Big Hotels Eyed for Transformation

DETROIT—The Royal Dearborn, Hotel and Convention Center in suburban Dearborn is up for sale, and big changes could be on the way when a new owner takes over. The 773-room hotel, until recently part of the Hyatt Regency chain, is the second largest in the state, but was completed in 1976, an era when having one brand occupy such a massive structure, which stands across the street from the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters, may have made more economic sense.

Savills Studley’s US Capital Markets Hotel Group is handling the sale, and its officials have floated the possibility of repositioning the property, perhaps splitting the asset into two smaller hotels or even reducing the size of the hotel component by converting the top floors to residential use and transforming parts of ground-level space into retail.