Today's show is in three parts, as Devon O'Reilly joins Jer to talk about the new AC Hotel, the Dearborn Inn whose renovations are alsmost complete, and by listener request - the new science and tech district that Bedrock unveiled plans for this week.
Listen in the player below, and scroll down for a complete transcript.
Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-detroit/id1220563942
Or sign up for our newsletter: https://www.dailydetroit.com/newsletter/
Jer Staes: Hello, and welcome to your Daily Detroit! It is Friday, December 20, 2024. I am Jer Staes, sharing what to know and where to go from an undisclosed location high atop Downtown Detroit. And helping me do it as he does every Friday, Mr. Devon O'Reilly. How are you?
Devon O'Reilly: I'm great Jer. I’m getting ready for the holidays and happy to join you in the said undisclosed location.
Jer Staes: Well, to mention, the building that our studio is in is having some water pump replaced or something. So there's drilling and all kinds of noise. We just kind of had to pick it up like we used to do in the old school days. Do you remember when we would just like podcast at random bars?
Devon O'Reilly: I know. Hopefully we'll get to more of that in the new year. But this works well, too.
Jer Staes: In fact, I just had a meeting. I think we're gonna have a really cool … I can't say all the details yet, but a really cool outdoor event for the spring.
Devon O'Reilly: I can't wait for outdoor events, and I can't wait for patios. Unfortunately, here we are in late December. We don't have any of that, but we do have some cool things that are happening.
For sure. It may not be patio season. Whether you spell it S E, A S O, N or S Z, N. Are you szn? Are you into the patio season?
No, I don't think I'm young enough to do that. It is hotel season, though.
It is. You went to the opening of the AC hotel that is over on Woodward Avenue, just south of Mack. And this has been very anticipated because it is a brand new hotel tower. As well as incorporating, in time, the old Bonstelle Theatre which actually used to be the Temple Bethel, which is now going to be an event space. You checked it out. I'm going to be quiet. Tell me about it.
It's really cool. I mean the impetus for the project was the Bonstelle Theatre which is a hundred plus years old temple. Then it became a theater, with Wayne State for a while, getting really underutilized. Experts in historic preservation, the Roxbury Group picked it up some years back and have been restoring the Bonstelle, but they're restoring the Bonstelle Theatre. They're also adding a hotel concept to it as you mentioned a 10 story hotel just adjacent to it.
And then between the two, between the Bonstelle Theatre which is kind of a shorter domed building and the 10 story glass hotel, there is a huge glass atrium that they're calling The Conservatory. That's going to act as gathering space for the hotel event space. It's a beautiful bar, a 360 bar that was activated for an event they had this week is kind of a sneak preview. So it's not open yet, but it is going to be just a beautiful addition to midtown and the city.
Overall it's in a great location being close to LCA in Downtown. Also just QLine stop away from everything, I believe. 154 rooms. And if you want to check out more pictures we will link to our friend Robin Runyan at Urbanize Detroit who actually got some pictures so make sure to check out her work. What were some of your thoughts on the vibe of this place?
So the vibe is very New York, Chicago type of bar. It harkens a little bit to like Shinola designs. If you think about the design of the Shinola: dark, really well lit now it sounds. But well lit doesn't necessarily mean bright. It means the lighting is done really, really well. The space is warm, inviting, retro but with some modern vibes. Yeah it feels like you're at a New York boutique hotel.
Having said that, for those who aren't familiar with the AC hotel they are a more I guess cost friendly brand than some of the higher end Marriott stuff. So for instance you look like the David Whitney building that became an Autograph Collection. That's a little bit of a higher flag for Marriott. You're not going to have to pay Shinola prices to go to this very, very cool hotel.
And Midtown just doesn't have any hotels. So I don't know, we can do some research. Don't quote me on this, but I don't know where else a hotel is in Midtown.
Well, you have the Elmore, the old Elmore, which is like a boutique kind of situation.
Very boutique.
Yeah. That's something that's there. There isn't a ton though. There isn't a ton.
So this will serve great traffic for people looking for stay-cations in Detroit. Eventually it'll have more food and beverage concepts. And eventually the actual Bonstelle Theatre will be completely rehabbed. That's been an arduous process, but it'll be completely rehabbed, and then become an event space. So, you know, there are weddings and events.
And my final thing we talked about earlier, looking ahead to warmer days, they will eventually have a rooftop bar on the ac. So you have a really cool Midtown rooftop bar which we don't have yet.
Yeah, that is something that, while traveling, I have found to be very cool when there is a rooftop bar. The rehab of the Bonstelle is amazing. The pictures I've seen from Historic Detroit, the people over there, they've really been uncovering so much. That is a gem that has been kind of like modern cladding put on it in places. Even if you drive down Woodward, you can see the intricate work that they're fixing.
Yeah, it's a really cool juxtaposition because the hotel itself is very modern. It's basically kind of a glass rectangle. It looks really cool. And then you have this historic old theater that they've just meticulously restored.
