The D.E.A.L.: (Dining, Entertainment, Attractions & Lodging)
by Jeanne Brei
Hotel options range from contemporary casinos with 1,000-sq.ft. corner suites to historic landmarks with lobbies and guest rooms restored to legendary glamour. In total, some 5,000 rooms are in Detroit’s prime downtown real estate.
Directly across the street from the Huntington Place is the stunning Detroit Foundation Hotel (pictured above), which transformed Detroit’s former Fire Department headquarters, which was built in 1929, into a 100-room luxury hotel with a gorgeous dining area (the Apparatus Room), a mini-museum of fire dept. hats and gear on the fourth floor, a reading room on the third floor and one of the finest staffs guests could ask for. From the front desk clerks to the valet to the concierges, every employee goes above and beyond to ensure that you have the best possible stay. They even provide a complimentary car and driver if you’d like a ride or pickup within a three-mile radius of the hotel.
Also adjacent to Huntington Place is Fort Pontchartrain, a Wyndham Hotel (formerly the Crowne Plaza, pictured left). The 367-room, 25-story high-rise hotel opened in 1965 and was built on the site of Fort Pontchartrain, Detroit’s first permanent European settlement dating back to 1701. It later became known as Fort Detroit. The hotel was named for the fort and for an earlier Hotel Pontchartrain, which was located on Cadillac Square at Woodward Avenue, before it was demolished in 1920. Their accommodations offer complimentary Wi-Fi, an indoor pool and a 24-hour fitness center. They have 32,000 sq.ft. of meeting and event space, with on-site catering and banquet services. Urban Cellars, their full-service restaurant and bar, is open daily and serves modern, American cuisine. Each guest room and suite is equipped with a Keurig Coffee Maker, a mini-refrigerator, and unmatched views of the city or Detroit River.
Just around the corner is the gorgeous Detroit Club (pictured right), the city’s oldest private social club. The architectural beauty was constructed by Wilson Eyre in 1891 and became listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The Romanesque Revival-styled building has 21 contemporarly- crafted rooms that have been opened to the public. Features include the Library, a full-service craft cocktail bar that offers light bites for late night snacks on the first floor; Bohemia which serves dinner Wed.-Sat., on the third floor and the newly designed SOAK Spa, located in the lower level of the club, where guests may indulge in a large hot-tub or sauna and be pampered with a diverse menu of spa services ranging from massages to facials.
The only Detroit hotel that hasn’t reopened or made plans to reopen in the wake of the pandemic is The Inn on Ferry Street, located in the East Ferry Street Historic District of Midtown Detroit. The four restored Victorian homes and two carriage houses offered 40 elegant Victorian rooms dating back to 1886. The Inn was a member of Historic Hotels of America and won a National Trust Honor award in 2002 for its remarkably detailed restoration with $12 million in neighborhood improvements.
This story originally appeared in the Jan./Feb./Mar. 2022 issue of Exhibit City News, p. 75. For original layout, visit https://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/ecn_q1_2022.
