Keeping Up With The Ilitches

Detroit’s Ilitch family, which founded Little Caesars Pizza and owns a small empire of pro sports teams and entertainment venues in the city’s downtown, has created a new company named for a building it does not yet own.

Atanas Ilitch, president of real estate arm Olympia Development, has formed Moose Building LLC with another Olympia exec. But the property, which houses the Loyal Order of Moose, belongs to two music promoters who have plans to turn it into a 1,500-capacity live music venue, according to the Detroit News.

It’s also near land the Ilitch family has been stitching together as a future site of a new arena for its Red Wings hockey team.

The promoters, Blair McGowan and Amir Daiza, say they have been talking to the Ilitches about selling the building for a club, but are coy on the question of the arena.

"We will never put that building in jeopardy of being demolished," McGovern told the paper. "And we would not like to be in a position to stop them from putting up a new hockey arena."