[4] However, in that time luxury apartment living had fallen out of favor, residents left, and the hotel started renting rooms to transient guests.

[6][7] However, in October 2016, Harold Ince, interim executive director of the Detroit Housing Commission announced that the planned redevelopment appears dead after Sasser failed to purchase the property.

[8] In December 2017, the city issued an RFP (requests for proposal) for the 17-story Lee Plaza Tower on West Grand Boulevard at Lawton Street.

[9] In February 2019, the city of Detroit announced plans to sell Lee Plaza to a joint venture of the Roxbury Group and Ethos Development Partners for $350,000, that will redevelop the building into 180 residential units and retail.

The Lee Plaza Hotel is a 15-story, "I" plan, steel and reinforced concrete structure, faced with orange glazed brick, with a steeply pitched roof originally covered in red tile (later replaced with copper, which has been since stripped).

Decorative details are inset in the form of terra cotta belt courses, spandrel plaques, corbelled friezes and window surrounds.

The main hallway was dubbed "Peacock Alley," a barrel-vaulted space with coffered ceiling covered in a rich color scheme of blues, golds and greens.