The Hayes Hotel currently sits dormant with broken windows, graffiti-tagged, and frequent homeless temporary camps.
By ELIZABETH FERSZT
Contributing Writer
The fate of the Hayes Hotel has been in dispute ever since the contract with developer J. Jeffers & Company expired Dec. 31, 2024. The Jackson City Council then sold the hotel to another developer, Collier Gibson, in February 2025.
In March 2025, a 4th Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of Collier Gibson and the City of Jackson, granting their motion for summary judgment to dismiss.
But on April 22, 2026, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of J. Jeffers & Company, on a procedural issue: the lower court had not considered Jeffers’ updated pleadings, thus violating Michigan Court Rule 2.118(A)(1).
Under the rule, J. Jeffers had two weeks to amend their original paperwork that had asked the court to block the sale of the hotel to Collier Gibson, based on breach of contract and equitable estoppel. Jeffers amended their pleadings, but Judge Richard LaFlamme disregarded these new arguments, siding instead with Collier Gibson and the city.
LaFlamme focused solely on the closing date, and that parties had not achieved formal conveyance of the property as predicted by their own internal agreements and contracts.
The City and Jeffers had previously agreed to move the closing date from Dec. 31, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2024. At the end of 2024, J. Jeffers had again attempted to work with the City to again extend the closing date, or to close by Dec. 31 — but it faced both communications problems with the city and then a surprise reversal — the city instead sold the property to Collier Gibson.
In the appeal, J. Jeffers contends that the City dragged its feet in performing under the purchase agreement, which led to the parties’ two mutual extensions of the closing date. For example, “plaintiff alleges the City agreed to help secure financing through the State’s Revolving Loan Fund but took no action to effectuate this.” Then the City doubled down, offering for plaintiff to use low-income housing tax credits to make up the difference in funding due to [the City’s] mistake. Yet, the City later balked at doing so. J. Jeffers also contends that the City failed to provide certain documents required by the title company to close.
J. Jeffers had sought an injunction or restraining order to prevent the City from selling the Hayes to Collier Gibson, as they were still in good faith negotiating with the City on the public facing side, while working behind the scenes to plan, develop, and restore the property back to its early 20th century glory.
This procedural issue is crucial because the city now can no longer claim that Collier Gibson is the rightful owner and developer of the Hayes — that J. Jeffers had put in the hard work over a period of three years. As the Court of Appeals put it, “On April 11, 2022, the parties entered into a purchase agreement, in which the City agreed to sell the hotel to plaintiff for $25,000… [during which time] plaintiff was to complete certain tasks like conducting surveys and environmental site samples, obtaining applicable governmental permits and approvals, and securing title commitments and financing.”
In their appeal, J. Jeffers also contends that Collier Gibson unjustly enriched itself based on converting the site development progress that Jeffers had made, to their own purposes, “In short, plaintiff claims it performed significant work on the hotel project for the better part of three years, increasing its value, and that Collier Gibson unjustly reaped the reward.”
J. Jeffers had also been able to get the Hayes placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
While these details are all accurate and interesting, the Court of Appeals merely references them for factual background and context. It only looked at the fact that the trial judge did not consider J. Jeffers’ first amended pleading which responded to the city’s motion to dismiss J. Jeffers’ original pleading, asking the court for an injunction to block the sale.
According to the Court of Appeals, “Things came to a head on February 25, 2025, when the Jackson City Council added—at the last minute and contrary to what it had told plaintiff a few days earlier—the Hayes Hotel project to its regularly scheduled City Council meeting on that date. Then, at the meeting, the City entered into a similar purchase agreement with another developer, defendant Collier Gibson. This move allegedly blindsided plaintiff, for even though it was working diligently towards closing, the City did not provide plaintiff with notice of default for failing to close—which would trigger a 10-day opportunity to cure (or fix)” as required by court rules.
This reporter was at the City Council meeting in February 2025, when the city abruptly awarded the Hayes Hotel to Collier Gibson. The agenda item on the Hayes Hotel was indeed added late, and available only in hard copy at the desk of council chambers on second floor (not posted online). The item was heard last that evening; it seemed rushed.
City Manager Jonathon Greene was asked by City Council members about the change in course after so long working with J. Jeffers. Greene casually stated that Mike Collier and Scott Gibson “were like brothers to me,” as if that explained the rationale from switching from J. Jeffers to Collier Gibson.
J. Jeffers was supposed to have a soft opening of the first two floors of the Hayes, for retail, cafe, offices, and leasing services by summer 2026, marking the 100th anniversary of the hotel. At present no progress has been made.
