Cobo Center in Detroit is going to get more than a coat of new paint between now and next year’s auto show.
The regional authority now running Detroit’s downtown convention center announced today Cobo will undergo a $221 million renovation.
Cobo Center’s general manager, Thom Connors, says the three year project will allow Cobo to better accommodate the needs of the North American International Auto Show:
"More leasable space, more attractive space, and increased banquet and meeting room capacity and new exhibition space. Its going to make it an easier sell to a wider variety of potential clients. And allow us to do larger, multiple events at the same time, as well as larger capacity events in the future."
As part of the renovation, Cobo Arena will be replaced with a 40,000 square foot ballroom space.
The Detroit Free Press reported on the plans, announced this morning, to renovate downtown Detroit's Cobo Center:
The project will be ready by the 2014 North American International Auto Show, and it will “open up” Cobo to the Detroit River with a new atrium entrance and sweeping architectural changes, said Larry Alexander, chair of the five-member Cobo Regional Convention Facility Authority.
The work will mark the first major overhaul of Cobo since 1989. Cobo was built in 1960. In recent years, Cobo has suffered from roof leaks and other problems, and other cities have leapfrogged ahead of Detroit in the amount of showroom space offered and other amenities.
A bond sale enabled by the Cobo authority will pay for the renovations.
Attendance Monday was 64,520, up from 61,112 from the same day last year, said NAIAS spokesman Sam Locricchio. On opening day Saturday, 86,622 attended the show, compared with 83,715 on the opening Saturday last year, he said. Sunday's attendance was 99,111 -- up from 96,623 for the opening Sunday in 2010, he said.
The show, at Detroit's Cobo Center, is open until Sunday.
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