  Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 1042 Registered: 11-2004 |
The increases in the region/city occupancy levels are pretty impressive given the local economy and lack of a major event. This also more proof of how a vital central city can benefit the entire region. Hopes rise high for Detroit hotels Louis Aguilar and Robert Snell / The Detroit News Despite financial problems that clouded its new start, the former Pontchartrain Hotel appears poised to get in on a surge in local convention and hotel business when the downtown hotel formally opens as the Sheraton Detroit Riverside on Monday. The renovated Pontchartrain joins the recent debuts of high-end hotels at the MGM Grand and MotorCity casinos in lifting the entire Metro Detroit convention and hotel profile. The number of big multi-hotel conventions in Detroit is set to increase next year from four to 10, convention officials and hotel analysts say. They will attract 10,000 to 15,000 people each and boost hotel occupancy rates for the region to levels not seen since before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. These large conventions often benefit suburban hotels, too, which get both overflow convention business and visitors displaced from downtown rooms. "We've been saying all along we can get more conventions if we had more hotel rooms downtown, and that is the way it's turning out," said Michael O'Callaghan, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the convention and visitors bureau. Besides the 365 renovated rooms at the Sheraton Detroit Riverside, the casino hotels have opened another 800 rooms downtown. More than 1,000 additional hotel rooms will open by the end of 2008, when the Greektown Casino Hotel, the renovated Westin Book Cadillac and Fort Shelby Doubletree Guest Suites open. "The casino hotels helped break the Catch-22 of downtown Detroit," said Ron Wilson, chief executive officer of Hotel Investment Services Inc., a hotel consulting group in Troy. "The problems of expanding Cobo (Center) used to drive business away. But now we have (an) inventory of rooms, and that's bringing more business. The fundamentals are in place for regionwide growth." Occupancy rate up Through October, the latest month for which data is available, the average hotel occupancy rate for Metro Detroit was 60.5 percent, up from 58.7 percent last year. That's a significant increase considering the Super Bowl was in Detroit last year, O'Callaghan said. The city's 61.5 percent hotel occupancy rate is up 3 percent, too. The occupancy increase is due in no small part to the new casino hotels. The MGM Grand opened in October. Last month, the MotorCity Casino opened and has yet to report occupancy rates. Both hotels appear to be booked solid for the North American International Auto Show next month, O'Callaghan said. Show vendors and reporters are buzzing about the new casinos, and many plan to stay there, said Joe Serra, co-chairman of the show. The Sheraton Detroit Riverside will most likely be full during the auto show, too, O'Callaghan said. The hotel had a soft reopening in October, after being closed for several months to complete the renovations. The official opening is Monday. "They've done a great job in the renovations, and given that it is next door to Cobo, we do have faith it will compete quite well," O'Callaghan said. But the money troubles of the Sheraton signal the downtown hotel scene hasn't completely turned a corner, analysts said. The hotel's new owner, Shubh Hotels Detroit LLC, is scrambling to pay more than $734,000 in outstanding bills to contractors and the state Treasury Department. The hotel recently averted foreclosure proceedings by paying more than $800,000 in delinquent property taxes. The owners paid the taxes a month ago after the city misplaced the original check. Still outstanding is more than $177,000 in delinquent state taxes, according to the Wayne County Register of Deeds Office. And 15 contractors have filed liens against the property, claiming they are owned a total of $557,000. Sanjay Patel, a Shubh vice president, said he is negotiating to pay off the tax liens; hotel attorney Bruce Sucher said the owners intend to pay 98 percent of the contractors' bills by the end of this week. The owners said the renovation of the 42-year-old hotel ultimately cost $26 million -- more than double what was originally budgeted to transform the long neglected property. Those overruns led to bills piling up. 'Property has dwindled' "It's a shame that property has dwindled," said Charles Skelton, president of Hospitality Advisors Inc., an Ann Arbor hotel consulting firm. But neither the auto show nor the initial performance of the hotels will be the true test of Detroit's new digs, Skelton said. "Everyone expects a big flash in the beginning," he said. "We are talking about whole new audiences not used to coming to Detroit. This is the only place in the county where you have casino hotels in the heart of a manufacturing industrial city. I'm not smart enough to know really how it will turn out." http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.d ll/article?AID=/20071214/BIZ/7 12140329 | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2139 Registered: 10-2006 |
