By Jeremy Adragna
C & G Staff Writer

DETROIT — Prepare to be wowed.

The 84-year-old Westin Book Cadillac Detroit Hotel will open its doors without fanfare on Oct. 1. Once the jewel of the city’s retail shopping district, developers hope the 33-story hotel will return some iconic charm to long-neglected Washington Boulevard. 

The hotel has been shuttered since the mid-1980s and several attempts were made since that time to raise the nearly $200 million it has cost developers to complete the project. The Cleveland-based Ferchill Group launched the latest attempt at salvaging the building in 2006.

The developer has teamed up with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, parent company of Westin, to operate nearly 500 hotel rooms and a ring of grand ballrooms, restaurants, bars and storefronts that encircle the ground level of the building. The development is not one endeavor by the Ferchill Group, but several as they attempt to draw luxury-seeking customers back to the city.

The hotel’s two original meeting spaces — the Venetian and Crystal ballrooms — have been entirely remade with replica millwork that was cast from scraps found in the rubble. Squatters and tomb raiders left behind few original details of the hotel’s past after thieves had run of the building for nearly 20 years.

When the Ferchill Group closed the deal in August 2006, they purchased an aging and neglected landmark that had nearly 30 feet of standing water in two of the hotels three basements. Elevator shafts were converted into garbage chutes as construction workers took to the upper floors with demolition equipment and began the nearly yearlong process of preparing the building for a massive restoration.

“It was really a shell,” said Westin spokesman Scott Stinebaugh. “It had deteriorated from vandals stripping what valuables were left in the building. … The Ferchill Group stepped in and got the project on track.”

Three copper-clad ziggurats on the building’s rooftop were, at the project’s start, almost completely stripped for their valuable metals. Determined to preserve the hotel’s grandeur, the developer re-covered the 30-foot pyramids in copper flashing, which still sparkles in the sunlight.

“With a building that’s almost 100 years old, you obviously run across things that you didn’t anticipate and expect,” said Stinebaugh. “You also get an opportunity to create something a little more grand than perhaps you originally envisioned. That has happened in a couple of instances.”

A restaurant headed by Food Network Chef Michael Symons, called Roast, will likely be one of the hotel’s main attractions for restaurant-goers who seek out the hotel. Throughout the day, though, the hotel’s WBC sandwich shop, which serves Starbucks coffee, will likely attract nearby office workers from the neighborhood. The hotel’s Motor Bar, once a gathering spot for reporters, politicians and the city’s big wigs, will also be restored by the time the hotel opens.

A spa, more restaurants, a coffee shop, a pool, a new ballroom, and a 750-space parking structure with street-level retail stores will all make up the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit as it begins another century of service at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Washington Boulevard.

The Book Cadillac has yet to open its doors, but online advertising and word-of-mouth about the building’s incredible interior has drawn in bookings until 2010.

“People are trying to re-enact memories from their families,” said Joyce Cusmano of Travel Michigan. “On Feb. 14, 2009, a couple is getting married at the hotel. His father and mother had been married at the hotel on Feb. 14. There are tons of stories like this.”

The hotel’s top floors have been converted from guest rooms to luxury apartments for city dwellers looking to make downtown their home again. One even plunked down $1.6 million for a three-story penthouse apartment that has exclusive access to the building’s rooftop and views that stretch all the way up to Eight Mile.

The Ferchill Group laid out 67 residential units in the building, all of which will have access to the hotel’s amenities, such as room service, a doorman and valet parking.

The entire project is being laid out as a catalyst that could draw shoppers, residents and businesses back to the western part of downtown. The hotel sits in the Capital Park District, which is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places as significant to the city’s past.

Washington Boulevard was designed with grand buildings like the Book Cadillac in mind. The hotel opened in 1924 and was the tallest hotel in the world, with more than 1,000 guest rooms. The building sits alongside street-level retail storefronts, the Book Tower building and once was the home of the Statler Hotel, which was demolished in 2006.

“I already see things being cleaned up,” said Stinebaugh. “I think good things are going to happen there, but obviously having this type of hotel and residential development is certainly going to spur other development.”

The possibility that Quicken Loans could choose the Statler Hotel site for their new downtown headquarters also has developers excited about the possibilities for tony Washington Boulevard. The two developments could serve as bookends for the landscaped and redesigned boulevard, which city officials restored prior to the 2006 Super Bowl.

John Ferchill, the principal developer, is also actively seeking out a new project to put his personal touch on in downtown Detroit.

“Ferchill has really taken a liking to Detroit and he’s bullish on Detroit,” said Stinebaugh. “He really sees the opportunity long term. He’s actively seeking other opportunities throughout the city. Once this is done, he’s looking for something else. What that is, we don’t know. He is certainly looking for other projects in Detroit.”

Officials are also planning a gala event on Oct. 25 to commemorate the hotel’s opening and to raise money for Detroit’s Children’s Center and several other nonprofit organizations. Tickets for the black-tie event range from $600 to $2,500 per ticket, which includes dinner, entertainment, and for top-tier donations, a luxury night stay at the hotel.

The event is dubbed Book Cadillac: The Next Chapter.

Lethon Lee, a construction superintendent on the building’s upper floors for contractor Marous-Jenkins, said he’s seen the hotel restoration project come a long way since its start. He has been coming to the hotel everyday for the last two years and said he’s hopeful too that this project could help revitalize downtown Detroit.

“I’m very excited,” said Lee, 47, of Detroit. “We need this here.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Adragna at jadragna@candgnews.com or at (586) 279-1101.