The proposal, which the developers said had the most community support, featured an anchor restaurant at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Abbott Road, a 120-room hotel, 400 apartment rooms, 900 parking spaces and an exclusively residential building at the corner of Evergreen and Albert Avenue.

Following the presentation, council members asked questions about the abandoned bank building at the corner of Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue. That property is currently owned by Strathmore LLC and previous City Center II developer Scott Chappelle.

DTN Vice President Colin Cronin said talks with Chappelle have been going well and he expects a proposal that includes all of the private land yet to be acquired.

“It is 100 percent our intent to move forward with a full scale project,” he said. “That kind of project is the best one of there, I’ve seen smaller project proposals and they make less sense.”

Cronin said there is a high likelihood that Chappelle will be a minority investor in the project.
“That’s how most of our projects are,” he said. “I’d say 98 percent of our projects have someone with a minority interest.”

He said past financial lapses by Chappelle, including multiple foreclosures, do not concern him.

“When City Center II failed no one had any money because it was during the economic collapse,” he said. “Scott’s done a number of projects since then to get himself back on his feet.”

Cronin said how involved Chappelle and Strathmore would be still is unclear.

Cronin said if an agreement can’t be reached in 30 to 45 days, DTN may have to back out, but is confident that won’t happen. If it does, he said DTN will move forward with a smaller project.

City council members also asked Cronin and DTN about parking and traffic flow in addition to the proposed hotel.

Cronin answered councilmember Ruth Beier’s question about parking during the meeting with: “It’s going to be a challenge.”

“It’s hard to do a traffic study in that area because it’s so congested,” he said after the meeting. “I thought that it (Beier’s question) was a very good one and something we’ll have to look at.”