Update: Three new boutique hotels coming to downtown and Midtown

Just yesterday we wrote about the growing demand from tourists and convention organizers to visit or locate in Detroit. But one issue that could cap potential guests is the lack of hotel rooms to accommodate larger conventions.

Timely news followed within the past day as two new hotels were announced, one in Midtown and another downtown.

Crain’s Detroit Business reports that Roxbury Group will develop the 12-floor West Elm hotel project on Woodward Avenue a block south of Mack Avenue for about $50 million. Roxbury is hoping to secure financing by the end of the year and begin construction in 2020.

The project also involves leasing the adjacent Bonstelle Theatre from Wayne State University in a 45-year agreement. In the current plans, a glass-covered conservatory will connect the hotel to the theatre, which will also receive significant updates from Roxbury.

The Bonstelle is being decommissioned by WSU as part of its Hilberry Gateway Performance Complex project, which will require the relocation of the David Mackenzie House on Cass Avenue. “Wayne State is moving the building to make way for a new lobby, jazz center, learning space, and performing arts labs to serve 20,000 students,” writes Kirk Pinho for Crain’s.

Not long after, Choice Hotels International, Inc. announced it will be redeveloping a 90,000-square-foot downtown building into the 154-room Cambria Hotel. Troy-based Koucar Management, which worked on two other downtown hotels, will oversee the Lafayette Boulevard project.

The Cambria Hotel will have a number of modern amenities (“bluetooth mirrors,” “immersive, spa-style bathrooms”), as well as a rooftop bar and upscale restaurant. This is part of a growing trend in Detroit hotels, notes Eater Detroit, to feature rooftop dining and drinking.

It’s slated to open in 2020.

Update: Crain’s reports that a third hotel, the largest of the three, was announced earlier today as part of a $310 million development in Midtown. The 25-floor Thompson Hotel will have 228 rooms and nine floors of luxury condos.

Learn more about this development here.