from “le détroit” · the strait
Hotel Yorba on Lafayette Boulevard has sat empty since a 2025 city-ordered closure. Its new owner is asking the neighborhood what should replace it before drawing a plan.
New reporting from BridgeDetroit says the future of Hotel Yorba, the landmark on Lafayette Boulevard in Southwest Detroit, is still open, and neighbors want a say in what comes next. Reporter Andrés Ospina writes that the building has sat empty since a city-ordered closure in September 2025 over unsafe conditions. New owner Kahlil Assad, who owns the family HVAC and refrigeration company The Air King, has no fixed plan yet and hosted an August 20 community barbecue to ask Southwest Detroit residents what they want, from apartments to a hostel. Longtime residents told BridgeDetroit they want affordable housing preserved and displacement avoided, an account Strait has not independently confirmed. "After we had closed on the property, we met the neighbors and immediately realized that that's not what the neighborhood wanted," Assad told BridgeDetroit.
Why we're watching: what happens to a neighborhood landmark rarely gets decided this openly, and Strait will cover the redevelopment plan directly once one is filed.
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