Jennifer Ollinger of Visit Detroit says she tells people the hardest part of her job is getting people to visit her city.
But once they come and see the great food scene, stylish, boutique hotels and sparkling waterfront in this Michigan city, she says her job is done.
“The city sells itself.”
It wasn’t always this easy. As someone who has worked at Visit Detroit (the city’s tourism bureau) for 25 years, she’s seen her share of low points, including a municipal bankruptcy and far too many headlines about a city gone to seed.
“In my second month on the job they imploded the old Hudson’s department store in downtown Detroit. It took up a whole city block.”
There were dark times, but things slowly began to change. The Detroit Tigers opened a shiny new, retro-style ballpark downtown in 2001. The NFL Detroit Lions joined them in the city center in 2004.
Ollinger said local businessman Dan Gilbert decided move his Rocket Mortgage headquarters from the suburbs to downtown in 2010 or 2011.
“He was outgrowing his space and had a lot of young people working for him. They like to live, work and play in the same place,” so Gilbert rolled the dice on downtown.
As often happens in urban development, others followed. And still more. Gilbert’s companies invested something like $5.6 billion in the city. Buildings that had been vacant for decades started sprouting hip shops and restaurants. The press coverage began to change.
There are now boutique hotels in historic structures and shiny new condo towers. The city’s riverwalk has been named best in the U.S. three years in a row.
Rivard Plaza on the Detroit Riverfront. Visit Detroit Photo
“Twenty five years ago there weren’t a lot of people knocking on my door and asking to visit the city,” Ollinger says with a laugh. “Now I can’t handle the amount of requests we’re getting. Since 2015-16 our trajectory has been amazing.”
Asked if joyous is too strong a word to describe the way Detroiters feel about the rejuvenation, Ollinger shakes her head.
“No. It’s been an amazing transformation.
“We hear this from a lot of people that come to visit, but you can sense the pride we have in the city. Detroiters, we are who we are, take us or leave us.”
Most current Detroit residents are from the area, she explained.
“We don’t have a lot of transplants, although we’re starting to now.”
A mural at the Eastern Market in Detroit. Eastern Market Partnership/Visit Detroit Photo
Ollinger said Detroit is a city that’s always innovating.
“We helped put the world on wheels with the invention of the assembly line, but we’re also on the cutting edge of the electric car movement. The old and regal Michigan Central train station in the city was a poster child for decay, but Ford bought it and now it will be a headquarters for electric vehicles and design.
“We’re building the first mile of a road that charges your car as you drive. It’s one of the very first in the world.”
Lots of top chefs are looking at Detroit as an affordable place where they can open up a restaurant and make their culinary dreams come true, Ollinger told me.
“The food scene is exploding. We have more James Beard nominees than ever had. Not just high-end restaurants but Detroit-style pizza with new flavor profiles. Craft cocktails are also huge, and the Two James distillery is big in Detroit. They were the first distillery to open in the city since prohibition, and they’re making crazy cool cocktails out of things made in city.”
The lack of development downtown for so many decades is something of a blessing for Detroit, as it left so many great bits of architecture untouched .
“We’re lucky that way,” Ollinger said. “We’re the only UNESCO city of design in the United States. When people look at architecture, arts and culture, it starts in the heart of the city, and it’s reverberated out into the neighborhoods.”
The uber-hip Shinola Hotel put Detroit boutique properties on the map a few years ago, and new hotels also are springing up around downtown. Roost is a new hotel in the historic Book Tower building. There’s a new hotel called The Godfrey coming to the Corktown area. Many more new properties are on the way.
The Shinola Hotel in Detroit, Michigan. Nicole Franzen/Visit Detroit photo.
Ollinger said Detroit’s Motown Museum is undergoing a $50 million expansion. She also noted the Detroit Institute of Arts has one of the top collections in the U.S.
The cornerstone of the institute, she said, are a set of renowned murals by Diego Rivera, called “Industry.” They were commissioned by the Ford family and are affixed to the institute’s walls, so the only place you can see them is in Detroit.
The institute also features one of the largest African American art collections in the country, and top work from Impressionist painters such as Van Gogh and Matisse, not to mention a large collection of works from Pablo Picasso.
Outdoor art also is big in the Motor City, with more than 850 murals.
“The city just commissioned more than 100 more,” she added.
Some alleyways have been turned into a blank canvas for outdoor art. Some have bars, or even have music playing.
“It’s an interesting use of space that’s unique to Detroit,” Ollinger told me.
Want more? The Detroit Riverfront has been named the best in the States by USA Today for three years in a row.
“Good Morning America was just on the river the other day, filming the sunrise.”
Since 2003, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy has invested more than $200 million in the revitalization of the Detroit Riverfront. The Conservancy is continuing its transformation of 5.5 miles of revitalized riverfront that will connect the Ambassador Bridge and the Belle Island Bridge.
Not only does downtown boast relatively new homes for the Tigers and Lions, it’s also where you’ll find Little Caesars Arena, which opened in 2017. It’s home to both the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL and the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.
Comerica Park in Detroit, home to the Detroit Tigers. Charles Falsetti/Visit Detroit Photo
“Within one km we have four professional teams in three stadiums,” Ollinger said. “It’s the most dense sports district of any city in the U.S..”
Detroit, of course, also has a rich music history and is home to clubs with rocky and roll, jazz, R and B, hip hop, gospel and more. It’s also one of the centers for techno music.
Detroit has a light rail people mover system that runs in a 3.5 mile loop around the central business district. A new streetcar line, the Q Line, runs up Woodward Avenue.
Back to food for a minute. If you’re wondering what Detroit-style pizza is, it’s a square pizza where they put the cheese on top of the dough, then the sauce and toppings on the cheese. It’s said to keep the dough from getting soggy, which is also the case with Chicago-style pizza.
Ollinger explained that Detroit pizza isn’t as thick as Chicago’s dough, but it’s thicker than New York-style.
Detroit-style pizza at Buddy’s. Visit Detroit Photo
“We’re between the two cities geographically, and our pizza also is somewhere in between.”
One cool story is the square pan.
The story goes that, when assembly line work was big in Detroit in the 1940s, one of the leftover pieces was a square piece of metal. It’s said that someone saw the square and decided to weld two pieces together and fold the edges up to make a baking pan. Voila: square pizza!
Ollinger said the hot pan helps make for a crispy crust, and that there’s usually a “fight for the corners,” which have ridges of dough on two sides.
Visit Detroit is already working with Ontario tourism on cross promotions.
“There are so many cool things to see and do between Toronto and Detroit.”
Toronto is a short plane ride or about a four-hour drive from Toronto, and just two hours by car from London, Ontario.
Ollinger also said Visit Detroit wants to provide a training platform for Canadian agents so they become more familiar with the changes in Detroit, including the sleek new hotels.
“I think there are still a lot of misconceptions about Detroit. And we’re easy to get to. We just have to lure you over the border.”
