Matthew Dolan

Detroit Free Press

The building has been vacant since the mid-1970s.

The Detroit Downtown Development Authority approved the group's plans for the hotel development in summer 2015.

It was nicknamed the jewelers buildings for the large number of diamond cutters and goldsmiths working there,

The rebirth of the historic, 98,000-square-foot Metropolitan Building received a state loan Monday for the creation of a new hotel for downtown Detroit.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide said earlier this year that its Element Hotels brand will open a 110-room hotel in the long-vacant Metropolitan Building in July 2018.

It would be a mixed-use, extended-stay 110-room hotel, including retail space several blocks from Comerica Park. The building has been vacant since the mid-1970s.

The redevelopment of the Neo-Gothic hotel, which opened in 1925, is a collaboration between Detroit-based Means Group Inc. and Roxbury Group LLC, known as Metropolitan Hotel Partners.

With a vote on Tuesday from the Michigan Strategic Fund board, the project received a $6.5-million Michigan Community Revitalization Program performance-based loan from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The developers plan a part of a total capital investment of $34 million and the creation of 30 permanent full-time jobs.

"This is about more than brick and mortar,” Eric Means, founder and CEO of the Means Group, said in a statement. “This breathes life into downtown Detroit and is strong evidence of the commitment the state has to preserving an important piece of history in urban America."

The Roxbury Group received MSF incentives to support the renovation of the historic David Whitney Building, and the Plaza Midtown and Griswold Lofts developments.

To be known as the Element Detroit at the Metropolitan Building, the hotel will be at 33 John R .The Detroit Downtown Development Authority approved the group's plans for the hotel development in summer 2015.

The hotel is being designed for extended-stay guests, with bigger closets, a kitchen and extra room for visitors coming in for conventions and other events that require more than a single night's stay. Typical stays range from three to five days.

Once nicknamed the jewelers buildings for the large number of diamond cutters and goldsmiths working there, the 14-story Metropolitan Building was designed by the Detroit firm of Weston and Ellington.

The Element's adaptive reuse project will feature 2,000 square feet of meeting space on the second floor mezzanine level with attractive views of the city skyline, approximately 7,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and lower level, and an outdoor patio on the 11th floor rear rooftop, according to plans unveiled earlier this year.

Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743, msdolan@freepress.com or on Twitter @matthewsdolan. Staff Writer John Gallagher contributed to this article.