Desperate Detroit: taking steps to return to former glory as meeting site

The Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) unveiled a three-year, US$221 million plan for the reinvention of Cobo Conference & Exhibition Center, Metro Detroit’s regional convention facility.
 

“The bond-financed project is Phase III of a multi-year strategic plan to return Cobo Center to its historic role as one of North America’s premier meeting and convention venues,” said the DRCFA in a release. They added:
 

“In creating its strategic plan, the DRCFA focused on restoring Cobo Center’s competitiveness in the national meeting and convention landscape, revitalizing Cobo Center with an updated image and improving Cobo Center’s financial viability through increased revenue opportunities and decreased costs.”
 

It’s hardly a surprise Detroit wants to generate more income-generating visitors.
 

“Detroit is not just a city in decline, it’s a city in free-fall: Its population dropped 25 percent over the past 10 years, census data show, losing a staggering 237,500 people,” said Newser.
 

The number of people in the city last year, 713,777, is the lowest since 1910; Detroit’s population loss dwarfs even the 140,000 who fled New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
 

As for Cobo Center, improvements include:
 

• The reinvention of Cobo Arena as a 40,000-square-foot ballroom with supporting
meeting, pre-function and back-of-house spaces. This new ballroom will feature a glass
wall and open-air terrace facing Hart Plaza and Detroit’s downtown.
 

• The creation of a new “signature space” for Cobo Center in the form of a spacious three-story
glass atrium that links the main floor of the venue with a new entrance facing the
Detroit River, bringing the lower-level exhibition space more naturally into the flow of a
meeting or convention and linking Cobo Center more fully to Detroit’s revitalized
riverfront.
 

• Significant renovation to the building’s primary façade on the east side facing downtown
Detroit. The primary element will be a high-tech “media mesh” that will function as a giant
digital signboard welcoming conventions and guests to Detroit and to the new Cobo
Center.
 

• Reconfiguration of most meeting and breakout room space throughout the venue,
“In addition to these major updates to Cobo Center, many other significant changes will be made
to the facility that will improve customer experience, reduce customer costs, improve reliability,
enhance safety and security, improve operational efficiency, save energy, reduce environmental
impact and integrate Cobo Center better into the surrounding downtown,” according to the DRCFA.
 

“We are making the changes to Cobo Center that our customers, stakeholders and competitive
research have told us are necessary to return Cobo to an industry-leading status that will assist in
attracting meetings and conventions to Metro Detroit,” said Larry Alexander, chairman of the
DRCFA Board of Directors.
 

By David Wilkening