Michael O'Callaghan, executive vice president and COO for the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, said greater downtown has about 5,000 hotel rooms, but it should have between 7,500 and 8,000. He said the downtown's occupancy rate was 68.9 percent last year, up from 68.1 percent in 2016. Average daily rates also increased in that time frame, from $151.63 to $164, O'Callaghan said.

"There is still room for more" hotel space, O'Callaghan said. "In the case of the Hotel St. Regis, I think the property has been in dire need of a cash infusion, and this could really help it out. There is great potential up there around Henry Ford Hospital and Wayne State."

As part of last week's deal, the Swanson family, which previously owned the hotel and has a funeral home business, remains on board as a minority owner.

Other investors are Roy Roberts, a former General Motors executive and emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools; Gretchen Valade, whose grandfather Hamilton Carhartt founded the eponymous Dearborn-based workwear brand Carhartt Inc. in 1889; Brian Whelan, president of the W.F. Whelan Co. logistics firm; and David Sutherland, partner with the Wakefield, Sutherland & Lubera PLC law firm in Grosse Pointe Farms.

"We are excited by the potential Invictus brings to the future of the hotel," O'Neil Swanson, president and founder of Swanson Funeral Home, said in a statement. "We share their vision for updating its facilities and believe with their involvement and leadership, we will achieve the goals for the hotel that my family envisioned when we took an ownership position several years ago. We look forward to working with them."

Grand Rapids-based Rockford Construction and Birmingham-based McIntosh Poris Associates are the general contractor and architect on the project, respectively. Both also have offices in Detroit. Detroit-based Kyle Evans Design is the designer, and Grand Rapids-based AHC+Hospitality will manage the property. Bank of Ann Arbor provided the construction loan and debt. Southfield-based Bernard Financial Group originated the construction and acquisition financing.

The hotel has had a tumultuous 10 years since a 2007 renovation. In February 2009, the hotel defaulted on a loan from Chicago-based Shorebank Corp. After Shorebank shut down the hotel in August 2010, much of the company's $2.2 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits — including the Hotel St. Regis — were bought by a new entity, Urban Partnership Bank. The hotel was then put up for auction by Southfield-based turnaround firm BBK in January 2011.

St. Regis Sky Group LLC won the auction, but the original ownership group had right of first refusal to buy the hotel for the amount arrived at by the auction: $850,000.

"We believe the investment will transform the property," Saunders said. "With the investment, we will focus on every detail of this project and look to create the unique and memorable experiences that distinguish boutique hotels."