Detroit Free Press

DETROIT —The world's first combination International House of Pancakes and Applebee's restaurant will happen next year downtown.

The 300-seat gastronomic experiment will be located inside the Millender Center, across from the Renaissance Center, and be oriented to serving guests in nearby hotels as well as downtown visitors, office workers and residents.

The co-branded restaurant's menu is still being developed, sources said Wednesday. And it's not known yet whether guests could order IHOP pancakes and omelets throughout the day alongside plates of Applebee's boneless wings and Fiesta Lime Chicken.

Glendale, Calif.,-based DineEquity (DIN), formed in 2008 after IHOP Corp. completed its acquisition of Applebee's restaurants in late 2007, closed up 12 cents Wednesday to $78.63, $3.58 above its 52-week low.

The company is excited to have its two brands under the same roof for the first time, DineEquity CEO Julia Stewart said in a statement.

Breakfast is an increasingly tasty strategy for restaurant industry

The 12,000-square-foot Detroit restaurant would replace the former Sweet Lorraine's cafe and be a franchise of TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants. It is expected to open in late 2017 and employ more than 100 people. The restaurant will feature a coffee bar and Detroit-centric interior design, Executive Chairman Mark Schostak said.

"This is the first IHOP/Applebee's combo that’s ever been built anywhere," Schostak said. The Schostak company "is proud to expand our portfolio by uniquely combining two nationally recognized and family-oriented brands."

This IHOP will be the second in Detroit and not affect operations at the existing IHOP restaurant east of downtown.

The IHOP/Applebee's co-brand concept, if expanded, might help DineEquity regain growth in the ever-competitive casual dining restaurant business.

Applebee's locations nationwide have seen a modest decline in year-over-year sales figures in recent quarters while the IHOP brand has seen slower growth amid pressure from the popular All Day Breakfast initiative at McDonalds. In 2015, the company had franchised more than 2,000 Applebee's restaurants worldwide and more than 1,500 IHOPs.

"We've been serving breakfast all day for 58 years," Stewart said earlier this year at the Baird Global Consumer, Technology and Services Conference. "Breakfast was one of the few categories in the restaurant industry that was really growing. So our little secret became everybody else's secret."

The Schostak firm will lease the new restaurant space from Riverfront Holdings, a subsidiary of General Motors. Schostak also operates Olga's Kitchen restaurants, several Del Tacos, MOD Pizza and 66 other Applebee's, including an Applebee's on 8 Mile that opened last year in Detroit's Gateway Marketplace shopping center.

“This offers more selections for people as they can find breakfast, lunch and dinner at a single location when they visit, work or stay in Detroit’s most iconic building,” Claudia Killeen, manager of Renaissance Center development, said in a statement.

Follow JC Reindl on Twitter: @JCReindl