Ilitch Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company established in 1999 to provide all companies owned by

Mike Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

and

Marian Ilitch Marian Bayoff Ilitch (born January 7, 1933) is an American billionaire businesswoman, and the co-founder of Little Caesars Pizza with her late husband, Mike Ilitch. As of March 2018, Ilitch was one of the world's seven richest women, according t ...

with professional and technical services. Its privately held businesses include

Little Caesars Pizza Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

, the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

(NHL)

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and are ...

, the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB)

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

, Olympia Entertainment, Olympia Development, Olympia Parking, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, Champion Foods,

313 Presents 313 Presents is a live entertainment company based in Detroit. 313 Presents promotes and produces concerts, theatrical productions, sporting events and family shows at six venues across southeast Michigan including Little Caesars Arena, Fox Theatre ...

, the Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program, Hockeytown Cafe, and a variety of venues within these entities. Ilitch Holdings subsidiaries manage Detroit's Fox Theatre, City Theatre,

Comerica Park Comerica Park is a baseball stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It has been the home of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers since 2000, when the team left Tiger Stadium. History Construction Founded in 1894, the Tigers had played at the c ...

, DTE Energy Music Theatre, Michigan Lottery Amphitheater, Meadow Brook Amphitheater, and

Little Caesars Arena Little Caesars Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Midtown Detroit. Opened on September 5, 2017, the arena, which cost $862.9 million to construct, replaced Joe Louis Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills as the home of the Detroit Red Wings o ...

, which replaced the

Joe Louis Arena Joe Louis Arena was an arena in Downtown Detroit. Completed in 1979 at a cost of US$57 million as a replacement for Olympia Stadium, it sat adjacent to Cobo Center on the bank of the Detroit River and was accessible by the Joe Louis Arena ...

after closing in July 2017. Ilitch Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in the Fox Theatre Building in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. The family has also established Ilitch Charities which, among other things, awards annually the "Little Caesars" AAA Hockey Scholarships.

Christopher Ilitch Christopher Paul Ilitch (born June 2, 1965) is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ilitch Holdings, Inc., a holding company that provides services to businesses that were founded or purchased by Mike and Marian Ilitch. Ilitch compa ...

, one of Mike & Marian Ilitch's seven children, is CEO and President of Ilitch Holdings and Chairman of Ilitch Charities. Marian Ilitch serves as the chairman.

Background

and

started

Little Caesars Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. ( doing business as Little Caesars) is an American multi-national pizza chain. Based on 2020 statistics, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain by total sales in the United States, behind Pizza Hut and ...

in 1959. A complementary business, Blue Line Foodservice, was soon started to supply ingredients and other products to the growing restaurant chain. In 1982, Ilitch entered into sports with the purchase of the struggling Red Wings. Ilitch, executing his long-term Detroit business conglomerate plan, also purchased Olympia Stadium Corporation that year. Olympia Stadium operated the

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He re ...

and

Cobo arena Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly as TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Wash ...

s. The couple purchased and restored the downtown Fox Theatre in 1987. In 1988, they fielded an indoor

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

team,

Detroit Drive The Massachusetts Marauders were a professional arena football team that was based in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were a member of the Arena Football League (AFL) from 1988 to 1994. The team was established in Detroit in 1988, as the Detroit ...

, in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

. In 1992, Mike purchased the

. Purchasing the Tigers led him to sell the Drive in February 1994 given the leagues' overlapping schedules. In 1996, the Ilitch family purchased the Birmingham movie theater in

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103. History The area comprising what is now the ...

. The theater was then renovated into an eight-screen theater.

History

Ilitch Holdings was formed in 1999 to manage their various holdings. It formed Uptown Entertainment to own its Birmingham 8 and Palladium 12 theaters. Until 2004, Christopher and Denise Ilitch, children of Mike and Marian, were copresidents of Ilitch Holdings. At that time, Denise grew estranged from both her brother and parents and resigned from the position. On July 1, 2015, Uptown Entertainment sold the Birmingham 8 movie theater to Birmingham Theatre, LLC. Chris Ilitch, then president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, was designated as successor to his parents' positions, chair and vice chair, in running the companies. At the time Mike was running the sports teams, while Marian was in charge of the casino. Marian owned the casino due to MLB regulations that bar team owners from owning gambling establishments. After the death of Mike in March 2017, Chris took over management of the sports teams per the established succession plan.

Controversy

Ilitch Holdings has been criticised for leaving many properties in Detroit untenanted, allowing them to decay, and for

demolish Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a bu ...

ing

historic building This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

s and leaving lots empty, or only using the lots as car parking, rather than developing them.

Subsidiaries

* Blue Line Foodservice, restaurant supply distribution * Champion Foods, manufacture frozen pizza, breadsticks, calzone and cookie dough kits for private label and store brands *

(1992) MLB team *

(1982) NHL team *

Enterprise, Inc. (1959) pizza restaurant * Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program, fundraising business through assisting group sell pizza kits * Olympia Development: The real estate arm which built the new Little Caesars Arena * Olympia Entertainment (1982) formerly Olympia Stadium Corporation, manages multiple venues in sports and entertainment plus restaurants. ** Fox Theatre ** City Theatre **Sound Board at MotorCity Casino Hotel **

**Hockeytown Cafe **

Ocean Casino Resort Ocean Casino Resort (formerly Revel Casino Hotel Atlantic City) is a resort, hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is the northernmost casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, located on of land, adjacent to the Showboat Hotel. It is ...

, 50% ownership *MotorCity Casino Hotel

References

External links

*
Ilitch Companies
{{NHLOwners 1999 establishments in Michigan Companies based in Detroit Conglomerate companies of the United States Holding companies established in 1999 Sports holding companies of the United States Ilitch family Little Caesars