New 10-story hotel in Detroit’s Brush Park tied to restoration of historic Bonstelle

Hotel and restored theatre are expected to open in 2024

$49 million plan for the 154-room AC Detroit includes a 10-story hotel tower, 4,000-square-foot glass ‘conservatory’ along Woodward Avenue with connection to a restored Bonstelle PlayHouse. (Roxbury Group)

A new 10-story hotel being built in Detroit’s Brush Park will be connected to one of the city’s iconic theatres.

The 154-room, 10-story AC Hotel, developed by the Detroit-based Roxbury Group, will be located at Woodward Avenue and Eliot Street, right next to the historic Bonstelle Playhouse.

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The new construction project includes restoration of the historic Bonstelle Playhouse to its original 1903 Albert Kahn-designed exterior and 1925 interior redesign by noted theater architect C. Howard Crane, according to a press release.

The Bonstelle will be used for live performances, as well as civic, corporate and private events, and will be connected to the hotel via a glass-enclosed conservatory that will also feature a bar and private event space.

The hotel and restored theatre are expected to open in 2024.

Detroit’s Bonstelle Theatre, designed by iconic Detroit Albert Kahn, first opened in 1903, as the Temple Beth El synagogue. In 1925, the synagogue moved further north up Woodward, and the building became home to a theater company and renamed the Bonstelle Playhouse. After the Depression, the theater was used as a movie house.

In 1951, the theater was acquired by Wayne State University, which restored its name and function as a theater. In 2018, WSU announced that, following an expansion of the Hilberry Theatre, the Bonstelle would be decommissioned.

---> New restaurant to open inside historic David Whitney Building in Downtown Detroit this year


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Ken Haddad has proudly been with WDIV/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters, and helps lead the WDIV Insider team. He's a big sports fan and is constantly sipping Lions Kool-Aid.

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