Detroit center of innovation to he built in the district Detroit

[Atticus]

Let’s talk about the freeway cap shown in the map drawing.

What benefit does the freeway cap provide Olympia? Honest question. Does a freeway cap mean more events at LCA? Does it mean more guests in the proposed adjacent hotel? Does it provide any meaningful business benefit to Illitch or Olympia? And the answer to all of that is a big no.

Don’t misunderstand my point. I get why many on the board like the concept. I even agree with that, and the benefits to the urban fabric it provides. It would be good for the city if it happened. But would it benefit Illitch in any meaningful way?

And to me, that is the giveaway. The cap was included because the artist knew that’s what people wanted to see. But freeway caps are also very expensive, and again provide little to no $ benefit to Illitch. So there is no chance he is finding that. Building a freeway cap would be a horrible business decision. Which brings us full circle to the only group that would pay for it… the tax payers.

Illitch is just creating a sim city with as many buildings as possible to see what public money can be drummed up. MDOT $ for a freeway cap, county $ for a Comerica Park renovation, State $ for an office building to attract new jobs to the state. But the funding source is always the public, with Illitch capturing some of the windfall. That’s what this is about.