It is too important. The Hudson's building has been on Tryba's radar screen for a while. Interested enough for a Grand American executive vice president to call the Greater Downtown Partnership, the private nonprofit group of developers, bankers and civic leaders that Mayor Dennis Archer formed to take the lead planning role for downtown Detroit. According to Tryba, the Partnership expressed interest in possibly working with Grand American on some future project, but that there would be no use pursuing the Hudson's plan because the building is coming down. He says he told them what he tells everyone else who calls, that the plan is to demolish Hudson's.
Somebody has to deal with the Hudson's building so that area can blossom.
It is at least the second time the Partnership has rebuffed attempts by developers to convert the Hudson's building. Randall Alexander, who has large-scale restoration projects under way in Toledo and Cleveland, presented a conversion plan for Hudson's to the Partnership nearly a year ago. Tryba, however, remains hopeful. Hosted by Detroit City Council President Maryann Mahaffey, the event was in lieu of a formal public hearing that council last February promised to hold, then canceled less than a week later after closed-door meetings with the Partnership. The meeting went largely unnoticed by the city's mainstream press.