Timber! Historic hotel cuts down rooftop trees

There's one less tree today in downtown Detroit -- and that's a good thing.

This tree had taken root on the damaged roof of the former Pick-Fort Shelby Hotel, which closed in 1973. The roughly two-story tree had grown so large that it was visible from the street, 20 stories below.

Over the years, media pundits said the tree proved downtown Detroit was beyond hope and empty buildings like the historic Pick-Fort Shelby on West Lafayette Boulevard should be demolished.

But on Friday, the felling of that tree represented another step forward for the Pick-Fort Shelby. The hotel is undergoing an $82 million transformation and will become the Fort Shelby Doubletree Guest Suites Detroit, slated to open in December 2008.

Earlier this summer, construction crews began removing tons of debris from the Fort Shelby that had accumulated through years of neglect. This week, they started working on the roof, where several large trees had grown over the decades.

On Friday afternoon, it took three men and two chainsaws to remove the final, biggest tree, which had grown in a crooked angle in a corner next to a stone-column railing.

"Timber!" yelled one of the crew as the tree was destroyed and then hurled into a Dumpster.

Crew members counted the rings of the tree and estimated the tree was at least 12 years old. The species of the tree was not known.

"A full-grown tree on a building is certainly a tell-tale sign the building has gone through years of severe neglect," said Elizabeth Knibbe, a principal at Quinn Evans Architects in Ann Arbor, who serves as the historical preservationist on the Fort Shelby project. "There used to be a lot of buildings in Detroit with large trees on them. Not weeds, trees."

Many were of the Boxelder and Tree-of-Heaven variety, she said.

"There's movement in the right direction that there are (fewer) trees on Detroit roof tops."

There are still at least three other large vacant buildings in downtown Detroit that have been neglected for so long that they have multiple trees on their roofs.

One, the Lafayette Building, is being hawked by city officials to developers. The others are owned by developers who have long-standing reputations of neglecting their buildings and failing to pay fines on various building code violations.

Push for convention business

The planned 204-room Fort Shelby Doubletree is part of a push to turn downtown into a regional contender for hotel and convention business. The Doubletree will contribute to nearly 1,900 new hotel rooms expected in Detroit by the end of next year, more than doubling the number of existing rooms.

Three new casinos-hotels -- the MGM Grand, MotorCity and Greektown -- plus the Westin Book-Cadillac and Doubletree will increase the number of hotel rooms downtown to about 5,100.

The Fort Shelby Doubletree also marks the return of a full-service Hilton hotel to Detroit after a 33-year absence.

A Hilton Garden Inn, the chain's mid-price brand, opened in Harmonie Park three years ago. It was the first new hotel to be built downtown since 1986. Hilton's Doubletree Suites are aimed at business travelers and others who plan multinight stays, offering larger rooms and more amenities and services.

Besides hotel rooms, the new Fort Shelby will also include 63 upscale apartments that may become condominiums; retail space that will include a national "upscale restaurant" to be announced later; and 38,000 square feet of conference space. The residences are slated to open in May 2009.

You can reach Louis Aguilar at (313) 222-2760 or laguilar@detnews.com">laguilar@detnews.com.