'Grand residential' hotel rooms come to the historic David Whitney Building

Detroit — With its stately decorated lobby and library bar boasting rich mahogany wood, guests entering the old David Whitney Building will notice the hotel’s newly elevated look.

Its owners, Detroit-based The Roxbury Group, have rebranded and expanded the number of guests rooms at the downtown hotel a decade after reopening the building as a revitalized mixed-use development. The hotel, previously a Marriott Aloft property, is now part of its Autograph Collection.

“This is the culmination of a two-year process we went through together with Marriott really thinking about this building anew,” David Di Rita, principal of Roxbury Group, told The Detroit News during a tour Tuesday. “What does it want to be and how do we honor David Whitney’s legacy? How do we honor the City of Detroit by providing what we view as its premier hotel?”

Di Rita noted the building’s placement on the local and national historic registry. It sits at One Park Avenue near sites that have lost such previous historic hotels as the former Statler Hotel to demolition. The desired result: to create a hotel with a grand residential feel.

“It has always carried this level of beauty as long as we were involved with it," DiRita said, "but really I think it was about making the space as attractive to sit in as it was to walk in.”

What resulted was an upgrade in furnishings and adding more services to the hotel, including new food and beverage options. Each hotel room features a bar cart experience through a partnership with Detroit City Distillery. In addition to the Library Bar, there's the new Presley’s Kitchen and Bar which focuses on American cuisine.

“There was not a restaurant,” said Stacy Fox, principal of Roxbury Group. “It was an event space, kind of a pop-up event space.”

Fox pointed out the second floor salon spaces that overlook the atrium, historically retail spaces, have been opened up to allow for flowing private events.

The hotel housed 136 rooms when it opened as an Aloft-branded boutique hotel in 2014 following a $98 million renovation of the building, which had sat vacant for 15 years. At the time building had 105 apartments.

The latest project converted 24 units on two floors into one and two-bedroom hotel suites bringing the total to 160 guests rooms and 80 apartments. The suites feature full kitchens, ideal for guests booking longer stays. The rooms make use of the natural light pouring in through large windows, a must for what was once a medical building in the early 20th century.

The renovations were done in collaboration with San Diego-based Azul Hospitality and Davis Hospitality. Autograph Collection has more than 250 independent hotels worldwide with this being the first for Detroit, officials said. In addition to the restaurant and lobby bar, the hotel features a market, Capper & Capper, which pays homage to a men's clothing store that sat in the building for many years.

Other features include an on-site fitness center that includes cardio equipment, two Peloton bikes, weight machines and free weights. The expansion comes as hospitality leaders say there is a need for more hotel space in downtown Detroit.

“We believe strongly it is an underserved market,” Di Rita said. “Detroit is one of the major destinations in the Midwest given our kind of incomparable sports entertainment complex and our now world-class convention center. And if you look at Detroit from a hotel rooms perspective and compare it to any city outside of Chicago or Midwest. So we can attract even more. The thing that holds us back is rooms.”

The David Whitney Building opened in 1915 as a medical office and retail building. It closed in 2000. In 2011, the Roxbury Group led a partnership to purchase the building, which is considered a symbol of the rebirth of Detroit’s theatre district. The building is named for David Whitney, a key figure in Detroit's lumber and paper industry.

cwilliams@detroitnews.com