Historic Apartments at Cass and Henry to be Demolished by Olympia/Ilitch

[313WX]

Forbes owned the Fox and was maintaining/restoring it before it was sold to Ilitch. It wasn't abandoned. Ilitch had the funds that Forbes didn't.

By the time Illitch took it over, the Fox was nothing more than a low rate theatre that primarily showed b-movies. The offices above the theatre itself were empty for a long time.

It wasn't technically abandoned, but it was definitely on its death bed by any normal measure.

The Red Wings had been playing at Joe Louis for three years when he purchased the team. They were never going to leave under his watch, plus it was a sweetheart lease.

Well of course they weren't going to leave under his watch. It was in his best interest to ensure that Red Wings fan spent money at establishments he operated downtown.

However, I should remind you that under the previous ownership, there were serious negotiations ongoing with Pontiac for a new arena [[the reasons cited were the rapid decline of the city) which gave way to this "sweetheart lease" as you call it.That proves my point, doesn't it?

The Tigers played at beloved Tiger Stadium and given the family's love of taxpayer dollars it would have been tough to find a community willing to fork over that kind of dough.

See my comment about what was in it for Illitch in keeping the Tigers downtown.

By your logic a convention center would cease to exist if a theater isn't renovated and there isn't professional hockey and baseball nearby? Is there any logic to that thought process?

I didn't say any of that.

I *DID* say that it was very clear during the 1980s - 2000s that absolutely no one in Michigan except for Mike Illitch and the two legacy bank HQs [[Comerica and National Bank of Detroit) wanted anything to do with downtown Detroit, which included business conferences. Hell, even as recently as the late 2000s, you had homers in the suburbs trying to boast the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi as a venue for the NAIAS.

Case Tech? Really?

I don't know about *Case* Tech, but as far as Cass Tech, what I said is true.

Claiming that DSO would have left if not for Ilitch discounts the contributions of the Fisher family and the folks there that have maintained that institution.

Back in 1987, there was also serious discussion about moving the DSO to the suburbs, for the same reasons the Red Wings were in serious negotiations to relocate to Pontiac. However, after seeing Illitch take the lead on successfully reviving the Fox Theatre, they thought the same could be done with Orchestra Hall.

...

how GM and DTE only chose downtown because of the Fox, Tigers and Wings.

The main appeal of locating in a CBD is proximity to all of the cultural attractions. Without those cultural attractions, the appeal would be gone.

maybe you can post the articles showing that the coney restaurants stayed afloat due to the Ilitchs

The hundreds of millions of dollars Tigers and Red Wings fan, as well as concert goers at the Fox Theatre, I'm sure helped them quite a bit.