Detroit officials are nearing a deal with Red Wings Owner Mike Ilitch's Olympia Development that "could save and redevelop one of two blighted yet historic hotels" near the club's new arena, while "sacrificing the other to the wrecking ball," according to Reindl & Guillen of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. The deal would "preserve the long-vacant 13-story Hotel Eddystone in anticipation of federal funds to help finance its renovation into new housing." The also-vacant Park Avenue Hotel "isn't included in the redevelopment plan; it would presumably be demolished." The hotels' fate is the "subject of ongoing negotiations" involving the Detroit City Council, Mayor Mike Duggan and Olympia Development, which is "building the arena and its spin-off development." City Council President Pro Tem George Cushingberry Jr. said that a deal "could emerge as early as next week, when City Council may take back up Olympia's request to rezone 12 acres of largely vacant land between downtown and Midtown for the arena project." Reindl & Guillen noted the hotels currently "occupy some of the most derelict blocks of Detroit's Cass Corridor." But once the Red Wings open their new arena in '17, the buildings "would be sitting on hot real estate." The Salvation Army sold the Park Avenue Hotel "to an Ilitch-controlled corporation" for $2.6M in '08, while it is "unclear from public records who sold the Eddystone to the Ilitches, and for how much" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 1/31). In Detroit, Louis Aguilar cited sources as saying that Olympia Development contends the former Park Avenue Hotel "must be demolished because it is so close to the new arena that it violates Homeland Security protocols" followed by the NHL (DETROIT NEWS, 1/31).
