This week the Ilitch Family continued to screw over Detroit while the City bent over, took it and will probably ask for more.
According to Crain’s (via the Metro Times) Chris Ilitch failed to meet another deadline set by the City to turn over plans for the District Detroit project located in the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and I-75.
Via Crain’s:
“There is no plan before the (Downtown Development Authority) for the development of this parcel but we are currently in ongoing discussions with (the) developer to identify next steps,” Charlotte Fisher, spokeswoman for the DEGC, said in an email. She did not answer questions about any penalties Olympia, the Ilitch family’s real estate company, will face for missing the extended June 28 deadline that was approved last year.
The DEGC on Friday and earlier Monday had not answered whether Olympia had submitted a plan.
Olympia Development would only provide the following statement: “We continue to be in discussions with the city on this matter.”
The City had already granted the Ilitch Family a one-year extension back in June of 2018 to turn over plans for the $400 million dollar tax-payer funded District Detroit project that in addition to the Little Ceasar’s Arena was promised to include living space, bars, and restaurants among other amenities to help revitalize the area.
Instead for their money taxpayers got a shiny new arena and a new Little Caesar’s World Headquarters while the area around the LCA is bustling with concrete parking structures and empty lots.
Chris Ilitch though has been pretty shrewd with his money and apparently provided Detroit reason enough for them to continue to justify fucking over taxpayers.
Back in May the Detroit Free Press reported that the Ilitch’s received an additional $74 million dollars in taxpayer money to fund their so far blight filled project. This was done because the Ilitch Family managed to meet some bullshit $200 million dollar building investment requirement which seems promising on the surface, until you realize what buildings that money went to… The aforementioned Little Ceasar’s headquarters but also an office for Google and parking decks…
I guess luckily that extra $74 million wasn’t in addition to the $400 million in total cost but I’m sure that final price tag will continue to balloon as the City seems to have zero interest in holding the Ilitch Family accountable for having their way with taxpayer dollars.