End of an Era: Fall of the Last Holdout Against the Little Caesars Arena

In the year 472, a Romanized Germanic general named Flavius Ricimer assumed control of the languishing remains of the Western Roman Empire. Never mind that the Empire had been crumbling slowly for centuries; historians now think of 472 as the year that definitively marked the end of the fall of Rome. In modern contexts, future historians of the Motor City may well mark August 8th, 2022 as the date that marked the final capitulation of the last holdout against another Roman Empire of sorts– that of Little Caesar himself, a.k.a. Mike Ilitch and his Olympia Development empire, which developed the Little Caesars Arena. In the wee small hours of Monday morning, the last house sitting in the footprint of the trumpeted District Detroit project, which includes the Pizzarena itself and a sea of parking lots and structures, burned down. The dilapidated, historic structure, had been listed at $2.5 million, and the Ilitches weren’t biting.

The fire was a complete loss. Completely mysterious, too. @amyfisherprice had some clever commentary, as posted on the Terrible Ilitches Facebook page. The owner is listed on BS&A as “THE SCHEHERAZADE LOVE LR TRUST,” and the taxpayer is listed as an owner-occupant, while an exhaustive search of the presumed shell company owner– and various permutations of the same name- cannot be located in LARA. It’s not clear what is going on. Except that this building will make a great parking lot, I assume.