«
»

Dearborn’s Hyatt Hotel Has New Owner

Dearborn’s 34-year-old Hyatt Regency Hotel has been sold, city officials confirm.

Dearborn's Hyatt Hotel has a new owner.

While the real estate listing for the 18-story hotel pitched the facility as a possible good location for senior housing, the new owner thankfully will keep it a hotel. It isn’t clear whether the name will remain. We will dig into that once we learn the name of the new owner.

The new owner also has expressed a strong interest in Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly’s dream to build a convention center adjacent to the hotel. The proposed convention center is projected to drive another 89,000 room nights annually to the Dearborn center.

Built in 1976, the 810,000 square-foot Hyatt in Dearborn has some 772 rooms.

All offers for the hotel had to be submitted to the Hyatt’s real estate agent by April 2.

This is the second big name hotel in Dearborn to be sold. The Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, one of the top luxury hotels in Michigan, will officially change its name on June 2. For that earlier story, click HERE

The good news about the two hotels is that they will be staying in Dearborn and are expected to receive major renovations.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 12:54 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

DeepSaidWhat.com welcomes your views and encourages lively -- but civil -- discussions. Comments are unedited, but submissions reported as abusive may be removed.

  • Donna Hay

    Sort of a no-brainer that the new owners would be interested in Jack’s “DREAM” to build a convention center.

  • Anthony

    Didn’t the previous owners miss loan payments? Was it sold short?

    Said: You wrote that the Hyatt had a real estate agent. I think this hotel was not owned by Hyatt Hotels, but was a licensed franchisee. Weren’t the previous owners of the Dearborn Hyatt Hotel an equity group or holding company?

    Donna, I have to disagree with your comment and state that a convention center can’t come soon enough there. Regardless of who’s dream it is.

    Anthony

  • Darren

    A convention center is an excellent idea.

  • tdogg

    Anyone in the convention business would tell you a few things that might give some pause to spending more taxpayer money on a convention center (including tax abatements, etc.):

    1. Detroit & Dearborn never were and never will be a favored destination of the convention crowd. Take a look at over-built Las Vegas to see where the smart money thinks people want to go for meetings. If nothing else, this type of facility is already available at the Motor City Casino.

    2. The automotives – Ford and everyone else in the business – are rapidly moving away from the need for this type of facility. They are smaller companies and already have plenty of other options for meeting space in the area.

    3. The overall trend of having meetings “off-site” at destinations is rapidly diminishing in favor of webinars, Skype and all sorts of innovative communication. This trend is going to do nothing but accelerate.

    4. The budgets for travel and conventions continue to shrink as the need to attend events and available funding diminishes. Detroit’s hotel market is way overbuilt, and older marginal properties like this one cannot be propped up by a convention center.

    Take a look at the kind of shows that they have to book at the Rock Financial Center to keep that afloat, and ask – for the available 365 days, how many would be booked at the O’Reilly Convention Center, and by whom?

    Cash flow is king, and who do you think will be making up the shortfall?

    The devil is in the details – lets see the business plan first.

  • vincent

    If Big Jack assisted in the sale, you can bet it will be like his police chief — a real loser and dud.

  • kay

    Exactly tdogg and vincent!!! How about we take all of Neuman’s and Fakhoury’s empty buildings and the parking structures that are rarely used and call it a “convention center”. Short of booking the Auto Show, Boat Show, Autorama, and the rest of Cobo’s business, we are looking at another white elephant with a different name on it. On a different note, read the P & G for today and the comments O’Reilly made about Dingell. It is stunning to me. Then try to understand anything he does as being in the best interest of the city and the citizens. It’s a crock. Dingell is a disaster and needs to go, and the fact that O’Reilly thinks he has done a great job is a joke.

