State Roundup

Detroit
Former upscale Detroit hotel plans on spring opening
DETROIT (AP) — A 25-story Detroit hotel that once was an upscale attraction is expected to reopen this spring as a Crowne Plaza hotel along with other new lodging options.
A developer bought the downtown building last year, and the 371-room former Pontchartrain Hotel had been controlled by a court-appointed receiver since 2009 after it went into foreclosure, The Detroit News reported Wednesday. Built in 1965, the hotel near Cobo Center last operated as the Detroit Riverside Hotel.
The opening comes as Cobo Center undergoes a nearly $300 million renovation that will add 22,500 square feet of exhibition space and other amenities. Cobo is home to the North American International Auto Show each January. It also is expected to open around the same time as a Hyatt Place at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.
The two hotels will add about 500 rooms to the area’s lodging scene. Next year, they are expected to be joined by another property: an Aloft Hotel, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, in the empty David Whitney building.
The openings follow increased Detroit-area hotel room reservations last year that represented the region’s highest occupancy rates since 2000.

Pontiac
Man gets 20-60 years for killing mentally ill mom
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a 22-year-old man to 20 to 60 years in prison for beating and stabbing his 51-year-old mentally ill mother to death at their suburban Detroit home.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Leo Bowman in Pontiac sentenced Jeffrey Pyne on Tuesday on a second-degree murder conviction.
Fifty-one-year-old Ruth Pyne was found dead May 27, 2011, inside the garage of the home in Highland Township, about 30 miles northwest of Detroit.
Jeffrey Pyne was charged with first-degree murder, but jurors convicted him of the lesser crime of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors say he killed his mother because he was tired of dealing with her mental illness.