Joe Louis Arena would "likely be demolished" after the Red Wings move into a new $450M venue, according to Louis Aguilar of the DETROIT NEWS. City of Detroit officials on Friday said that the state of Michigan has "verbally committed to pay for tearing down the downtown arena, but details are still being worked out." Officials explained that it could be razed around '17 and "the reason is straightforward." Tearing down Joe Louis Arena is "part of an agreement approved Friday" between the city and Red Wings Owner the Ilitch family. The deal signed Friday "refines additional details about the new arena that will anchor a 45-block entertainment district just north of downtown." That agreement was between the Detroit Downtown Development Authority and Olympia Development of Michigan, the property development arm of the Ilitch family’s $2B "business empire." The 650,000-square-foot, 18,000-seat multipurpose arena is "slated to be built on a blighted patch of Woodward [Ave.], about four blocks north of the Fox Theatre and Comerica Park." The other $200M in development "would create residential, retail and office space." About $367M (56%) of the entire project "would come from private investment." About $283M (44%) in public investment "would come through existing economic development funds requiring no new taxes" (DETROIT NEWS, 12/15).
