Abandoned Eloise Asylum In Westland To Get $4M Renovation

WESTLAND, MI — One of metro Detroit's spookiest attractions is getting a renovation.

The long-abandoned Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in Westland will get a $4 million renovation that will turn it into a hotel, restaurant and haunted attraction, according to a news release from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

The plan calls for keeping two historic buildings, while tearing down other containment buildings on the site. The former psychiatric hospital closed in 1984, after most of the complex’s 75 buildings were destroyed by the mid-80s.

John Hambrick, owner of the building, told Fox 2 Detroit he is planning to turn the old firehouse in a barbecue restaurant and to build a 1920s-themed speakeasy in the original asylum.

"You come in a side do, gotta have a password," Hambrick said. "You go up an elevator, it's all the original asylum, then when you walk into the restaurant, boom, you're immersed in the '20s."

Hambrick also told the outlet he hopes to open the restaurant by this fall or winter and the speakeasy by next year.