Little Caesars Arena
It started with a call to answer some questions. When none came, presumably Detroit News opinion editor Nolan Finley flipped all the way over to outright Ilitch-dissin'. Today, the conservative columnist says the promises made in exchange for taxpayer help building Little Casears Arena were empty. A "mirage. Or an outright deception."
Nolan Finley: "Not much can be done about it."
Finley looks to Milwaukee, where new development is blossoming around the Fiserv Forum, built to house the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. But not here.
Detroit, meanwhile, is looking at a future of empty lots — 27 of them — creating a desert of surface parking spaces and an ugly doughnut hole in downtown Detroit’s celebrated renaissance.
Ilitch has not emerged to explain the delay in starting work on The District, five distinct neighborhoods that would connect Downtown with Midtown. The grand plan helped him secure $340 million in taxpayer money for the arena project. A statement from his real estate arm, Olympia Development, claims it has already honored the commitment to invest $200 million in arena related projects. No word on the fate of The District.
. . . And not much can be done about it, even though the city helped the Ilitches acquire the land, in some cases selling it city owned property for little or nothing, and issued demolition permits, including for historic structures.
The city can’t reclaim the land, force the Ilitches to deliver the promised neighborhoods, or even require Olympia to sell the lots to developers who are willing to put them into more productive use.
Crain's and the Free Press have also published projects critical of the Ilitch organization's empty promises. The barn door may be closing well after the Ilitch horses left the barn, but man, are we yelling at those nags as they gallop off into the distance.
