JC Reindl

Detroit Free Press

More details of the future Detroit arena district were revealed Thursday, including plans for a 350-room athletes hotel, a world-class sports medicine center and new Woodward Avenue retail shops atop a pair of new I-75 overpasses.

The high-end hotel would be built between the new $627.5-million arena and the Fisher Freeway service drive. It could feature many large suites and cater to the many professional athletes who come through Detroit for the city's professional sports teams, according to a presentation Thursday by retail broker Scott Young of CBRE in Southfield, which is handling leasing for the district.

An updated site plan shows the hotel opening in 2019.

Near the hotel and along Woodward — between downtown Detroit and the start of Midtown — could go two new strips of single-story retail buildings. These buildings would be built over I-75 on opposite sides of Woodward. Their foundations would rest on two future interstate overpasses and could open in 2018, according to the site plan.

Between the future hockey arena and the coming Mike Ilitch School of Business could possibly go a new Detroit Medical Center sports medicine center.

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DMC Chief Administrative Officer Conrad Mallett said the DMC is in serious talks for developing this site with the Ilitch family's Olympia Development, the arena district's developer, but he stressed that no deals have been signed. However, if such a center were built, it would likely become a sports medicine destination, he said.

"This could be something very much cutting edge and something we think that would put the DMC on the map, which is why we’re so interested in the possibility," Mallett said.

Olympia Development has previously said the arena and its surrounding commercial and residential district could encompass more than $1 billion in private and public dollars. The district itself would be entirely funded by private investment.

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Other new arena district details disclosed Thursday include plans for a 1,000-car parking deck, 11 townhouses along Clifford Street and changes to the Hockeytown building. Officials previously had announced a general intention to build hundreds of units of new housing.

The arena itself is under construction and scheduled to open for the 2017-2018 hockey season.

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Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@JCReindl.