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Crews began tearing down the dilapidated 100-year-old Madison-Lenox Hotel in Harmonie Park on Wednesday.Judge OKs hotel demolition
Preservation groups lose their fight to save Madison-Lenox, which is deemed unsafe.
Historic hotel falls
Preservation groups have failed in their effort to stop demolition of the Madison-Lenox Hotel in Harmonie Park. A judge Thursday lifted a temporary ban, allowing the city to continue razing the building. Do you agree with the ruling?
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DETROIT -- A judge turned down a request by two preservation groups to stop demolition of the Madison-Lenox Hotel in Harmonie Park and lifted a temporary ban on the work, clearing the way for the tear-down to resume this morning.
Late Thursday, Wayne Circuit Judge Cynthia Stephens rejected the groups' argument that the city's Buildings and Safety Department, and the building's owner, Detroit-based Ilitch Holdings Inc., had evaded getting permission to demolish the hotel from the Detroit Historic Building Commission.
On Feb. 9, the commission rejected efforts by the city and Ilitch Holdings to gain approval to tear down the building.
The company responded by appealing to a state commission for the go-ahead to raze the structure; a hearing was set for next month.
The city followed up by conducting new inspections April 26 and May 16 and subsequently invoked a city ordinance that allows immediate demolition of a building if it poses an imminent danger of collapsing.
At a three-hour court hearing Thursday, the city's historic district commission withdrew its opposition to tearing down the building after it said it accepted the city's determination that the building was in imminent danger of collapse.
Michael E. Myckowiak, a Detroit attorney representing the groups, Preservation Wayne and the Friends of the Book Cadillac, said the ruling clears the way for the city and landowners to sidestep the commission and fast-track demolition.
"This is a big loophole that is going to be used to evade getting the permission of the historic district commissions around the state," he said.
Attorneys for the preservation groups may file another emergency appeal with the Michigan Court of Appeals but concede their chances of getting a halt to the demolition are remote.
Adamo Demolition said it plans to resume work this morning and expects it will take seven to 10 days to tear down the rest of the structure.
During Thursday's hearing, Reginald Turner, a lawyer for Ilitch Holdings, criticized the preservation groups, saying they were being "callous and reckless with the public safety" by seeking a delay in the demolition of the buildings -- especially when tens of thousands of visitors will walk by the stadiums during this weekend's Detroit Tigers home series.
Myckowiak blasted Ilitch Holdings, saying it allowed the building to fall into disrepair and called the company "a slum lord in the city of Detroit."
He said the company had been reckless in failing to maintain the building.
The ruling will likely end a long-running controversy over the future of the landmark three-building complex at Madison and Randolph.
The buildings, erected from 1903 to 1913, were the subject of debate in recent months as Ilitch Holdings sought to demolish the structures to make way for a surface parking lot. The company plans to later develop the site for residential, office or retail use.
Detroit has thousands of abandoned buildings, including about a half-dozen empty high-rise hotels.
The city has torn down about 2,000 buildings annually for the past 25 years and is trying to speed up demolition of abandoned structures as part of preparations for Super Bowl XL in February.
Detroit also has as many as 70,000 parcels that remain vacant or blighted and owns 38,000 parcels of land acquired through tax forfeitures.
The empty land covers 40 square miles of the 139-square-mile city.
The city's inventory of abandoned buildings and empty lots has grown as people have left the city.
A February report estimated that Detroit's population had dropped to 899,387 -- the lowest since 1917 and less than half the peak population of 1.85 million in 1950.
A crew hired by the city began tearing down a portion of the dilapidated 100-year-old Madison-Lenox on Wednesday before angry preservationists obtained a temporary restraining order to halt the demolition.
Large swaths had been cut out of the eight-story buildings and a single-story annex between the two structures leveled before Detroit Police halted work.
Members of Preservation Wayne accused the city of trying to demolish the hotel without a permit to sidestep a drawn-out court battle.
City officials said they began the demolition only after the building was deemed unsafe.
The city said inspections of the complex in the last month revealed severe deterioration of floors and interior bearing walls as well as collapsed stairwells.
Inspectors couldn't get above the third floor because of damage.
Ilitch Holdings, owned by Michael and Marian Ilitch, is the parent company for several high-profile organizations, including the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. and Olympia Entertainment. The company owns a large amount of property in downtown Detroit.
Francis Grunow, executive director of Preservation Wayne, has said he believed Ilitch Holdings was anxious to tear down the Madison-Lenox to get rid of an eyesore before Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, scheduled for July 12 at Comerica Park.
Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C., which last year selected the Madison-Lenox as one of America's 11 most endangered historic places, recently called the demolition plan "outrageous."
"It's a sad day in Detroit," Moe said. "Developers in other cities would be lined up trying to restore those buildings."
You can reach David Shepardson at (313) 222-2028 or dshepardson@detnews.com.
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