Liam Thornton, vice president of development for the clubs, confirms that his company is in talks with the Ford family to move into about 40,000-sf in the stadium, which opened this year. The Fords are negotiating with developers to build a hotel, entertainmentuses or offices in the stadium now under construction Downtown. The new $500-million, 1.3-million-sf Ford Field is located to the newly-built Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers baseball team, along Woodward Avenue.

"We like the Downtown location, and the surrounding neighborhood, in terms of tenants," Thornton tells GlobeSt.com.

There was much hype that after the stadiums were erected, prosperity would follow in the Downtown area, in terms of national chain restaurants and entertainment venues signing up to lease or own space downtown. The Hard Rock Café was among these rumors, which are still floating around, though no development has surfaced.

However, Thornton says HOB likes Detroit's style.

"It's a logical marketplace, Motown is historically known as a music market," Thornton says. "We're also impressed that the public and private sectors have gotten together to change the Downtown. We think the commitment is there to change the environment.

Ford Field, he says, puts a restaurant/small concert venue in the thick of things."It's all still very preliminary; there's not even any designs yet," Thornton says. A deal could take about two months to finalize, and if everything goes smoothly through the city officials, a new HOB could open in about a year, he adds.

The company already operates 1,000 - 2,000 capacity venues located in Cambridge, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Anaheim and Las Vegas. A typical HOB includes a restaurant for 200, Thornton says. The stadium was built along walls of former Downtown buildings, including the demolished Hudson's headquarters.

Proposals to fill the empty space include a 250-room hotel and about 100,000-sf of available office space.

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