Park Avenue Hotel to be levelled tomorrow.
As of tomorrow morning (local time), the historic Park Avenue Hotel will no longer stand in the Cass Corridor as a relic of Detroit’s boom in the 1920s making it one of the country’s industrial centers.
With 200 pounds of explosives, the 13-story Italian Renaissance-inspired hotel will be imploded at 8 a.m. to make way for a sports and entertainment district anchored by a new Detroit Red Wings arena. The implosion is expected to last seconds.
Olympia Development of Michigan, the Ilitch Holdings company in charge of building the new arena, is overseeing the implosion. Adamo Demolition Company is the contractor tearing down the hotel. Mayor Mike Duggan’s office referred questions about the demolition to Adamo.
The demolition brings to a close one of the more controversial aspects of Olympia’s arena plans. Historic preservationists and others hoped the hotel would be redeveloped to give the new arena district an authentic flavor.
But the Detroit Historic District Commission approved Olympia’s demolition plans in June by a 3-1 vote. Olympia successfully argued that it needed the space now occupied by the Park Avenue for the arena’s loading dock.
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