like to point out about the granddaddy of them all: In today's downtown market, the Hudson's building could have been restored and put to good use. But if it were still around, we wouldn't have today's downtown market.

Also worth noting: many [[maybe most?) downtown restorations have included substantial numbers of grants and tax credits to finance them. Such things are finite in number and size. A lot more buildings to renovate does not mean that there would be any more money to do the renovations.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Great job to the Roxbury Group. They are repeatedly involved in coalitions of partners that are saving and restoring empty buildings and bringing them back into the people business. Amazing pace of these endeavors lately, makes you think if the right people are involved anything can be accomplished.

Ditto, ABD.

[Gistok]

I am not going to argue that no buildings we've lost downtown were worthy of saving. But, when thinking of all that were torn down, I think downtown would be a lot less inviting if there were an additional 100+ downtown sitting decaying, graffiti covered. 10 or more years ago there was an eerie void of a city downtown, with ghost building after ghost building. More than a little daunting to businessmen, large and small. I think we are still managing to save & restore more buildings than most cities. I regret a number of losses, but not most of them. As I like to point out about the granddaddy of them all: In today's downtown market, the Hudson's building could have been restored and put to good use. But if it were still around, we wouldn't have today's downtown market.

Also worth noting: many [[maybe most?) downtown restorations have included substantial numbers of grants and tax credits to finance them. Such things are finite in number and size. A lot more buildings to renovate does not mean that there would be any more money to do the renovations.

Not sure where you get the inflated 100 building count.... many buildings were long destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s.... no one is talking about those.

But if you talk about the very unique architect C. Howard Crane [[Detroit Opera House, Fox Theatre, State Theatre, Orchestra Hall, United Artists, Olympia Arena) designed Lafayette Building... we were lied to by the DEGC that it was in danger of falling down.....

So instead of this unique and attractive "V" shaped building that could have house a lot of lofts.....
http://www.detroityes.com/webisodes/...ayetteBldg.php

We have this....
https://www.google.com/search?q=Lafa...4dIxvb9z8uM%3A

... a world class cabbage patch....

[mikeg19]

Not sure where you get the inflated 100 building count.... many buildings were long destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s.... no one is talking about those.

Yea I agree with that. I'm not going to wax poetic about stuff torn down over the years, but there are probably a good dozen downtown buildings that were needlessly torn down for idiotic reasons that would have really tied into the fabric of today's emerging downtown and provided the streetwall we all so desire. We've all seen/compiled the lists of those we wish were still here, but it is what it is. We just need to make sure that we prevent such things from happening in the future.

[corktownyuppie]

Great job to the Roxbury Group. They are repeatedly involved in coalitions of partners that are saving and restoring empty buildings and bringing them back into the people business. Amazing pace of these endeavors lately, makes you think if the right people are involved anything can be accomplished.

First, cheers to Roxbury Group...I agree with you. They've taken on some heavy lifts, and I'm glad to see that they've found success.

Second, we also need to remember that all of these deals, the Gilbert properties, even the Illitch work, etc. are all related. The reality is that no one, not Roxbury, not Tony Soave, not anyone could tackle these projects if there weren't an end-user willing to rent out the finished project.

And not just any end-user...specifically and end-user with lots of money to pay rent. Not because the developers need to lots of profits [[which, of course, they do want), but because the projects themselves and the buildings we're talking about are f--ing expensive.

They were f-ing opulent and expensive when they were built.
They're f-ing expensive to rehabilitate [[you wanna re-do all your knob and tube electrical?)
And they're f-ing expensive to maintain [[because you're talking about stuff built 70+ years ago.

That's the thing we need to remember about development downtown. The more people who live here, the more that other people will want to live here. And the more that other people will want to live here, the more that even more other people will want to live here. And those people all need to have money because the emptybuildings here aren't aluminum boxes built in the 1990s with plastic plumbing and modern electric.

Thank Roxbury, thank Gilbert and all of his employees, thank Townhouse [[even though they're a little ......y), and thank the John Varvatos and the Whole Foods customers, etc.

