Crain’s Detroit Business’s Kirk Pinho reports that the organization responsible for Joe Louis Arena’s redevelopment has received an extension as to when it must submit a plan for redeveloping the Joe Louis Arena site:
The Detroit City Council has agreed to give a holdout creditor from the city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy another 18 months to submit a redevelopment plan for the vacated Joe Louis Arena property.
Gotham Motown Recovery LLC, a subsidiary of New York City-based Financial Guaranty Insurance Corp., now has until January 2020 for the plan; under terms of the settlement forged in bankruptcy court in 2014, it had until Nov. 21, 2017, to submit it.
Gotham Motown sued the city in February for more time. The entity said it had requested a 24-month extension on July 20, 2017, but the city agreed to just a 180-day extension, even though the settlement approved in bankruptcy court allows for a two-year extension.
In April, Gotham Motown asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Tucker to appoint a mediator to resolve the dispute. Law Offices of Barry L. Howard PC in Bloomfield Hills was appointed as mediator the following month, and after two mediation sessions on June 8 and July 16, a settlement was reached, according to court documents.
Mayor Mike Duggan has to sign off on the settlement, which does not include any monetary damages. Representatives from Gotham Motown declined comment; a message was left with Duggan’s office seeking comment.
The complex nature of the 9-acre site and the city’s changing real estate market have made it difficult to submit a redevelopment proposal, Gotham argues. One city official has called what surrounds the arena “an absolutely wicked entanglement of infrastructure” that makes redevelopment difficult.
