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Harry Kefalonitis, owner of Harry's Detroit bar at Clifford and Henry, right next door to the Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit, has had an ongoing dispute with the Ilitch organization for a while now.
Last year, before the arena even opened, he called the stadium a hostile neighbor, and feared that his business would be harmed because the arena planned to direct traffic for its parking garage right past his bar, causing a choke point and making it difficult for her patrons to enter and leave.
Now he complains again.
Kefalonitis is feuding with Olympia regarding barricades that keep customers from getting to the bar, Mara MacDonald of WDIV reports. Barricades went up Thursday on a pedestrian-only stretch that links the arena from Woodward Avenue to Cass Avenue.
"It's so petty, it's just ridiculous," Kefalonitis says. “Every single day they cut off the bridges, cut off the roads. They try to block people from coming in."
He tells the station that his lawyers have been in contact with Olympia for months, and there have been struggles over property, construction, traffic patterns and, now, barricades. When photos of the barricades were sent to Detroit Public Works Department, the city came out and had the barricades removed.
"The city had them open it up because they said they don't have authority to do it," Kefalonitis says
His lawyer is asking city council to take action. Olympia, Ilitch-owned company, did not immediately respond to WDIV for comment. Olympia has said in the past that it is still working on traffic patterns around the stadium.