  • Marge

    tdogg, you are right on! Convention Centers are YESTERDAY’S vision. We need somebody with a vision for tomorrow. Catching on to things 20 years late is just that – too late. The next decade will see convention centers standing empty with an overgrowth of weeds.
    How about some creative thinking that will utilize the current business trends to move us into the future. Wouldn’t it be nice to be “first” again like we were under Hubbard? Those were the days!!

  • DearbornResident

    such a sorry, pessimistic group of few people that follow this site. it’s really a shame that you people don’t have anything good to say. move away

  • 21centurycitizen

    Marge:

    You talk about “YESTERDAY’S vision” in regards to the convention center, but in the same posting lament those days in the era of Hubbard? Really??? So you would prefer to go back to the 1930s-1970s?

    In case you haven’t noticed the bloated post WWII infrastructure doesn’t fly any more. The present economy doesn’t support it. Cronyism is illegal. People here claim the present admin is full of shady deals, etc. The Hubbard admin was even more rife. They argue we should sell the Dearborn Towers and Camp Dearborn amongst other things. Who was responsible them being a ‘part’ of Dearborn in the first place? Hmmmm….

    Let’s all join in…”Boy, the way Glenn Miller played….”

  • MyTwoSenseToo

    I thought the idea of a Dearborn Convention Center was based on the Metro Detroit/Ann Arbor Rail Project. As of April 27th the project has been INDEFINITELY DELAYED according to SEMCOG. By the way, a project that the Federal Government doesn’t think is viable and has pulled major grant money (something about “costs vs rewards”). SEMCOG claims it still needs $50 million dollars to complete the project. SEMCOG hopes to get the money from an increase in fuel taxes. There has already been millions of dollars spent.

    DearbornResident, I don’t think it’s about being pessimistic. It’s about reality. This administration is all about pipe dreams.

    I’m just glad all those jobs were saved at the Hyatt.

  • kay

    DearbornResident: There is a difference between being pessimist and being a realist. As John Adams once said: Facts are stubborn things. The fact is, Marge is right. The fact is tdogg and vincent are right too. If we were pessimistic, we wouldn’t be following this site or any other site, we would sit in our houses wringing our hands and waving the white flag. Sorry you cannot understand people who are interested enough in their city to offer ideas and yes, criticism. That’s our job as residents of the city, don’t you think?

  • tdogg

    I am not a pessimist by any means – I am very hopeful for the City, and prove that by staying here and investing in my home and my neighborhood. I ain’t going nowhere. As to “sorry” well, that’s your perspective.

    What I want to see is development that is driven by the market – not by government. Its one thing to have an administration that creates an environment friendly to investment in the community. Its another to have the adminstration try to push development that doesn’t have a realistic chance of success – namely Hakim’s “dream” and the Burton Katzman project.

    We as a body politic should have taken a long and cynical look at these proposals, and seen them for what they were – “pie in the sky.”

    No offense Marge, but there is a big difference between pessimism and seeing things for what they are. I wish HF would pay his taxes, I wish BK would build their complex, but you know what – it just ain’t gonna happen.

    Now sit back and wait for Fakourey’s lawsuit – I’m guessing he and his brother have it ready to be filed right now.

    HF – are you reading this? Care to confirm?

  • tdogg

    When I said “Marge” I meant “Dearborn Resident” (is that you Hakim?) I apologize.

  • Bep

    We need to work with what we have and then see what we need to add. The Henry Ford is a HUGE & BEAUTIFUL asset to Dearborn and there shouldn’t be a person that can drive through downtown Dearborn and not know that we have it. The Dearborn Inn is another wonderful asset. Why are the movie people staying in The Hyatt and Ritz…is it because nobody told them about the Dearborn Inn? If we took the route of striving to be an American family tourist destination we would flourish! We ARE unique..lets build on that! If you want to talk about trends…we are missing a HUGE boat! People that are traveling are traveling inside the country. People don’t want to fly to a foreign destination while we are at war, the unaffordable charges of the airlines and just the fear of being on an airplane. Not to mention the wave of American patroitism that is sweeping the country! We can benefit from the ugliness of the world right now…why aren’t we seeing that? We need to use what we have and then once we are out of debt and booming then lets talk about adding. I can almost gaurantee that if we market ourselves for tourism the empty building will become occupied. We don’t want to overlook the gem we already are and there isnt’ anything pessemistic about that. Yes “gotomeeting.com” and many other online meeting places are the way of the future. We don’t need a conference center!

