Is there a Holiday Inn Express coming to Detroit’s Woodbridge neighborhood? No.

Seems like every time you look up, there’s an announcement of a new hotel popping up in town. West Elm, an upscale furniture retailer, has announced they’re opening a boutique hotel in 2018, while Shinola is planning to assemble its own hotel with materials from outside Detroit. (Couldn’t resist, sorry.)

So when a photo in the Woodbridge Facebook group circulated of a Holiday Inn Express “coming soon” to a vacant lot at the corner of Rosa Parks Boulevard and West Forest, it seemed easy enough to believe. But unlike the West Elm and Shinola announcements, the signage here is decidedly downmarket. (And so is a Holiday Inn Express.) But is it actually happening?

Nope.

BLAC reached out to InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands, and a representative confirms there are no plans for a Holiday Inn Express on that lot.

“I checked with our development team and they do not have any record of a property going up in this location,” the rep writes via email.

Consider one part of this mystery debunked. But it still doesn’t explain why the sign is there. Perhaps – and we at BLAC are leaning in this direction – it’s part of an elaborate art project, and this is the first phase. Or maybe someone is just really bored.

Until we find out for sure, Woodbridge residents can be rest assured that no Holiday Inn-related development will disrupt their daily lives of trading used IKEA furniture and gossiping about Alex Pereira.