They had to tear back a lot to get down to the original structure, original detailing. They've done that. I'm hearing that the Bonstelle will probably be ready by the summer for events, and the hotel is taking reservations in January.
Let's keep talking about hotels, and then we'll talk about a major development project as well. There is news about the Dearborn Inn that I got sent to me that the renovations are well underway. I posted a couple of the renderings in our newsletter on dailydetroit.com. This is one of America's first airport hotels, opened in 1931. And you might be thinking, Dearborn … there's not an airport there. Well, guess what? There was!
Henry Ford had his airport at the test track. What's now the test track was also a test track for an airport at the time. I saw some amazing, really old photos of dirigibles and airplanes and all this stuff, because airports were actually all over metro Detroit. There is a random strip mall in Eastpointe that used to be an airport. There's the Aviation Subdivision in Detroit. If you look at the weird crosshatch of streets, it's because it used to be an airport. Kind of a fun little bit of Detroit history, but I know your ears got perked up because you are really, in many ways, like, very connected to Dearborn, and history is near and dear to your heart.
This will be somewhere I visit very, very often. You will often find me here. And it's really cool. I used to go to the Dearborn Inn before it closed some years back a few years ago to undergo renovations. And it was really cool. I mean, it did start to feel, towards the end there, it did start to feel a little out of date. Not in a historic way, but it was just kind of out of date.
So I'm really glad that they're doing this huge, huge restoration on it. Again, I'm hearing very good things from people who are working on the project in terms of the design, that they're sparing no expense or detail in doing this.
I have some sources telling me that, actually, Bill Ford Jr. himself has been involved in the design process and making sure that this is up to snuff for what is going to be kind of a crown jewel for the hotel space in Dearborn. It's going to become an Autograph Collection, which is a Marriott Bonvoy. So, again, if you're thinking about the levels, it's a level above an AC, even above a regular Marriott. This will be a higher end, more boutique hotel.
But like you said, there's so much history there because you used to be able to literally fly in, as you said. … But there are many, many dignitaries and very famous people who flew into that airport and visited Henry [Ford] and stayed at that hotel. So there's just a rich, rich history.
Yeah. Eleanor Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Bette Midler, like a bunch of people, presidents. Because, of course. Because Ford's kind of the center of industry in many ways.
Yeah, exactly. The walls could talk at that hotel. It's incredible. They have, of course, the stuff that I care about. They have two restaurant concepts that they are going to not maintain, but renovate. So there'll be a full service, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Dinner used to be called Edison's, and they also have what used to be the Ten Eich bar that they're going to renovate and have more of a bar lounge vibe. So the food and beverage options will also be really, really cool there. Hearing some great things, super excited. You know, I'm hearing from credible sources that February sounds like it could happen as far as opening.
It has quite a bit of history, and it's right across from The Henry Ford [Museum]. And that museum is so important and is, as I've mentioned on the show, it is metro Detroit's number one tourist draw. So the idea that you could stay at this colonial inspired place right across the street for a trip. There is a reason why there's so much tourist activity in Dearborn.
The Henry Ford is such a draw. Over a million visitors a year. But you know, the hotel stock that we have around it, I don't want to say anyone specifically, but they're more of like your super casual, budget hotel type of places. And I think if you're going to go to The Henry Ford to visit the museum and visit the Greenfield Village, you might want to stay at a place that wraps you in that vibe as well – that history. So this would be a really cool place to stay if you're going to be visiting there.
I mean that place is like Disneyland for history. So I'm looking forward to checking that out.
Now, we've had a number of listeners want your specific reaction to because this week was announced the plans for a massive biotech hub in Downtown Detroit. This is on the fail jail site, at I-375 and Gratiot. It's been known that it's been an empty lot for quite a while. In a complex trade, Dan Gilbert took control of it while building a jail for Wayne County up the road, near Warren and I-75.
This is a 14 acre district focused on life sciences and tech. The big part of this will be a 220,000 square foot facility housing BAMF Health's advanced cancer treatment center. There'll be wet labs, startup spaces. Partners include Wayne State University, Techtown, and Ferris State University. Ground is set to break this year. This is interesting, and people want to know what you think. I think it's interesting to see this project finally move and that whole meds and eds thing come to fruition.
Yeah, this is huge. It's huge! It's as big as, you know, some of the other major projects that we talk about because again, it's a perfect example of collaboration that's taking place. Like you said, when we talk about projects, if there's one entity that is backing a project, the likelihood that it's going to succeed has been very low, historically. But when you have two, three, four, or five partners that come on – real partners like you talked about – the likelihood of the project success goes way up.
And that's exactly what you have here with Wayne State and Techtown, which is so cool to have techtown finally get like another outpost, you know. As you know, Jer, that building is bursting at the seams with all sorts of cool companies and innovations. And now they're going to have some wet lab space, some bioscience space, some room to grow still. So that's really cool that Ferris State is getting involved. That's really cool to be having that education component.
And then of course, you know, BAMF, from out of the west side of the state, is a really cool health company. It's going to be fantastic. I think that it'll be a center for innovation, a center for activity. Things are actually going to be happening there, not to be lost.
