One is the Homewood Suites by Hilton, a 110-room extended-stay hotel. The other is the Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center, a 190,000-sf hotel with 170 rooms and a 30,000-sf conference center.
Site plans for the two projects were approved by city officials in 1999. McKinley Investment Group of Bloomfield Hills has not been able to raise money to build the hotels for over a year, Wilson said. The hotels were immensely popular on paper, but since the economy has dipped, banks have backed away from hospitality projects, he said.
Wilson said McKinley's not alone. Debt tightening has been going on nationwide since the economy started to dip a year or so ago, he said. "We've noticed it also on projects that we are doing in Sault Ste. Marie, New York, Florida, etc. Hotels have been doing well for a very long time. Well, Wall Street analysts are of the opinion that what comes up, must come down," Wilson tells GlobeSt.com.
The analysts have been saying that hotels are going to start not doing so well, he said.
"They started that mantra a couple of years ago. If the analysts start saying that lending has stopped to hotels, then smaller, regional and local banks take their cues from them. It's the Henny-Penny effect, you say it long enough, it will eventually come true," Wilson said.
McKinley may sell off its portion of the investment just to earn enough money to build the projecs, Wilson said.
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