Once a ruin, Detroit landmark set to open this fall is already generating buzz, lots of business
BY JOHN GALLAGHER • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • April 22, 2008
Six months and counting.
Nearly a quarter-century after Detroit's famed Book-Cadillac Hotel closed, workers were busy Monday getting it ready for a fall reopening as the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit, and the team that saved it prepared to announce grand-opening details today.
Celebrity chef Michael Symon is to be introduced at a news conference today as the creator of the hotel's new signature restaurant, tentatively to be called Roast.
Other details: The hotel will hold grand-opening festivities Oct. 24 and 25, and begin taking room reservations Nov. 1 for stays starting Nov. 15.
For months, the hotel has been booking special events for late this year and beyond, and bookings are running ahead of expectations, Scott Stinebaugh, director of sales for the hotel, said Monday.
"Of course, we sold out for the auto show. Of course, we sold out for the Final Four," Stinebaugh said, referring to the 2009 North American International Auto Show and the college basketball championships being played at Ford Field in 2009.
"But we are really getting booked up for the holiday season and for the spring and summer wedding season, as well."
At an afternoon news conference today, Cleveland-based developer John Ferchill, the new owner who is doing the renovation, is to introduce Symon and present other details. George Jackson, Detroit's chief development officer who helped negotiate the complex $180-million financial deal, is also scheduled to speak.
Opened in 1924 with an Italian Renaissance-inspired design by architect Louis Kamper, the Book-Cadillac operated for six decades under various owners as Detroit's leading hotel. John F. Kennedy spoke there, and the hotel was famed for hosting movie starts and sports greats, not to mention generations of weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations and retirements.
The hotel's fortunes declined with those of Detroit at large, and it closed in 1984. It languished in bankruptcy for many years, with windows broken and plaster dissolving under rain and snowmelt, until the interior became a dank ruin.
The Ferchill Group, which specializes in urban redevelopment projects, spent two years putting together a complex financial package to raise the money needed to reopen the hotel, and another two years on reconstruction work.
The deal includes the creation of about 67 condominiums on the upper floors, more than 50 of which have been presold, Ferchill said.
On Monday, work crews were still busy throughout the structure, but the job site was at least beginning to take on the semblance of recognizable rooms. In the Venetian, a fourth-floor ballroom, the ornate ceiling with a wealth of classical and Renaissance-inspired ornamentation was mostly done. The same was true in the Italian Garden room, also on the fourth floor.
"There is nothing like this in the city -- not even close," Stinebaugh said during a tour.
On the north side of the hotel, a new facility has been added that will include the Woodward, a 600-seat ballroom, as well as a fitness center and pool, business center, spa and various shops and restaurants.
The Westin will have the capacity to handle three weddings at the same time, Stinebaugh said.
BY JOHN GALLAGHER • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • April 22, 2008
Six months and counting.
Nearly a quarter-century after Detroit's famed Book-Cadillac Hotel closed, workers were busy Monday getting it ready for a fall reopening as the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit, and the team that saved it prepared to announce grand-opening details today.
Celebrity chef Michael Symon is to be introduced at a news conference today as the creator of the hotel's new signature restaurant, tentatively to be called Roast.
Other details: The hotel will hold grand-opening festivities Oct. 24 and 25, and begin taking room reservations Nov. 1 for stays starting Nov. 15.
For months, the hotel has been booking special events for late this year and beyond, and bookings are running ahead of expectations, Scott Stinebaugh, director of sales for the hotel, said Monday.
"Of course, we sold out for the auto show. Of course, we sold out for the Final Four," Stinebaugh said, referring to the 2009 North American International Auto Show and the college basketball championships being played at Ford Field in 2009.
"But we are really getting booked up for the holiday season and for the spring and summer wedding season, as well."
At an afternoon news conference today, Cleveland-based developer John Ferchill, the new owner who is doing the renovation, is to introduce Symon and present other details. George Jackson, Detroit's chief development officer who helped negotiate the complex $180-million financial deal, is also scheduled to speak.
Opened in 1924 with an Italian Renaissance-inspired design by architect Louis Kamper, the Book-Cadillac operated for six decades under various owners as Detroit's leading hotel. John F. Kennedy spoke there, and the hotel was famed for hosting movie starts and sports greats, not to mention generations of weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations and retirements.
The hotel's fortunes declined with those of Detroit at large, and it closed in 1984. It languished in bankruptcy for many years, with windows broken and plaster dissolving under rain and snowmelt, until the interior became a dank ruin.
The Ferchill Group, which specializes in urban redevelopment projects, spent two years putting together a complex financial package to raise the money needed to reopen the hotel, and another two years on reconstruction work.
The deal includes the creation of about 67 condominiums on the upper floors, more than 50 of which have been presold, Ferchill said.
On Monday, work crews were still busy throughout the structure, but the job site was at least beginning to take on the semblance of recognizable rooms. In the Venetian, a fourth-floor ballroom, the ornate ceiling with a wealth of classical and Renaissance-inspired ornamentation was mostly done. The same was true in the Italian Garden room, also on the fourth floor.
"There is nothing like this in the city -- not even close," Stinebaugh said during a tour.
On the north side of the hotel, a new facility has been added that will include the Woodward, a 600-seat ballroom, as well as a fitness center and pool, business center, spa and various shops and restaurants.
The Westin will have the capacity to handle three weddings at the same time, Stinebaugh said.
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