Detroit’s Cobo Center officially changes hands, but expansion to come after 2010 auto show

Board takes control of Detroit’s Cobo Center

DETROIT — A regional board officially takes control of Detroit’s aging Cobo Center on Tuesday after months of political haggling and court battles over the venue, which each year hosts the nation’s premier auto show.

The five-member Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority plans to upgrade the facility’s electrical systems and make other small improvements over the coming months, but it will wait until after the North American International Auto Show in January to add much-needed exhibition space, authority chairman Larry Alexander told The Associated Press.

“Hopefully, we’ll have plans this year, begin that work shortly after the auto show ends and have it done by 2011,” Alexander said.

The board, which is comprised of representatives from the city, the governor’s office and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, planned a news conference later Tuesday to discuss the transition.

That transition was in doubt until the Detroit City Council opted not to vote in July on a resolution that would have shot down a state-brokered plan for the center. The council voted 5-3 in February against a similar plan.

A veto of the February vote by interim Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. later was overturned by a Wayne County Circuit Court judge, leading state lawmakers to quickly start work on another Cobo plan — primarily to keep the lucrative auto show in Michigan.

The show brings about $500 million each year to the region.

Following complaints from vendors about Cobo’s smallish size and deteriorating conditions, auto show organizers were considering moving it to a different venue after 2010.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson made a push to lure the show to Novi, about 20 miles northwest of Detroit. But after winning a May 5 runoff election against Cockrel, new Mayor Dave Bing began working to persuade enough council members to support the new state deal.

Part of his argument was that the $15 million price tag in annual maintenance for Cobo was an additional debt the cash-strapped city couldn’t afford.

The authority now is responsible for that cost, and will pay the city $20 million for Cobo’s parking facility. The authority also must secure $288 million in bonds to cover renovation and expansion, said Alexander, who also is president and chief executive of the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“We’ve lost 2009 because of the legal battles taking place throughout the first part of the year,” he said. “But 2010 has a lot more business and a lot more groups coming into the facility. We have to look at the schedule of events taking place so we can begin to move ahead with construction.”

Oakland County, which has been part of the Cobo negotiations for the past five years, still has concerns that construction will cost more than planned and that operating subsidies from the state may be understated, according to Deputy County Executive Robert Daddow.

After 2021 those subsidies will be eliminated and Cobo “would have to be completely self-sustaining,” Daddow said.