Responding to months of criticism over his organization's shortfall of development around Little Caesars Arena, Christopher Ilitch said Wednesday his timelines for building a lively pedestrian-oriented district proved overly aggressive but his family's passion for Detroit remains strong.

His interview with the Free Press on Wednesday marked the first time Ilitch has publicly discussed delays in building out the vision of District Detroit that he sold to the public five years ago. That vision included renderings of sidewalk cafés, people strolling in the evening, and buildings old and new filled with new tenants.

Virtually none of that has happened. Along Cass Avenue behind the Fox Theatre area, multiple surface parking lots operated by the Ilitch organization sit where the district was to have risen. Of six residential projects Ilitch outlined two years ago this month, none has started construction.

In a 15-minute interview with the Free Press arranged after several weeks of requests, Ilitch read a short opening statement and answered most questions about District Detroit by returning to his prepared talking points.

"I know that folks are eager to see more in the District Detroit," he said. "We've accomplished a lot of great things in the last five years. We've accomplished a lot of great things in our 60 years in this community. I think we have a proven track record of tremendous success, not only from a business perspective but importantly from a community perspective.

'Timelines were aggressive'

"Having said that," he added, "some of the projects we talked about haven't gotten done. And time has proven our timelines were aggressive. ... Our timelines may change. Our passion, the energy, the way we feel about this community has not. So we move forward and we're going to keep bringing that energy and passion to produce and develop great things that benefit our community."

Ilitch said more announcements of new developments will be coming soon, but he did not give any details in the brief interview.

He also defended the expanse of surface parking lots along Cass that critics say should be developed as new housing and retail. Those parking lots are owned by the Ilitch organization and produce significant revenue.

"The District Detroit is home to four major pro sports teams and many theaters," he said, including Ford Field and Comerica Park with LCA. "We have millions of guests traveling into this area each and every year in automobiles. We don't have mass transit in our city. ... Where's everybody supposed to park?"

He added that the City of Detroit required his family's Olympia Development to provide 3,000 parking spaces within 1,000 feet of the new arena. "So many of these surface lots that are north of I-75 were mandated," he said.

But he added, "As Detroit's resurgence continues, those surface lots can easily be converted into new development."

Headquarters problems

Ilitch declined to discuss apparent construction problems that have held up completion of the new Little Caesars headquarters tower just south of the Fox Theatre. Problems with the pizza-slice glass panels that form the front facade have left the top floors shrouded behind tarps, while the street-level entrance remains incomplete.

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Without going into details, Ilitch said the tower will be completed this year and his employees will move in soon. But he declined to discuss the cause of the delays or whether any litigation has been started over the problems.

"Little Caesars' new corporate headquarters is amazing," he said. It is "getting all the finishing touches both inside and out. So you'll see it completed over the course of the balance of the year."

The building, announced in December 2017, was originally scheduled to open last summer.

City stepping up demands?

It is, of course, unlikely that a 15-minute recitation of talking points will quiet the criticism of the District Detroit that has come from many quarters. The HBO show "Real Sports" did a blistering segment recently on the lack of fulfillment of the vision Ilitch outlined five years ago. And a host of critics in print and online have accused Ilitch of hoodwinking the public by selling one vision of District Detroit but building lucrative parking lots instead.

There was a small indication Wednesday that the City of Detroit may be demanding a least a little more from Olympia. That came at Wednesday's meeting of the Downtown Development Authority, where the DDA board approved the latest Olympia plan to renovate the old Eddystone Hotel, a vacant tower located just north of the arena.

The DDA board approved the plan only with the conditions that will allow the city to seize a $33 million performance bond that Olympia is required to put up so the city could complete the project if Olympia fails to meet a series of specific deadlines.

Olympia did not ask for, and the DDA did not approve, any new tax incentives for the Eddystone project.

Afterward, Olympia released a statement saying, "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with the city which sets a specific timeline for Eddystone redevelopment. We are looking forward to getting started on market-rate and affordable housing and historic redevelopment in The District Detroit."

Part of the criticism of the record on District Detroit stems from the hundreds of millions in tax incentives granted the Ilitches to complete the arena. With so much public support coming their way, critics contend, the Ilitches should be doing more to keep their promises.

Tax breaks are all but universally handed to developers in Detroit as in many other cities as well. Businessman Dan Gilbert also received hundreds of millions in tax incentives for his downtown projects, and just this week Detroit City Council and the Michigan Strategic Fund approved lucrative tax incentives for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' new Jeep plant project in Detroit and related work in the region.

Along with their critics, the Ilitches have supporters. Eric Larson, president of the nonprofit civic group Downtown Detroit Partnership and a former consultant to the Ilitches, said Little Caesars Arena hosts nearly 300 events a year and brings millions of visitors and many new jobs to the city.

"In terms of the arena and the investment that was made and the economic impact, on the whole it has actually done what it's supposed to do and has delivered," he said.

Doubters remain. At Wednesday's DDA meeting, Eric Kehoe, president of the nonprofit group Preservation Detroit, urged the board to scrutinize any new Ilitch properties. "There are a lot of concerns regarding this developer's track record," he said.

Two years ago this month, Ilitch announced six new residential projects that were to rise near the new arena. Of those, none has started. One, a renovation of the old United Artists theater building, is waiting for the private developer partnering with Olympia to complete financing.

Olympia, meanwhile, has shifted its plans from residential use of those buildings to possible office use, given that demand for downtown office space has increased rapidly in the past few years.

Finally, Ilitch plans to join Detroit Medical Center leaders Thursday to break ground on a new DMC sports medicine facility on the lot between the arena itself and Wayne State University's Mike Ilitch School of Business to the north.

But moving forward on the Eddystone or the DMC project is unlikely to satisfy the critics. With so much promised for District Detroit and so much yet to be accomplished, only results are likely to quell the criticism.

Contact John Gallagher:313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.Follow him on Twitter@jgallagherfreep. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.