Also, MIHQ, for those not familiar, was kind of under the radar coworking lab space. I actually visited it some number of years ago. It was very under-assuming, in an office park in Ann Arbor. So to have them now have a space here, the stuff they were doing was really incredible. It's another notch.
We're not just automotive, right? We're not just mobility even. We're not just fintech. We've got now bioscience health. Like we are really building up a robust innovation economy. So this is, you know, this is really cool!
They sent this conceptual rendering, and some of our listeners on our member only Discord and listeners who are not there mentioned that it feels very campus-y. I feel like that's true for now, but there's a 220,000 square foot building going there. I think this is kind of the beginning. I don't think this is the end of this story.
No, I think this is probably the first phase in what will probably be more. And I don't know. Were they using Campus Y in a bad way?
It's just that open kind of concept situation where there's one building that feels kind of mid-rise and then a lot of space around it.
Again, I agree with you. I think there's going to be more added to it. But also I would push back and say maybe that's not a bad thing. I know that people want to tend to go dense buildings downtown, but as we've talked about, I don't know if that's where we're at right now. I think it's okay to have some mid-rise, some green space.
You know what? That one area is not walkable right now. It is not walkable at all. There is nobody walking over there. Right Jer? Would you ever think to walk over to the fail jail site? I mean, it's one of the things what it will do is, I hope, there's green space. And I hope there's walkable space because people need to be encouraged to walk over there, because you can …
From where we're at, the neighborhood across the way in Lafayette Park is pretty bustling. Unfortunately, we just lost Detroit Vineyards, which is right in that neighborhood. But it's not very conducive. You've got the Crain Communications building over there.
So it feels very separate. We talked about this. I mean, absent the actual caps on the freeways that we, you know, constantly, talk about. Absent that. This is another way to connect neighborhoods with major developments like this. So in a few years, maybe it doesn't feel like such a slog or it doesn't feel very distant to walk over there through this.
You know what I want to see as part of this? Bedrock controls the old police headquarters. And that has been sitting mothballed for a long time. And that is in the perfect position to turn into residential next to a project like this.
That's a great idea, Jer. I know exactly the building you're talking about. It's right there adjacent to it. It's a beautiful building. I'm sure a conversion would be difficult, but hey, look, it's bedrock we're talking about. They can do anything, right? They can convert the rents. And if they put their mind to it …
Look at the Book Tower! I can't express to people how messed up the Book Tower was before they got their hands on it. And now it's … I was having coffee there the other day for a meeting, and I'm just like, it's better than even my wildest history nerd dreams.
I look at something like this, and I see this campus by I-375. I see what's happening with the U of M Innovation Center. These are the kind of things that bring people down on a regular basis. And I think that's what's needed for businesses. It's what's needed for the city. And I think it's needed for the region because it's important to have that beating heart.
Yeah, it's jobs. It's economic activity. It's people with disposable income hanging out in these areas. That is the type of stuff that creates a dense and thriving downtown. And we're really filling these holes.
You know, only three years ago, if we looked at this, there'd be these big blank spots in downtown that had nothing going on. There was no activity. And now we filled those with the University of Michigan Innovation center, now with Michigan Central to some extent. I continue to be happy and optimistic about the progress that we're making.
Well, I think we're going to leave this episode here. dailydetroit@gmail.com with your feedback. And of course, thank you to our members through patreon.com/dailydetroit.
Now, Devon O'Reilly, I think we're going to be able to sneak you in for an episode over the holiday break. I know we don't know if we're not going to be talking before Christmas, but there is a predictions episode that we have a tradition of.
Yes, we're taking a little holiday break in some sense, and certainly me from the office, but we gotta do our predictions episode Jer. It's one of my favorites, each year to get real bold. And I'm gonna get bold in 2025! So we're gonna find some time. Like I said, we'll keep the listeners waiting. Sorry. Not sorry. We don't know when we're gonna drop it, but it will be before the end of the year, next week sometime.
Absolutely! And we will look back through the old episodes and see how we did as well because we keep ourselves accountable.
You know what? I'm glad that someone like you is gonna do that because I could not tell you what I said.
I will send you bullet points. I'll send you notes.
I couldn't tell you what I said. But, I hope I was at least right on one thing. If I got one thing right, I'll be happy.
All right. Well, thank you so much for listening to your Daily Detroit, not just today, but throughout the year. It is an honor and a pleasure to be able to come into your homes, your cars, your dog walks, whatever, and talk about the city that we love together.
It is a true pleasure and honor of my career to be coming up on 1,600 episodes of this, which is bananas. We have huge plans for 2025. As I said, we're going to do some episodes over the holiday break. I can't tell you what our schedule is going to be because it's just gonna be the holidays. But I wanted to take the moment and say thank you so much for listening, for supporting, for all the things. And, here's to a bigger and better 2025!
Cheers to that, Jer.
All right. Well, with that, I'm Jer Staes.
I'm Devon O'Reilly.
Remember that you are somebody, and we'll see you around Detroit.