MICHAEL AND MARIAN ILITCH
Michael and Marian Ilitch opened a small pizza restaurant in suburban Detroit in 1959. Investing the fledgling enterprise with their life savings, they also poured into it large amounts of time and patience. They created a simple and appealing menu that families, especially those with young children, could afford. A keen eye for detail and a hands-on management style helped them carve a place for themselves in the restaurant business. The restaurant flourished and Little Caesars Pizza was born.
Today, Little Caesars is one of the top three international pizza chains with restaurants on five continents. The success of the company has opened many doors for the Ilitches. However, the lifelong Detroiters have committed themselves to business ventures in their own back yard.
Their purchase of the Detroit Red Wings Hockey Club in 1982, and their subsequent purchase of Olympia Entertainment, Inc., the management company for Joe Louis and Cobo Arenas, renewed their interest in the city of Detroit. Through the tireless efforts of the Ilitches, their family and staff, they have transformed the once struggling Red Wings into a profitable and competitive enterprise. The Red Wings have captured three Stanley Cup championships in six years for the 2001-02, 1997-98 and 1996-97 seasons, and Financial World magazine consistently ranks the Detroit hockey club as one of the most valuable franchises in the National Hockey League.
Buoyed by the challenges and successes of doing business downtown, they took a chance on the historic but neglected Fox Theatre when they purchased it in July 1987. They painstakingly restored the 5,000-seat theatre built in 1928 to its original splendor and reopened its doors in November 1988. Although many thought it was impossible to revive business in the theatre district, the Fox has been a great success and is consistently one of the top-grossing theatres of its size in the country – and in 2002 was named the Number One theatre in North America by Pollstar magazine. The Fox celebrated its 75th anniversary in fall 2003 and continues to attract record crowds for a mix of concerts, theatre, family shows, and restored classic films.
In addition, the Ilitches commissioned a dramatic renovation of the adjacent 10-story office building in 1989, relocated its suburban office staff, and established a world headquarters for their pizza company in the transformed office building.
Since then, the theatre district has seen a rebirth marked by the opening of other restored theatres and restaurants, and the building of two side-by-side stadiums for the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Lions. The Ilitches have expanded upon their success in the district with the opening of Hockeytown Cafe (1999) next to the Fox.
Hard work and good fortune came together for Mike Ilitch when he purchased the Detroit Tigers baseball team in August 1992. Ilitch, who once played for the team’s farm system, said the purchased was a dream come true. Today, he also serves as the president of the baseball club.
In May 1996, Olympia Development, L.L.C., was created to focus on projects in downtown Detroit. One of the highlight projects the real estate and entertainment development company has achieved already has further enhanced the city’s Urban Entertainment District -- the $295 million Comerica Park, new home to the Detroit Tigers that opened on April 11, 2000 in downtown Detroit’s Theatre District (alongside the new Detroit Lions stadium, Ford Field, which opened August 2002).
In April 2005, Marian Ilitch purchased MotorCity Casino in Detroit. Plans are progressing for the development of a hotel and conference facilities, along with a permanent casino, at MCC’s current site in Detroit which initially opened in 1999.
Because the Ilitches’ businesses have grown in size and complexity, Mike and Marian formed a holding company – Ilitch Holdings, Inc. -- in 1999 to provide professional and technical services to the family’s primary business interests in the food and entertainment industries (Little Caesar Enterprises, Olympia Entertainment, Olympia Development, Champion Foods, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, Uptown Entertainment, Little Caesars Pizza Kits Fundraising program, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Detroit Tigers). The 2008 total combined revenues of these companies exceeded $2.0 billion.