FOBC Files Injunction to Stop Demo of Statler

[Allan]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

--FRIENDS OF THE BOOK-CADILLAC PRESS STATLER APPEAL--

NOVEMBER 5, 2004 CONTACT: MORRIS GOODMAN, ESQ. 313.505.0212

Detroit, MI-The Friends of the Book-Cadillac Hotel, a non-profit

group devoted to preserving and reusing downtown's heritage

properties, filed motions Friday in 3rd Circuit Court, including a

request for an injunction, on behalf of an earlier appeal of the

Detroit Historic District Commission's ruling to allow the City of

Detroit to demolish the former Statler-Hilton Hotel.

The Statler, prominently located at the end of Washington Blvd., is

scheduled to have a date with the wrecking ball later this month

after presiding over Grand Circus Park for ninety years, simply

because the city couldn't get the building rehabbed before the All

Star Game next July.

"The very idea that the City set such an arbitrary deadline, and then stopped working with competent developers who had submitted proposals is preposterous." says Morris Goodman, the group's attorney. "It's entirely the wrong message to send to the development community just as the downtown market is beginning to take shape."

The Friends have appealed the Commission's May 12th decision citing six objections that are outlined in the 14-page brief delivered to Judge Wendy M. Baxter's office this morning. The objections include the fact that:

[Brother Ray]

Hotel razing still on

Preservationists lost another round in their fight to save the endangered Statler-Hilton Hotel in Detroit from demolition.

In May, the City of Detroit's Historic District Commission gave the go-ahead to the city's plan to tear down the long-vacant hotel in Grand Circus Park.

The preservation group Friends of the Book-Cadillac went to court recently seeking an injunction to block demolition that's scheduled to start later this year. But Wayne County Circuit Judge Wendy Baxter declined to stop the razing after a brief hearing on procedural challenges to the demolition plan. Morris Goodman, an attorney for Friends of the Book-Cadillac, said preservationists will make another attempt to block the demolition.

[Allan]

I still can't believe that the city wants to destroy buildings to try and make itself look "better" for a football game. The people coming to the game are coming to see the game, not to see Detroit. You can't change everyone's impression of the city in one weekend. It just is not going to happen.

As much as I would hate to see the building demolished, it looks like I we are going to have to live with it. Unless someone can come up with the $40 Million needed to bridge the financing gap that it would take to renovate the place. I just don't see that happening, especially since we can't even get the Book Cadillac deal done.

The thing that disturbs me most about this is that the city has no plans for the site at all. If there was a plan to replace the structure with a midrise apartment building or something that is one thing, but to demolish it with no plan at all is a big mistake. The site is going to sit vacant for the next 40 years, just like the Kern Block did before Compuware moved there. Yet another massive block-long hole in an already severely fragmented urban fabric.

We all know that a gravel parking lot will look better than this.

[Allan]

Today (December 3, 2004) Judge Wendy M. Baxter issued a restraining order, preventing the City of Detroit from demolishing the Statler. The next hearing on the appeal will be held December 17. On that day she will decide whether to overturn the Historic District Commission's approval of the demolition plan.

If FOBC wins the appeal, the Statler is safe until the city goes back to the HDC and asks for permission to demolish it.

If FOBC looses, demolition will proceed as originally planned.

So there is still a glimmer of hope for the Statler....

[Brother Ray]

Today (December 3, 2004) Judge Wendy M. Baxter issued a restraining order, preventing the City of Detroit from demolishing the Statler.  The next hearing on the appeal will be held December 17.    On that day she will decide whether to overturn the Historic District Commission's approval of the demolition plan.

If FOBC wins the appeal, the Statler is safe until the city goes back to the HDC and asks for permission to demolish it.

If FOBC looses, demolition will proceed as originally planned.

So there is still a glimmer of hope for the Statler....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Great news!! Thanks for posting, Allan.

[Allan]

The fight still is not over. From the other Statler thread....

From a source of mine: "FOBC have a developer and

architect that have scheduled a meeting with the mayor and is planning on

coming to court to speak to Judge Baxter. The fights not over yet."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Allan]

Latest news:

HRI is interested in redeveloping the building. They must meet with the city before December 31st. After that the city can demolish the building.

The plans include placing a swimming pool where the kitchen is currently located, and tearing off the 1915 addition.

[Allan]

Here is the blurb about this from the Free Press.

Detroit must meet with Statler developers

Wayne County Circuit Judge Wendy Baxter has ordered the City of Detroit to meet with New Orleans-based developers who hope to renovate the abandoned Statler Hotel in Detroit's Grand Circus Park district into residential units. The order came Friday to settle a dispute between the City of Detroit, which hopes to begin demolishing the structure before the end of the year, and preservationists who want to see the landmark hotel saved and renovated.

The city's Historic District Commission, which oversees the fate of landmark buildings, gave the city permission to proceed with demolition earlier this year, citing the long-term difficulty in finding a developer willing to tackle the financially difficult project, but preservationists sued to block demolition. To settle the preservationists' complaint, the city agreed to meet first with Historic Restoration Inc., a group that includes former New Orleans Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, about renovating the building.

http://www.freep.com/money/business/lind18e_20041218.htm