The Wayne State University Board of Governors approved Wednesday a long-term lease of the to-be-decommissioned Bonstelle Theatre as part of Detroit-based developer The Roxbury Group's planned West Elm hotel project.

David Di Rita, principal of Roxbury, said the 45-year lease also includes a number of options to renew and that the property would be renovated and restored with things like updated HVAC systems and interior, auditorium and finishes. A specific budget for the theater renovation project has not been calculated, but the overall effort to restore it and construct the West Elm hotel on Woodward Avenue on the edge of Midtown and Brush Park is expected to cost $50 million.

In addition, on Tuesday night more details about the planned hotel were revealed to the Brush Park Community Development Corp. board and meeting audience members by James Van Dyke, executive vice president of Roxbury, and Michael Decoster, vice president/associate of Detroit-based architecture firm Hamilton Anderson Associates. Hamilton Anderson is the design architect on the development.

In addition to the specifics on size, the project — which has been referred to internally as the "Hotel Bonstelle," as in the "Hotel Bonstelle by West Elm" — is slated to incorporate a glass-covered conservatory between the WSU-owned Bonstelle at 3424 Woodward Ave. to the south of the project site and the hotel at 3448 Woodward Ave., according to Van Dyke.

The first two floors are expected to be meeting spaces, office, fitness and restaurant uses. Floors three through 11 are to be hotel rooms, while the 12th floor is to be hotel suites.

A conceptual rendering presented on Tuesday shows the Bonstelle with its columns re-exposed.

According to Historic Detroit, which tracks Detroit building history and architecture, the Bonstelle was originally built as the Temple Beth El synagogue, opening in 1903 after being designed by famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn; C. Howard Crane, renowned for his historic theater designs in Detroit, designed what became the Bonstelle Playhouse named after Jessie Bonstelle. It was purchased in late 1924 and redesigned.

"Albert Kahn exterior and C. Howard Crane interior," Di Rita said, describing the property.

The Bonstelle has long been a focus of the developers; last year in a press release announcing the hotel they said they are "in discussions with Wayne State to potentially incorporate a restored Bonstelle Theatre into the overall plan."

Van Dyke said financing for the project should be secured by the end of the year, with construction beginning in 2020, a delay from the original 2019-2020 construction time line announced a year ago.

Hotel parking would be in a 580-space parking deck that is proposed near the site in a broader development called South of Mack Avenue. The Nyman family owns the site immediately north of the Bonstelle, and Roxbury Group has signed a long-term ground lease for the property. Neumann Smith is the architecture firm on the Nyman project, generally referred to in the shorthand as SoMA.

Wayne State is decommissioning the Bonstelle and a building at 95 W. Hancock St. as part of the $65 million Hilberry Gateway Performance Complex project.

Crain's reported a year ago that the David Mackenzie House next door to the Hilberry is being relocated from Cass Avenue between Forest Avenue and West Hancock to Forest and Second avenues as the theater is slated to be overhauled.

Wayne State is moving the building to make way for a new lobby, jazz center, learning space and performing arts labs to serve 20,000 students. The project is funded by $55 million in bonds and $9.5 million in donations from businesswoman Gretchen Valade, who is a Carhartt heiress, philanthropist and chair of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation.

The total Hilberry project is to renovate 23,000 square feet of the existing theater and add 71,300 square feet.