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I guess I just don't want Detroit to turn into a city of arenas.  I want a city with office and residential towers and midrises.  The things that keep a city vibrant everydody.  For example, like every other major city in the world except us.

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I dont disagree at all with those statements.

A new arena would allow for an expanded Cobo hall as well which would potentially have a great economic impact. If residential towers dont seem to be in the works for the two sites than an arena could be the next best thing.

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Yesterday, I got a different perspective on this issue from a few Detroiters that were watching the demolition of both the Madison Lennox and Statler. All of them were glad to see them go, but really wanted new buildings to go up. I mentioned to all of them that it was rumored a new arena would go up in GCP. All three were a bit upset to hear that and gave the response that the arenas haven't done enough to save the city. They all wanted new office buildings, new apartments, and more shopping. "Hockey, baseball, football, you know most those people who go to those games are from the suburbs......they eat here and then don't come back until the next game," one of them said. He felt there should be more stuff in the city that dealt with the everyday needs of the residents. The second person had an interesting take on the parking lot issue. I mentioned that it could possibly be built on surface lots. The guy didn't give a crap about that, because he knew that would mean more lots around it would be needed for it to get built. He felt that if two buildings had to come down to make way for what might be an arena someday, then a bunch of other demolitions would follow. Remember, a lot of buildings leveled for Comerica Park weren't even on the stadium site, and some were even occupied! I've presented these ideas, because I thought they brought up some issues we really didn't think of. I really do agree that the Joe is way too isolated from where all the action is. Remember that during the time it was built, developers did not know a lot about connecting entertainment venues with downtown businesses and living. Instead, they were built as urban renewal projects to purge areas of decay and abandonment in one large sweep, with hope that it would encourage more investment in the city.

Unless a proposal is put forward as to what to do with the current Joe Louis arena, I'm going to reject the idea of building a new one.

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I think "The Joe" will eventually be replaced by an expanded Cobo Center. The lots facing Grand Circus Park are not the right shape or size to allow for the construction of an arena. I agree the preferred use for the Statler and Tuller sites would be residential but I doubt that will happen. The Trolley Plaza seems to have trouble keeping tenants.

Not that I expect to see this happen but I think Ilitch should build the permanent Motor City Casino/Hotel on the Statler/Tuller site. It would, once again, put a major hotel on GCP and invigorate the area with much needed pedestrian traffic. It would also vastly increase the value of the other properties he owns in the area. In addition, it would place another major "destination" on the people mover route which could help ease the financial burden this deficit ridden system places on the city budget.

One of the goals of the casino law was to bring people downtown. This is not accomplished by building a casino way out Grand River Ave., even if it does have easy freeway access.

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Good idea, but Mike Illitch owns a bunch of parking lots and vacant buildings around the west necklace and now that Marian Illitch has gotten her license to print money with MGM, I doubt they would let Motor City move downtown.

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As I recall the Illitches are not moving the Casino at all. They are just expanding their current location or building something very close. The only two Casinos that are going to be downtown are Greektown and MGM. That would be an interesting location though. The hotel part of the whole thing would be nice.

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It is really so amazing how Detroit can take a no-brainer like casinos and screw it up so badly! Here it is almost nine years after the casino law was passed and still all we have are hotel-less temporary casinos. In addition to the obvious benefit of the increased tax revenue, the casinos were supposed to add 2400 first class hotel rooms to the Central Business District which in turn would help Cobo Center attract larger and more frequent conventions. The promise of those hotel rooms was instrumental in attracting major events such as the All Star Game and the Super Bowl. The casinos were also supposed to add more vitality to downtown and that was citied as one of the reasons Peter Karmanos decided to build Compuware headquarters in downtown Detroit. In fact, as I recall, he was very upset when Mayor Archer decided to create a casino district along the river. Motor City was granted permission to build their temporary casino at Temple and Grand River but was expected to move to the Rivertown casino district along with the other casinos. However, following the Rivertown land acquisition fiasco the city was left holding the bag for hundreds of millions of dollars. The casinos baled the city out and in exchange they were allowed to call all the shots. Hence, 400 hundred room hotels instead of 800 room hotels and Motor City was granted approval to expand at their current location outside the CBD. I

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A Casino on Grand Circus park would most certainly bring some life to the area but it depends on how it is approached. I think ground floor retail is a must and other things that would make it good for the area and its residents.

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My thought for the Statler site was, and still is, an artist co-op. Most of the people living downtown are going to be single, students, or empty nesters, the Detroit school of art is blocks away, maybe they could rent a few places to use as dorms. Place a grocery store in there, toss in a coffee shop, an all purpose art supply store, a music repair shop, an art store/museum, and maybe a place where live music/poetry happens a few nights a week...throw in a McDonalds with a play land for good measure (parents and kids in the area for the game) have the artist who live in the bld contribute to working in the retail part of the bld. as part of their co-op fee, and wa-la...now the new lofts in that area have nifty little shops, a place to get groceries, and a social area...the old Statler would have been perfect for this plan, but even built new, if they are going to continue to refurbish all of those spaces into lofts they need to put some good ole modern amenities in there for people to access and neat stuff for people to look at. Sigh...well, that's my though :blush:

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