FLINT – Shuttered since 1973, the historic Durant Hotel is getting new life: its old walls will enclose modern apartments aimed at serving the student population at the nearby University of Michigan-Flint.

Wolverine Construction is serving as general contractor on the $30 million project, which is currently employing about 60 Hardhats. The entire building has been gutted, leaving open floors that will be reconfigured into apartments. Construction is now moving quickly after a balky start that included initial hazardous material abatement and the arrangement of several sources of financing. Initial work began in the spring of 2008 and is expected to conclude in mid-August.

“It’s a really sound building,” said Ernie Bannister, site supervisor for the owners, Prater Development and Karp and Associates. “It was engineered right, and even though the power was shut down in 1973, it has held up well.”

The revamped building will have 93 apartments, each about 900 square-feet. There will be 14 apartments per floor, and of those, 10 will have two bedrooms.

Named for General Motors founder William C. Durant, the hotel for years was the largest and grandest in Flint. The eight-story, 264-room hotel opened on Dec. 14, 1920. Durant, who had an eight-room suite on the sixth floor, wanted a nice hotel in the city to serve visitors and suppliers to the city’s burgeoning automotive industry.

Over the years, the hotel hosted luminaries like Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller and Doris Day. The Durant became headquarters for Gov. Frank Murphy in 1936-37, as he helped negotiate the end of the violence associated with the Flint Sit-Down Strike.

The Durant had its share of booms and busts. Even though the hotel was completely refurbished in the mid-1930s, tough economic times led to it being put up for auction in 1940. Pick Hotels acquired the property in 1942, and the next 20 years were good for the renamed Pick-Durant hotel, as it was heavily used by GM for corporate meetings.

The hotel was again remodeled in 1969, with rooms made larger and given separate controls for heat and air conditioning. But that work failed to save the property: the hotel was closed in 1973. Over the years, numerous development plans fell by the wayside, until the Genesee County Land Bank acquired the building in 2005.

“The redevelopment of the Durant Hotel is a major step forward for the City of Flint,” said Dan Kildee, the Genesee County Land Bank chairman who helped arrange the financing for the hotel’s renovation. “This transformed building will offer urban enthusiasts an attractive option for living downtown near the University of Michigan-Flint, and hopefully will generate opportunities for the creation of additional amenities – such as shops and eateries – that will lend excitement to downtown living.”

Except for one weathered area of brick and mortar that needed to be replaced, the vast majority of the building’s exterior masonry was found to be in good condition, Bannister said. New windows to match the appearance of the originals will be installed. The property will be served by a new two-level parking deck on the north side of the hotel. The owners will be looking to fill commercial space on the first floor of the property.

“Just about every floor is framed out, and were getting the plumbing in line so that we can start with the drywall,” Bannister said last month. “We’re really hauling, things are moving along nicely.”

 
THE EIGHT-STORY Durant Hotel was built in 1920.