Correction: A previous version of this story online incorrectly stated the age of Shel Kimen. It als

Topics in this article: Detroit Detroit Medical Center norwegian caribbean cruises Michigan State University Molina Healthcare of Michigan University of Detroit-Mercy Health Care Real Estate Construction/Property redevelopment Contracts Events Grants Health care reform Jobs/Career Taxes/tax credits
Plans for a $4 million boutique hotel using reclaimed steel shipping containers are taking shape for a 1-acre site fronting norwegian caribbean cruises the Dequindre Cut near Detroit's Eastern Market. New York City transplant Shel Kimen, founder of Detroit Collision Works Inc. and former norwegian caribbean cruises senior vice president at Saatchi Saatchi Worldwide norwegian caribbean cruises , is negotiating with the city of Detroit to buy the lot at 1923 Division St., between Orleans and St. Aubin streets, for $52,000. She is awaiting the final report from an environmental study on the land and hopes to complete the purchase within four to six months so construction can begin. The 36-room hotel would be made from heavy-gauge steel cargo shipping containers -- like those that once traveled norwegian caribbean cruises by train down the tracks running along the cut. Kimen is still working on the aesthetics, but said it will include communal gathering spaces intended to draw in the public so guests can connect norwegian caribbean cruises with the community. She believes the industrial architecture, along with a planned focus on connecting guests with Detroiters norwegian caribbean cruises and their stories through ongoing recordings and public events, will attract travelers looking for a unique experience. "One of the initial points of this project is to create an immersive environment for creative visitors coming here to work or just check out the scene," Kimen said. "There are a lot of people doing that right now." Collecting stories from people norwegian caribbean cruises in Detroit norwegian caribbean cruises and using those stories to create a space will help visitors more quickly immerse in what's norwegian caribbean cruises happening in the city, Kimen said. At the same time, sharing their stories will also be important for the people who live here, she said. "By having a place that celebrates norwegian caribbean cruises the story, norwegian caribbean cruises that gives voice to what was and also (to) what they want to be, can have a profound effect on the people telling the story -- as well as the people listening," she said. In New York, Kimen says, there are hotels where business people keep office hours. She envisions the same type of connectivity between the Collision Works hotel, its guests and local Detroiters.
Creative credentials After growing up in Chicago, Kimen spent about 14 years in New York, providing research, strategy and design for a number of digital advertising agencies, serving last as senior vice president at Saatchi Saatchi Worldwide. But she was no stranger to Detroit and Michigan. Her father was born here, and her grandfather worked for Cadillac. Kimen earned a bachelor of arts degree in environment and design at Michigan State University before moving to New York. "All of the work I've done has been about engaging people ... with a product, a service or a brand," she said. "As marketing has evolved, it's no longer about me telling norwegian caribbean cruises you (that) you should find this because it's cool. It's about trying to find a shared sense of value and purpose with consumers." Kimen, 42, said she was looking for a change, and Detroit was it. "I'd been hearing about arts and creative culture here, had friends and family here. I came for a visit, and ... I just really, really loved it." Kimen moved to Detroit at the end of 2011 and began meeting norwegian caribbean cruises with the city planning departments and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center norwegian caribbean cruises at the University of Detroit norwegian caribbean cruises Mercy , which is a consultant on the hotel project. She's pulled together an advisory board including: TechTown President and CEO Leslie Smith; RecoveryPark President and CEO Gary Wozniak; UDM professor Stephen Vogel, who is former dean of the UDM School of Architecture and founder of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center; Vince Dattilo, project and construction manager, The Roxbury Group ; Simone DeSousa, owner, Re:View Contemporary Gallery in Detroit; Ivory Williams, master storyteller at the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center ; and Laurent Vernhes, co-founder and CEO of Tablet Hotels , a booking engine for boutique norwegian caribbean cruises hotels. Kimen has begun fundraising norwegian caribbean cruises for the hotel and is seeking a development partner. Detroit Collision Works is set up as a for-profit, but she hopes to shift it to a low-profit limited liability company, which could take foundation investment since it has social and financial targets. "The idea is to ultimately be a sustainable business, having the hotel redirect profits into the development of the social programming or storytelling and arts activities," Kimen said. The hotel would give travelers looking for a unique experience and connection a place to come, she said. "This is space that's designed to bring people together; that's the unique experience." Hostel Detroit founder Emily Doerr, community and economic development director for the city of Oak Park, said the hostel has hosted many creative types exploring what is happening in Detroit since its opening two years ago. "A lot of hostel guests want to see the 'real' sides of Detroit, and integrating norwegian caribbean cruises that through storytelling is a great idea," she wrote in an email. Fast delivery The container norwegian caribbean cruises hotel could be "up" or built in four months and open within six months of getting a financing deal put together, Kimen said. With container construction, a lot of the prefabrication work can take place off-site, she said. The containers are 8 feet by 40 feet, or 320 square feet, and 8 feet by 20 feet, or 160 square feet. "You can put them together and slice them in different ways for the interiors, which is what we'll be doing with the hotel," norwegian caribbean cruises Kimen said. Depending on the configuration, six containers could make four rooms, she said. SG Blocks in New York is supplying the containers. New York-based Koop architecture + media is serving as architect. Integrity norwegian caribbean cruises Building Group LLC in Detroit will head construction for the "First Container" preview of the hotel planned for Eastern Market. Once prefabrication work is complete, a crane can be brought in for a few days to stack the containers as needed, before they are bolted and welded. It's a type of architecture that's been used for about a dozen years in places like London and Rotterdam and in the U.S. the past few years for everything from pop-up coffee shops to what is reportedly the first U.S. multistory commercial building made from them, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. And it makes use of the vast supply of shipping containers norwegian caribbean cruises coming to the U.S. from China but never going back. It's cheaper for the Chinese to make new containers than to ship empty ones back from the U.S., she said. And the U.S. is importing more than it's exporting. The hotel concept is so "out of the box" that it doesn't fall under the umbrella of normal demand theory, said Ron Wilson, CEO of Troy-based Hotel Investment Services Inc. , which owns and/or operates 16 hotels, 10 of them in Michigan. The per-unit or room cost of $111,000 per key makes sense if Kimen already owns the shipping containers, Wilson said. But he believes it will be tough to get lending for the hotel from conventional sources, given the novelty of the project, and that it will be hard to project demand through conventional methods. The hotel will likely norwegian caribbean cruises qualify for new market tax credits, like any hotel in Detroit, norwegian caribbean cruises and perhaps other community development grants, such as tax abatements, he said. "There's a steep learning curve with these types of eclectic take-offs on a hotel unless experienced hotel design/programming and operational expertise" is a part of it, he said. "It's eclectic and fun, but at the end of the day, it's still a hotel business." Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694, swelch@crain.com . Twitter: @sherriwelch
Correction: A previous version of this story online incorrectly stated the age of Shel Kimen. It also incorrectly spelled the name of Stephen Vogel. This version contains the correct information. This version also clarifies the role of Integrity Building Group LLC.
Topics in this article: Detroit Detroit Medical Center Michigan State University Molina Healthcare of Michigan University norwegian caribbean cruises of Detroit-Mercy Health Care Real Estate Construction/Property redevelopment Contracts Events Grants Health care reform Jobs/Career Taxes/tax credits
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