Downtown Holly Rebuilt After the Fire. The Holly Hotel Didn't.

By Carrie Thompson, Strategic Marketing Real Estate Agent, eXp Realty | Grand Blanc & Genesee County, MI

Battle Alley is the short block of old storefronts at the center of downtown Holly. On June 21, 2022, a fire started there at the Battle Alley Arcade Antiques Mall and spread down the street. The Arcade was destroyed. Andy's Place, Creative Fashions, the Moose Lodge, and the Historic Holly Hotel at 110 Battle Alley were all damaged. (Detroit Free Press, June 21, 2022)

Four years later, most of that block is back open. The hotel is not. And the reason has nothing to do with the fire. The building sits a few inches over its property line, and the neighbor is fighting it in court.

The rest of Battle Alley reopened one building at a time

Creative Fashions at 106 Battle Alley was the first damaged business to reopen, on February 3, 2023, about seven months after the fire. (MLive, February 3, 2023)

Andy's Place, which was destroyed, got help from a state grant toward rebuilding, reported by MLive in May 2025. (MLive, May 5, 2025)

The Battle Alley Social District, run by the Main Street Holly Downtown Development Authority at 504 1/2 East Maple Street, operates every evening until 10 p.m. from March 1 through December 31. (Main Street Holly DDA)

That is a downtown that took a major fire and put itself back together building by building. One address did not come along.

The Holly Hotel's problem is a property line from 1891

The hotel's owners published their own account of what stopped the work. According to that statement, they began restoration within ten days of the fire, removed a million gallons of water, stripped the drywall, woodwork and carpeting, and spent four months on preliminary work. In November they engaged a general contractor and started rebuilding the west wall and roof. (Holly Hotel, August 29, 2023)

That is when they ordered a survey, and the survey found the building sits slightly over its property line on the west side. In their words, "It had, of course, been that way since its construction in 1891."

The overhang is measured in inches. ABC12 reported it as a property line dispute "measured in inches." (ABC12, August 28, 2026)

The lot next door changed hands, and so did the answer

The adjacent parcel is the Arcade lot, cleared after the fire. The hotel's owners say they raised the survey finding with the Arcade property's then-owner, who told them it would not be a problem.

Then the lot sold. ABC12 reported that the vacant lot was purchased by Jeremiah Roberts in 2023, and that he objected to the hotel's west wall and roof eaves extending onto his property. Construction stopped, and the matter went to Oakland County Circuit Court. (ABC12, August 28, 2026)

The hotel's owners state that work halted on February 26, 2023, that the contractor and brick masons eventually took the job off their project boards, and that they filed suit on August 25, 2023. That is their published account of the sequence, and the case is still being litigated, so treat it as one side's telling. (Holly Hotel, August 29, 2023)

The building is closed, not abandoned

Kevin Stephison, executive director of Holly's Downtown Development Authority, told ABC12 in August 2026 that the village's hands are tied while the case is live.

"And as long as it is litigation, our hands are kind of tied as to what we can do from the DDA's point of view," Stephison said. He added that the building is not abandoned despite the absence of visible construction, and that he is also waiting to see what replaces the old Battle Alley Arcade lot.

"I can't wait to see the day we do the grand re-opening and say 'Here we are. It's back. It's up and running,'" Stephison told the station. (ABC12, August 28, 2026)

In January 2026 the hotel opened its doors for a few hours for a one-time acoustic recording session, part of a Michigan music series filmed in small-town spaces. It is the only thing that has happened inside the building in three years. (The Oakland Press, January 21, 2026)

What a few inches on Battle Alley actually cost

Here is the part worth carrying out of Holly.

The fire was the disaster, and the block recovered from it in about a year. What has held the landmark closed for a further three years is a boundary that nobody knew existed until somebody paid for a survey, on a wall that had been standing in the same place since 1891.

Old downtowns are full of this. Buildings that went up before modern surveying share walls, overhang eaves, and sit a few inches into each other. It never surfaces while everyone gets along. It surfaces the moment a neighboring parcel changes hands, or a lender or insurer wants a survey, or someone decides to rebuild.

That is not a Holly problem. It is a pre-1900 downtown problem, and Holly, Fenton, Linden, Davison, Flushing and Grand Blanc all have blocks like it.

The practical version for anyone buying an older property: a title search tells you who owns it. A survey tells you where it actually is. Those are two different questions, and the second one is the one that stopped a landmark.

If you are looking at an older home or an older building anywhere in Genesee County or in Holly and you want to talk through what to check before you write an offer, call or text me at (810) 893-3269.

About Carrie Thompson

Carrie Thompson is a licensed Michigan Realtor (#6501338662) with eXp Realty, serving Grand Blanc, Fenton, Davison, Linden, Flushing, Swartz Creek, Burton, Goodrich, Holly, and Genesee County. Known as "Your Favorite Property Girl," she brings a strategic marketing approach to every listing and every buyer search. Call or text (810) 893-3269.