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College Hotel Demands High Price

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Ann Arbor’s Graduate Hotel is located a few blocks from campus, making it a convenient place to stay. Although spring commencement at the University of Michigan is 8 months away, the hotel is  sold out for the weekend in April. They do have openings for Wolverines football games, to the tune of $3,000. Visitors to the Graduate Hotel book their rooms months, and even years, in advance. Prices for popular dates typically ring up at exorbitant prices. For example, want to head to this year’s U-M vs. Michigan State game? It’ll cost you $1,599 per night with a 2-night minimum stay. By the time taxes and fees are added, guests are facing a bill of over $3,500.

 

Paper Trail Links Birmingham’s Townsend Hotel to Yellen

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While Sheldon Yellen is mute about his pending purchase of the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, state business filings and documents speak volumes. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission has received an application to transfer the liquor license from the hotel’s current owners to an entity called BHIP Townsend Hotel LLC. The entity is registered at the Oakland Avenue address for Yellen’s Birmingham-based property restoration company, Belfor Holdings Inc., whose CFO is Chris Jones. Chris Jones is named on the BHIP filing, as well as attorney Alan J. Schwartz who is identified on other business filings as Yellen’s attorney.

 

 

Pabst Blue Ribbon Extends Its Reach Into Hospitality

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Pabst Blue Ribbon is continuing the go-to trend for brands to feature retro products and cultural icons from the past. The brand has created three PBR-themed motel rooms that transport guests to the 1980s. In creating the rooms, which are located within the Grand Traverse Motel in Traverse City, they’ve cloned a dive bar, arcade and rec room. Think shag carpeting, back-in-the-day game consoles, a jukebox, and a blue ribbon trophy case that store PBR cans. Seattle-based agency DNA collaborated with Hotopp Creative Studio to create the rooms. The 1980s theme comes from the brand’s tagline, “Pabst is the place.” Pabst has experienced a resurgence and reemergence during the pandemic with people remembering brands that illicit a sense of safety and nostalgia.

 

Hotels Offer New Perks To Business Travelers

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Hotels are experiencing a revival of leisure travel. This May marked the third consecutive month that U.S. hotel profitability exceeded 2019 levels. However, business travel isn’t rebounding as quickly and isn’t expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2024. Detroit and Cincinnati’s markets are experiencing losses close to 23 percent. Larger cities like New York City and Chicago are weathering losses around 50 percent. Hotels are getting creative to encourage business travel by offering “bleisure” perks (business + leisure). They’re offering incentives like co-working spaces with luxury hotel amenities, special access to exclusive local museums, one-on-one exercise training sessions with an Olympic medalist, and welcoming pet policies,

 

 

 

Equinox Hotel Planned for Detroit Center For Innovation

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The Detroit Center for Innovation will include an Equinox hotel. The hotel will be designed to host visiting sports teams and will include gyms and a special floor for them to work out. The entire project will encompass a 300-acre district of residential, office, education and entertainment. The center will include a University of Michigan graduate campus. Ross and Ilitch, the muscle behind the project, believe it will attract companies and make local graduates want to stay in the state.

 

Ilitch And Ross Release Detroit Center Renderings

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Stephen Ross and the Ilitch organization have released conceptual renderings showing new retail, housing and office developments in Detroit’s sports venue district.  The projects include new construction, as well as reuse of existing buildings. The renderings show a future hotel on Henry Street, an office tower with ground-floor retail space along Woodward Avenue next to Comerica Park, a residential, retail and office development on Park Street, and office, retail and residential development along Columbia Street. Ross and Ilitch are collaborating on the University of Michigan’s planned Detroit Center for Innovation.  They expect to break ground on the project in 2023.

 

 

 

David Whitney Building Hotel Builds On And Rebrands

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The David Whitney Building will soon be renovated and rebranded. It will become an Autograph Collection hotel and expand to 160 rooms. According The Roxbury Group, the building will lose 24 of the apartments but leave 80 residences on the top seven floors. The hotel rooms will be renovated, along with the lobby bar, atrium lounge and outdoor seating. The building’s event space will become restaurant space. Renovations will being this summer. The project’s budget is undisclosed.

 

 

Building Permit Issued For Former Joe Louis Arena Site

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A building permit has been issued for the planned apartment tower on the former Joe Louis Arena site.  A large office tower is also planned. Crews have been on the property since winter. The apartment building construction is expected to be complete within the next two years. There has been talk of building two hotels with about 750 rooms each.  A 20-story office tower of 150,000-300,00 square feet is planned for the northern portion of the property. The construction timelines for the office and hotel buildings is unknown. A building permit was issued Wednesday for the apartment tower planned for the former Joe Louis Arena site in downtown Detroit.

 

Up-North Brewing Company Buys Inn To House Employees

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A lack of affordable housing in northern Michigan is cramping the style of northern Michigan’s businesses. Short’s Brewing Company needs to hire summer workers, but future employees have nowhere to live.  In a creative problem-solving move, the brewery bought the Bellaire Inn and is converting and updating the 26 units as space for its incoming hires. They’ll offer local businesses an opportunity at the remaining units.  Each unit will be fully furnished with a bathroom, fridge and microwave. All utilities will be included. The brewery will hire a full-time, on-site inn keeper.

Ann Arbor Nine-Story Development Breaks Ground

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The construction of The Glen, a mixed-use development on the corner of Glen Avenue and Ann Street has finally broken ground after several years of delays. It was approved in 2017 and was scheduled to open in 2018. Technical changes were made in 2019, and construction was to begin in 2020 when the pandemic delayed it further. It’s now expected to open in 2024. The building will house 164 hotel rooms and suites and 24 apartment suites. It will also include a fine dining restaurant, meeting and event spaces, retail shops and 241 parking spots.