Whether we like it or not, Detroit -- especially downtown -- was once a very, very expensive city to build. It will be an expensive city to re-build. And it will be an expensive city to maintain.

In order for all that to happen...we need people who make a lot of money.

[Hypestyles]

What do these Element hotels normally look like?

[EastsideAl]

Great news. Starwood is quickly expanding its Element line of properties, and most of them are in really nice places. I stayed in the one in suburban Boston, and it was a real sweet piece of design in what had been a very plain jane suburban box motel. I can only imagine what they might do with a building as beautiful as the Metropolitan.

Yeah, good thing we didn't "tear that schitt down"... How long and hard did the folks here scream about the Lafayette Bldg.? Only to be told over and over that we were all foolish and wrong, trying to save the unsaveable and standing in the way of the city's development. Well, all I have to say is: nice "garden" there folks...

[Gistok]

Maybe they should rename it the George Jackson Demolition Garden.....

[royce]

Maybe when they build a new building there, George will leave Southfield and actually live in Detroit.

[rjlj]

http://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/...ict-Buildings/





Metropolitan Hotel Partners, a joint venture between Detroit-based Means Group and Roxbury Group, has acquired The Metropolitan Building, located at 33 John R St., from the Downtown Development Property.


The acquisition will result in a $32 million development plan to renovate the Weston-and Ellington-designed building, completed in 1925, into an extended-stay Element hotel brand.


“The redevelopment of The Metropolitan Building serves an important role in downtown’s revitalization,” says Eric Means, CEO of Means Group. “Not only are we activating a building that has sat vacant for 40 years, but we are filling a critical gap in city’s hotel market.”


The renovation of the 100,000-square-foot building, which is expected to be complete in summer 2018, will have 110 one or two bedroom rooms, 2,000 square feet of meeting space on the second floor mezzanine level, 7,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and lower level, and an outdoor patio on the 11th floor rear rooftop.

[Atticus]

http://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/...ict-Buildings/





Metropolitan Hotel Partners, a joint venture between Detroit-based Means Group and Roxbury Group, has acquired The Metropolitan Building, located at 33 John R St., from the Downtown Development Property.


The acquisition will result in a $32 million development plan to renovate the Weston-and Ellington-designed building, completed in 1925, into an extended-stay Element hotel brand.


“The redevelopment of The Metropolitan Building serves an important role in downtown’s revitalization,” says Eric Means, CEO of Means Group. “Not only are we activating a building that has sat vacant for 40 years, but we are filling a critical gap in city’s hotel market.”


The renovation of the 100,000-square-foot building, which is expected to be complete in summer 2018, will have 110 one or two bedroom rooms, 2,000 square feet of meeting space on the second floor mezzanine level, 7,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and lower level, and an outdoor patio on the 11th floor rear rooftop.

Good update.

I am surprised that neither this project or the nearby Wurlitzer Bldg hotel project appears to be incorporating the adjacent vacant lot on the corner of Broadway and Grand River.
It would seem that this vacant lot would be a good place to build some 1) additional rooms, 2) convention hall rooms for the hotel, or 3) include any elevator shafts and fire staircases necessary to bring the new hotels up to code.
Because it is immediately adjacent to both projects, I thought one of the two hotel projects may scoop it up.

[BMoo]

I am surprised that neither this project or the nearby Wurlitzer Bldg hotel project appears to be incorporating the adjacent vacant lot on the corner of Broadway and Grand River.
It would seem that this vacant lot would be a good place to build some 1) additional rooms, 2) convention hall rooms for the hotel, or 3) include any elevator shafts and fire staircases necessary to bring the new hotels up to code.
Because it is immediately adjacent to both projects, I thought one of the two hotel projects may scoop it up.

Most of that site will be taken up by a substation for the M-1 rail.

[Atticus]

Most of that site will be taken up by a substation for the M-1 rail.

Interesting... I didn't know that. But with the people mover cutting the corner, I guess they are doubling down on transit uses.