BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL
entrepreneur
From Eyesore To Elegance
Storied hotel back in
business with a flair.
Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News
. he new Doubletree Guest Suites Ft. Shelby Hotel that
opened in downtown Detroit in December has a strong
Jewish influence. Real estate developer and business-
man Eugene Curtis of West Bloomfield is the driving
force behind the four-man partnership that guided the $90 mil-
lion renovation of the historic hotel that first opened in 1917.
The site -at West Lafayette Boulevard. and First Avenue - for-
merly was occupied by an old fort.
Curtis has been working on the project for almost nine years
and knows "every nook and cranny" of the 10-story hotel and
22-story apartment tower complex with 56 units. The reno-
vated building has struck an optimistic chord in the midst of
Michigan's dire economy. The 203 hotel suites bring Detroit's
hotel room total to more than 5,000, more than doubling the
count in the past year. This includes the three new casino hotels
and the restored Westin Book Cadillac.
"It's senseless to waste time worrying about the economy,"
declared Curtis, who has been developing real estate projects
for 40 years, specializing mainly in apartments. "We have an
outstanding product and staff. These aren't just cookie-cutter
hotel rooms; each room is different. We turned an old, inefficient
building into a modernized, efficient building - and it's full of
Detroit history. It'll be a money-maker."
Curtis and his partners are counting on such big Detroit
attractions as the annual North American International Auto
Show - journalists stayed in the hotel during last month's show
— the upcoming NCAA Final Four men's basketball champion-
ship at Ford Field April 4-6, and various conventions and other
events planned for the soon-to-be expanded Cobo Center.
"Re-opening this hotel is a courageous move and I wish them
luck," offered Harold Berry of Bloomfield Hills, whose family
once operated downtown's former Wolverine Hotel and Howard
Johnson Motel, and once was connected with the old Whittier
Hotel on Detroit's east side. "Historically, it is difficult keeping
rooms filled downtown between conventions. That will be the
key to their success."
The original 10-story Hotel Ft. Shelby was an $890,000 proj-
ect involving three investors who wanted to take advantage of
the success of the Statler Hotel, which opened in 1915. In 1927,
the Hotel Ft. Shelby's 22-story tower was added, designed by
famed Jewish architect Albert Kahn. Plans for a huge expan-
sion a few years later were cancelled by the start of the Great
Depression.
The post-war hotel industry was dominated by the large hotel
chains; Albert Pick Hotels bought the Ft. Shelby, but couldn't
make a go of it. Another attempt by a local family, under the
Shelby Hotel name, also failed - and the hotel closed in 1974.
The hotel bar was shuttered in 1998.
"I received a phone call in 2000 from a business acquaintance
who suggested I look into this hotel, so I put our partnership
T
Eugene Curtis and Leo Phillips outside the new Doubletree Guest Suites Ft. Shelby Hotel
FROM EYESORE on page A38
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February 12 • 2009
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