Detroit Auto Show could leave Detroit?
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
The organization behind the Detroit Auto Show is ready to look for alternative venues to hold the show in case the Detroit City Council will succeed in blocking a deal to renovate the old Cobo Hall and transfer ownership to a regional authority.
In the midst of this flurry, Oakland County is trying to get the organizers’ attention. If plans for a conference hall push through in Novi, a suburb of Detroit just 25 miles outside the city, the Detroit auto show might have a venue for 2011. However, the facility, the 300,000 sq. ft. Rock Financial Showplace, is about 400,000 sq. ft. short of Cobo’s floor area, and Cobo has already been deemed too small for the auto show. The move now is to expand the facility in order to accommodate the show in Novi. The expansion is to be significant, requiring about $120 to $180 million. But according to sources the land has already assembled the land. To make this expansion Oakland County will be working through legislation. With the threat of the Detroit event moving to another state, the lawmakers of Michigan will be more than willing to work with Oakland County since the renovation of Cobo has fallen through. Detroit organizers say that they could transfer the show to Chicago or L.A. if and when it came to that. Rock Financial Showplace will be hearing from the organizers very soon if the latter have finalized their decision to move the auto show to Novi.
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