Tenants at the historic Leland House just can’t catch a break.
The electricity that heats the downtown Detroit building malfunctioned early Wednesday afternoon, prompting the city’s fire marshal to order a mandatory evacuation. The outage also knocked out lights and elevators.
“They put us out,” Daryl Stewart, a 67-year-old artist and percussionist who has lived in the building since 2012, tells Metro Times. “The fire department came and knocked on doors. They said, ‘You gotta get out.’”
Tenants say melting ice and snow on the sidewalk leaked into the basement, where the building’s electrical system is located, causing a shortage that left the 20-story building in the dark. A representative for the owner, the Leland House Limited Partnership, is now scrambling to find a solution, but that may be difficult because the company filed for bankruptcy in November.
City Club, a legendary nightclub inside the building, will also be closed until further notice.
Tenants say they received a voucher to stay at a hotel in Southfield.
The outage comes a little more than a week after management notified tenants on Black Friday that they had a few days to move out because DTE Energy planned to cut electricity over unpaid electric bills. But on Dec. 4, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved a last-minute arrangement after the Leland House secured a $1.2 million short-term, high-interest loan, and Judge Maria Oxholm barred DTE from cutting off power without her approval. Some of the money, she said, must be used to pay the DTE deposit and maintain casualty insurance.
In a statement Wednesday, DTE Energy said it empathizes with tenants.
“We feel for the residents of the Leland House and know how challenging these past few weeks have been,” the Detroit-based company said. “Unfortunately, this outage was caused by customer-owned equipment that cannot be accessed due to existing structural hazards inside the building. We’re prepared to restore service as soon as the building owner can make the necessary repairs and ensure a safe environment. We are working closely with the city to ensure impacted residents are safe and have access to temporary housing.”
City officials say the fire department “responded immediately to assist and ensure all residents were safely exited” after citing “safety concerns.”
“The City of Detroit’s Housing & Revitalization Department (HRD) has been on-site since the incident, working alongside DTE to support displaced residents,” Alison DeRees, a city spokesperson, tells Metro Times. “DTE is covering the cost of temporary housing, and HRD’s Housing Stability Division is currently supporting 32 residents with temporary housing, while others have chosen to stay with friends or family. HRD continues to offer financial assistance to any residents of the Leland House seeking other permanent housing options, and our team will remain in close contact with impacted residents in the days and weeks ahead to ensure they have the resources and support needed during this transition.”
Metro Times featured the Leland House on the cover of this week’s paper edition. The Leland opened in 1927 as a glamorous Italian Renaissance hotel with more than 700 rooms, an opulent ballroom, and a grand lobby designed by Rapp & Rapp, the Chicago firm behind Detroit’s Michigan Theatre.
The building has been in gradual decline for the past few decades. Michael Higgins, who ran Leland House Limited Partnership, died in September 2023 and never followed through on a promised $120 million renovation that was announced in 2018. In the years since, the building has become mired in lawsuits, code violations, unpaid bills, and mounting debt.
Metro Times is awaiting a response from Luis Ramirez, who represents the Michael Higgins Trust and the Leland House ownership.
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