Former Hyatt Renovation Halted After Inspectors Find Families Living Inside—And Rooms Chained From The Outside

Inspectors entered the closed former Hyatt Regency Dearborn and found families living upstairs. Hotel room doors on the property were chained and padlocked from the outside. Two days later, police searched. The families were gone. Officers closed the case after about a two hour search. On September 22, inspectors found, On the 12th floor: Dozens of people, including young children, with groceries, suitcases, puppies and dog feces. On the 10th floor: Doors chained and padlocked from outside, apparently impossible to unlock from within. In a hallway: Packaging for a large machete (though no machete was seen). A project manager initially suggested a worker’s family was visiting for lunch. A guard said up to 100 people had lived there over the previous year, and his bosses told him to ignore residents. The hotel’s owner denied knowing families were living there. Police said the locked rooms secured workers’ equipment and their search found no criminal activity, such as human trafficking. This is the Edward Hotel and Convention Center which once had a revolving restaurant and a monorail connection to Fairlane Town Center. It left Hyatt in 2012, and the city shut it down in 2018. The property was acquired in 2016 for $20 million. That owner faced criminal charges in Canada that were ultimately withdrawn. It was sold in 2021 in a forfeiture sale for $18.25 million. The buyer defaulted on the mortgage and in 2024 it was auctioned by the sheriff for $9.85 million, but apparently an auction of the distressed note and sheriff’s deed ended at $5.925 million. According to Dearborn City Council materials from October 2024, Hyatt had expressed interest in returning if sufficient capital investment could be secured. This exterior photo is from September 2024, by Warren LeMay via Wikipedia. But Wait, It Gets Worse According to a local activist a supposed immigration agent had thrown someone to the floor and killed a dog by throwing it through glass. She later reached an injured woman inside, who told her: “I don’t know how to get out.” The activist also said workers reported wages withheld because employers supposedly used the money to bribe immigration agents and being told: “Look, we’re keeping ICE away from you. Now you have to work for free.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement denies conducting enforcement at the hotel. A Detroit councilwoman’s office says Mayor Abdullah Hammoud was alerted September 18, four days before the inspection. Reportedly police failed to review the hotel’s surveillance video before closing the investigation. The Hotel Was Supposed To Make A Comeback Dearborn has sunk subsidies into the hotel’s redevelopment plans. In December 2025, the city approved a 12-year property tax exemption and a 30-year brownfield plan for a redevelopment involving a $45 million rehabilitation, plus acquisition costs. The project would combine hotel rooms, apartments and convention space. In January, the mayor said the hotel would return as a Hilton, with a hoped-for opening by the end of 2026. Here’s a walk-through of the property from before the current state of affairs: I don’t think the former Hyatt Regency Dearborn is re-opening as a Hilton in 2026. It strikes me that the city isn’t adequately investigating issues at a redevelopment site that it’s subsidizing. Topics on this page