"The increases in the region/city occupancy levels are pretty impressive given the local economy and lack of a major event. This also more proof of how a vital central city can benefit the entire region." Come on Eric, you have to read past the first two paragraphs if you are going to make a comment like that. THE THIRD PARAGRAPH: "The number of big multi-hotel conventions in Detroit is set to increase next year from four to 10, convention officials and hotel analysts say. They will attract 10,000 to 15,000 people each and boost hotel occupancy rates for the region to levels not seen since before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau." | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 4211 Registered: 10-2003 |
The capacity and ability to entertain guests is in place now. Time for the C&V Bureau to start packing them in. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2376 Registered: 04-2006 |
So is 2008 the year Detroit gets put back on the map? quote: I don't know whether to read that as optimism or skepticism? Maybe it's time to stop thinking about Detroit as an industrial city? | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 3016 Registered: 06-2006 |
This is great...the more large conventions the city gets, the more complaints regional leaders will hear about a lack of mass transit... All the complaints they heard during the 2006 Superbowl is what forced Kwame, Brooks and Ficano to get on the same page and charge John Hertel with the task of comping up with a regional transit plan, which should be completed next fall... If the region really wants to be a player in the convention business, we need more than just hotel rooms and convention space...we need to offer the type of transit that competing cities offer...we need a goddamn train! | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 693 Registered: 02-2007 |
Modern day steam power, burning waste would be innovative(cheap). Extend the lines from Greenfield Village:-) Now thats a train ride, that would draw visitors. Revamp the old terminal downtown. | ||
Dustin89 Member Username: Dustin89 Post Number: 163 Registered: 07-2006 |
I have a question regarding the new Sheraton Detroit: will it have the same dining setup of the former Ponchartrain? I remember coming in off of the Jefferson entrance a few years ago and eating lunch in that little bar/grille near the lobby, and was wondering if that will still be there. | ||
Mind_field Member Username: Mind_field Post Number: 842 Registered: 10-2003 |
Wow, that is very impressive we are more than doubling the number of large conventions next year. Does anyone have any idea what all these are? New to Detroit? Returning after leaving for someplace else? Coming from the Rock Financial showplace in Novi? | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 1044 Registered: 11-2004 |
quote: So increasing our occupancy levels in this economy, without the aide of an event like the All Star Game or SuperBowl isn't somewhat impressive? quote: I agree it's going to take the business community being upset to push rapid transit forward especially with Patterson. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 1284 Registered: 09-2007 |
"agree it's going to take the business community being upset to push rapid transit forward especially with Patterson." Hate to wake up a dead thread, but what business community in SE Michigan? the businesses that are around have a sprawling office complex with plenty of free parking on whatever mile and something lake rd, just investing on a car-only economy. | ||
Talleman1 Member Username: Talleman1 Post Number: 20 Registered: 06-2005 |
If the area only looked like this and the old great Pontchartrain was still around. Hey I did not know the Bagley fountain was there? Look in the right hand corner. Also what fool would sink double in renovations, someone got ripped off. http://www.flickr.com/photo_zo om.gne?id=595057842&size=o | ||
Fnemecek Member Username: Fnemecek Post Number: 2681 Registered: 12-2004 |
quote: An obscure business community called the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. They've been advocating for improvements in mass transit for almost 40 years now. | ||
Kslice Member Username: Kslice Post Number: 251 Registered: 04-2007 |
I'm glad this thread came back to life. Somehow I missed reading it the first time around. Nice to see more stuff going on at Cobo Hall, but what about Cobo Arena? Do they do anything over there anymore? I know its had some failed sports teams through the years but what goes on their now? | ||
Elwoodp Member Username: Elwoodp Post Number: 20 Registered: 03-2006 |
Does anyone know what the 6 additional multi-hotel conventions are? They were not obvious to me based on the events listed on the Cobo Center web site: http://www.cobocenter.com/even ts.php | ||
Bob Member Username: Bob Post Number: 1625 Registered: 11-2003 |
The thing they don't mention is the convention business that goes straight to the hotels. I know the Ren Cen Marriott does a fair convention business, and these are not listed on the website. And when the BC and Fort Shelby join the mix they will add space for smaller conventions. Not to mention the casinos have space to run smaller conventions. There is lots of talk about Cobo conventions, but the ones that are more consistent and coming more and more to Detroit are the smaller ones. These add up and bring people downtown that may never have come to Detroit and leave with a positive impression of the city. I know the American String Teachers Association had their national convention at the Ren Cen last March and I talked to a lot of people that were very impressed with the city, Greektown, ice skating, etc. This is how we turn outsiders impression of the city around, and they in turn want to come back. |