  • kay

    tdogg for Mayorl!!

  • kay

    Bep for Council!!!

  • Paul Mastrogiacomo

    The convention center does not depend on the commuter rail. They’re two completely separate projects.

    It should be noted that the Metro Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau originally chose Troy as the best location for a small convention center. Troy said no thanks. Dearborn and Mayor O’Reilly were eager to jump at the scraps.

    Ann Arbor also is thinking of a hotel and convention center of this size downtown. If it gets build and this one does, too, we won’t be able to compete.

  • Marge

    21 centurycitizen – I don’t prefer to go back to the 30′s. Seems you are missing the whole point. In the 50′s (under Hubbard) we were first. Sure they talk about selling Camp Dearborn and the Dearborn Towers today, but at the time it was visionary and quite the wonderful thing to have. Nothing is cutting edge forever! Actually, you make my point – why would we want to invest in a convention center only to have it as passe’ as Dbn. towers and Camp Dbn. in a year or two?
    And by no means am I anit-administartion or anti-Dearborn. I love Dearborn which is why I have lived here for my entire life. I only stated that we could use some forward thinking. Sometimes its really not so complicated. Actually Bep is quite right in her thinking. We have a lot of treasure here and we just need to stop looking at what everybody else has and is doing and appreciate the gems in our town and build on them. We are DEARBORN – we will never be any other town and actually that’s good enough! We just need a few more people at City Hall to recognize that.

  • MyTwoSenseToo

    Paul Mastrogiacomo:

    You are right about the convention center. It is not dependent upon the commuter rail.

    My point was the excitement that rallied around the idea of the rail project and what it would mean to a convention center in Dearborn. Without the rail, what is the point of a convention center? I think it would be putting the cart before the horse.

  • Pauly

    Why don’t u buy HF out, tdogg?? You develop his “dream”. How do u know his taxes aren’t paid?? Why don’t u attack the thousands of other people that owe taxes?? I am not trying to defend him but know some facts before u spout. HF and everyone else delinquent in their taxes owe the county, NOT the city….Dearborn got paid by the county. The city is paid……Now what will u bash??

  • tdogg

    Pauly, Pauly, Pauly,

    Thanks for proving my point, although I’m sure you don’t understand why. The reason that Fakourey is being called out is due to the large number of commercial properties he owns that are extremely delinquent in their taxes. You didn’t know?

    You obviously don’t read that big ol’ section of the Free Press that comes out in late Feb do you – the one that shows all the tax delinquencies? The one where Fakourey’s name appears more than anyone else in Western Wayne County? Apparently not.

    As the saying goes, “the money has to come from somewhere.” The Ad Valorum (property) tax supports a myriad of government operations – the county, the city, the schools. When someone doesn’t pay his share, people like me end up on the hook for it(how about you?). Look at the finances of Wayne County, Dearborn Schools and the City of Dearborn – do you really think they don’t need the money? In a word, are you “nuts?”

    Here’s my point Pally – pay the taxes on the property you own, or risk being condemned by those that do for not doing your fair share. Thats called doing the right thing. Got a hard time with that idea?

    Have you been following the nearing economic collapse in Europe, triggered by Greece, where the national past-time is tax avoidance? Is that where you’re going?

    As to developing his “dream” I will leave that to others with the appropriate rose colored glasses. I prefer to invest my dollars in something that has some prospect of actually making money.

    You might try getting some facts on your side, next time before you, er, spout.

    U might also get spell check.

  • kay

    tdogg, that was wonderful. Thanks for clearing that up for “Pauly”. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?