Riverside [[Pontchartrain) Hotel closed

[John]

It's essentially now an abandoned building.

The place has been closed for 72 hours and you are now classifying it as an abandoned building. Is that the new standard?

And why are all the other downtown hotels losing money?

I can tell you that is not the case. You are stating something as if it is fact, when in fact you have no knowledge of what you are talking about. Based on your posts on this thread, I now know its pretty safe to skip over whatever posts you happen to make in the future.

[cmubryan]

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/20653648/index.html

[croweblack]

[quote=John;62866]The place has been closed for 72 hours and you are now classifying it as an abandoned building. Is that the new standard?



The new owners will have to dump at least 3-4 million in renovations to reopen and make it viable. Dumping that kind of money into a property worth at the most 1-2 million makes it well on its way to abandonment.

[davewindsor]

[quote=croweblack;62981]

The new owners will have to dump at least 3-4 million in renovations to reopen and make it viable. Dumping that kind of money into a property worth at the most 1-2 million makes it well on its way to abandonment.

Where do you get this figure from, or are you just dumping random nunbers? The units are already furnished. The problem with the Baptist convention was the a/c died. You just send pay a mechanic to repair the rooftop a/c or replace the unit altogether. I don't see that costing anywhere in the millions.

[croweblack]

[quote=davewindsor;63096]

Where do you get this figure from, or are you just dumping random nunbers? The units are already furnished. The problem with the Baptist convention was the a/c died. You just send pay a mechanic to repair the rooftop a/c or replace the unit altogether. I don't see that costing anywhere in the millions.

As noted below your post from east side Al the problems are very severe and that phantom 37million in renovations is complete and utter BS


This place will be abandoned in the near future.

[John]

The new owners will have to dump at least 3-4 million in renovations to reopen and make it viable. Dumping that kind of money into a property worth at the most 1-2 million makes it well on its way to abandonment.

As noted below your post from east side Al the problems are very severe and that phantom 37million in renovations is complete and utter BS

The 37 Million figure might indeed be BS but so are the dollar figures that you seem to have pulled out of the sky.

[EastSider]

Here's the chance of a lifetime for all the arm-chair urbanists and preservationistas. Pissed off about the Lafayette demo? Bored with Sim City? Want to show up George Jackson? Plunk down your hard-earned cash for the Riverfront and show us how development is supposed to work.

Riverside Hotel to be sold; furniture, fixtures auctioned off
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News

The Riverside Hotel, formerly the Pontchartrain, will be put up for sale in attempt to revive the once-elegant downtown hotel that shuttered last month.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge John Murphy granted permission Tuesday morning to list the property for sale at the request of a court-appointed receiver, David Findling, who has been in control of the hotel since June. Judge Murphy also granted an auction of the furniture, fixtures and equipment in the 25-story hotel to help cover the basic costs of the building, which includes an on-site engineer, security and utilities. The hotel's parking lot is still being used.

The auction will likely take place at the hotel in about 30 days, Findling said. The hotel went through a $35 million renovation prior to its closing, which included new furniture in the rooms and a redesign of its lobby. All of that will be up for sale in the auction.

"Waiting is not a good thing with this particular property," Murphy said during his Tuesday morning ruling. "Whatever is necessary to stop the bleeding."

The hotel at 2 Washington Blvd., across the street from Cobo Center, is downtown's first major hotel to close amid a national wave of distressed properties.

In early July, Mutual Bank in suburban Chicago foreclosed on the Riverside Hotel's owners, Shubh Hotels Detroit LLC, which bought the hotel in 2005. In late July, Mutual Bank became insolvent and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. appointed attorney Findling as the hotel's receiver. A receiver takes possession of the property, but not its title, and manages the assets and affairs of the business.

Another bank, United Central Bank of Garland, Texas assumed the Mutual Bank's loans.
Commercial real estate information firm Real Capital Analytics classifies $18 billion in hotel loans as distressed, compared to $1.3 billion a year ago. Distressed can mean the hotels are delinquent in loan payments, in foreclosure, in bankruptcy or have been restructured by lenders.

U.S. hotel occupancy, which registered 64 percent in July, is at its lowest level since Smith Travel Research began tracking the figure in 1987.

Metro Detroit's occupancy is just under 50 percent, according to the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. Last year's occupancy rate was 56 percent.
laguilar@detnews.com [[313) 222-2760

If you don't want to do that, at the least this should be a pretty good place to pick up cheap used furniture. It wasn't used very long, so even the upholstered pieces shouldn't be too...soiled.

[unclefrank]

When I worked there [[over twenty years ago) the staff tried hard, but were getting screwed over by Charles Keeting and his Arizona Mafia. RIP Ponch, you were a fun place to work.

[401don]

The furnishings are all new, including lcd tv's. If you want the property to re-open asap wouldn't it make more sense to decide a fair price for furnishings and then accept bids for the hotel with and without the furniture before selling off the furnishings first?