AC Hotel Detroit at the Bonstelle starts taking guests

The AC Hotel Detroit at the Bonstelle began taking overnight guests in January, the first AC Hotel in southeast Michigan. It is a new 154-room, 10-story building on Woodward Avenue at Eliot Street in Brush Park, developed by the Detroit-based Roxbury Group with the Atlanta firm Peachtree Group. Roxbury puts the project at roughly $50 million.

The hotel is bolted to a much older neighbor. The Bonstelle next door opened in 1903 as Temple Beth El, designed by Albert Kahn for the congregation Kahn himself belonged to. When the temple moved further up Woodward, theater architect C. Howard Crane reworked the interior and the building became the Bonstelle Playhouse, named for actress and producer Jessie Bonstelle. It later ran as a movie house. Wayne State University owned it for decades and staged student productions there until decommissioning the theater in 2018.

Roxbury folded the theater into the hotel plan, restoring the exterior to Kahn's original design and the interior to Crane's. When the renovation finishes, the restored house is slated to host live performances along with civic, corporate and private events. A glass-enclosed lobby bar called the Conservatory connects the hotel to the theater, serving gin cocktails and Spanish small plates that nod to the AC Hotels brand's Madrid origins. A rooftop venue was set to follow later in the year.

"This project by the Roxbury Group is a wonderful mix of new construction and historic preservation, which is what great cities do," Mayor Mike Duggan said in the developer's announcement of the opening.

Azul Hospitality manages the property. It also runs Roxbury's Element Detroit at the Metropolitan and the Hotel David Whitney. Stantec led the design, Patrick Thompson Design handled interiors, and Sachse Construction was the general contractor. Financing came from Flagstar Bank, Bank of Ann Arbor, Invest Detroit, and Stonehill, a Peachtree Group company.

The Bonstelle has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982. The hotel sits a short walk from Little Caesars Arena, Comerica Park, Orchestra Hall and Wayne State, in a stretch of Woodward that has drawn steady redevelopment.