Detroit's hotel scene is coming back, full of swagger, Louis Aguilar reports in the Detroit News.
Two existing hotels plan renovations. Three new hotels are in the works: One in an old firehouse, another in the David Whitney Building. And Thursday in Eastern Market marked the arrival of the most unique concept yet: The lobby of a planned 36-room hotel made of reclaimed steel shipping containers arrived on a flatbed trailer.
When construction is complete, 5,000 downtown rooms will compete to cash in on Detroit's burgeoning convention business. In the newly competitive climate, all of the hotels may not succeed, and the city's casino-hotels will have the advantage, one analyst said.
"It is really kind of a fun time right now. And it wasn't so long ago that it wasn't so good," Michael O'Callaghan, chief operating officer for the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, tells Aguilar.
