JLL, a Chicago-based professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management, has been hired by the Roberts Hotel Group to market the Roberts Riverwalk Hotel, located at 1000 River Place Drive, Detroit.
The property is on the Detroit River near Stroh River Place. Michael V. Roberts purchased it from Omni Hotels and Resorts in 2010.
Larry Emmons, managing director of JLL’s Royal Oak office, says the, “property is a trophy asset in a significant American city, offering a variety of diverse investment opportunities, which makes it unique and rare.”
The 108-room hotel offers a dining space, indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, and a 5,500-square-foot banquet hall. It is part of Wayne County’s Lean and Green Michigan for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program.
Roberts plans to propose a redevelopment of the entire site.
“I believe America would not let its great cities go to seed,” says Roberts. “That’s not what America does. We saw how America rallied to save New York City when it was on the brink of bankruptcy to now being home to a megaproject such as the Hudson Yards. Investing in Detroit’s Riverfront district at that time was an example of predicting the renaissance of Detroit. Now having owned the property for nearly 10 years, others see what I saw then, as one of the greatest recoveries in American history.”
The hotel sits on 3.8 acres in an Opportunity Zone. The site was originally part of the 25-acre, $200 million Stroh campus formally owned by Parke-Davis and Co., which eventually ended up being owned by Pfizer decades later through an acquisition for $90 billion.
