Construction has begun on a long-awaited 154-room Marriott International AC Hotel in Midtown Detroit that will incorporate the historic Bonstelle Theatre as a bar and event space.

Developer Roxbury Group announced Thursday that work on the new 10-story building is officially underway and could finish in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The AC Hotel was first announced in early 2020, on the eve of COVID-19, and construction was subsequently delayed by the pandemic and its effect on the travel and hotel industries.

AC Hotel is a mid- and upper-level, European-inspired brand that began in Spain and has been owned by Marriott since 2011. The Midtown location will be the second AC Hotel in Michigan after Grand Rapids.

Earlier, in 2018, the Midtown spot was slated to become a West Elm Hotel before those plans changed.

“We are very excited to be bringing the AC Hotels brand to Detroit, and to be doing so in such grand fashion with the connection to the Bonstelle,” David Di Rita, principal of the Roxbury Group, said in a statement.

“We take a great deal of pride in pairing high-end hospitality with iconic historic properties, and we are honored to be restoring the beauty of the Bonstelle and seamlessly integrating it with the modern sensibility of AC Hotels," he said.

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Detroit has experienced a mini-boom in new boutique hotels since the mid-2010s, with a brief pause on new projects during the early waves of the pandemic.

The 154-room Cambria Hotel Detroit, 600 W Lafayette Blvd. in downtown, recently opened and a 117-unit ROOST apartment hotel opened this month in Dan Gilbert's newly restored Book Tower, 1265 Washington Blvd. Later this summer, the 227-room Godfrey Hotel Detroit, 1401 Michigan Ave., is expected to open.

In the future, the Ilitch organization and Stephen Ross' The Related Cos. are collaborating to open two downtown-area hotels at the Fox Theatre and next to Little Caesars Arena.

The Bonstelle Theatre opened in 1903 as a synagogue and became a theater in the 1920s. It was purchased by Wayne State University in 1951. Wayne State announced in 2018 that, following an expansion of the Hilberry Theatre, it would decommission the Bonstelle.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Construction begins on future AC Hotel in Midtown Detroit