No spa for new Greektown Casino

Resort-style,400-room lodging will do without center to pamper guests.

Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Guests planning a stay at Greektown Casino's soon-to-open resort-style hotel will have luxurious digs and high-rise views of downtown and beyond, but they won't have the chance to be pampered in an on-site spa.

A Greektown spokesman confirmed that the casino, completing construction on its 400-room hotel, won't be building a spa for its opening in February, but didn't rule it out as a possibility in the future.

Rivals MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino built spas as part of their properties, but have been struggling to eke profits out of the operations, which opened in the past year along with permanent casino floors and resort-style hotels.

Development agreements between the three casino licensees and the city of Detroit require the casinos to build permanent gaming facilities along with 400-room resort-style hotels. Spas weren't required, but MGM Grand and MotorCity included them, following the lead of similar, but usually much larger, properties along the Las Vegas Strip which typically include similar facilities.

The move to add such accoutrements to gambling properties came as Las Vegas developers sought to broaden the city's appeal beyond hard-core gamblers. Many properties in all price ranges offer spa treatments as part of packages and also a la carte to customers seeking some luxury.

MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino don't publicly release information on the profitability of operations that are part of their resorts, but in broad terms, executives have said the spas are struggling to build profit-generating client bases. The spas charge premium prices for their services -- with 50-minute massages starting around $100 while facial and body treatments can cost more than $300 on the upper end.

Greektown's exclusion of a spa comes as another major downtown hotel -- the Westin Book Cadillac on Washington Boulevard -- gets ready to open its spa. Greektown has built other luxurious offerings for visitors, including a High Limit gaming area, which offers on-site massages for high rollers, and its Eclipz lounge.

Grand openings for those facilities were celebrated Friday.

One leading gaming expert said Greektown's omission of a spa may be a good thing for the financially-beleaguered property, especially with the added competition.

"When I work with investors looking at new projects, they're always bullish on looking at adding things," said Jacob Miklojcik, president of Michigan Consultants, a gaming consulting firm in Lansing. "But in this economy, it's an extra cost that turns into an extra hassle for the casinos, especially if (the spas) aren't making money."

You can reach Nathan Hurst at (313) 222-2293 or nhurst@detnews.com.