New Hyatt Place hotel coming to Royal Oak

Posted on July 30, 2015

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) – Big news announced in Royal Oak. A new hotel is coming to town, breathing life back into a prime piece of Main Street property that has been vacant for several years.

A deal is now in place to convert what was the old Jim Fresard Pontiac-Buick dealership into a new mixed-use development which will include something Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison says his city really needs.

“One of the things we’ve been lacking for so long is a good, quality hotel,” Ellison said.

That changes when a new Hyatt Place Hotel goes up at 400 N. Main St. But, Mayor Ellison says it was not an easy sell.

“It was hard to convince them that Royal Oak was the place to put a hotel,” Ellison said. “Their philosophy was they want to put a hotel where the out of town travelers are coming in to work. What we try to tell them is, ‘No, you want to put a hotel where your out of town travelers are coming in to entertain.’”

The Hyatt Place will be located just north of 11 Mile and in the hub of Royal Oak’s hot spots.

The former car dealership closed in 2008, and has been sitting vacant ever since. Now, seven years later, the property’s future is finally clear.

“I’m tired of looking at the eyesore over there,” Curt Luke said. He’s a Royal Oak resident who owns a business right across the street.

Learning of the planned development made his day.

“Royal Oak has so much to offer,” Luke said. “We’re the greatest little city this side of the Mississippi as far as I’m concerned! There’s a lot of things going on here.”

The Hyatt Place and attached developments — which include office and retail space, apartments and a parking deck — will pump an estimated $48 million into the local economy and create 144 new jobs.

“It brings more residents and more business down here,” Luke said. “And, they’re bringing downtown north of 11 Mile now. That will be good.”

“We want to get daytime population up. We want to get office users so they can frequent the restaurants and the retailers we have downtown,” Ellison added.

Incentives from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation helped close the deal. According to Ellison, work to clear the property and prepare for construction should begin soon.