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Old Posted Dec 21, 2012, 6:12 PM
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Quote:
Detroit's new and improved Cobo Center is almost ready for its close-up.

On Thursday, Cobo officials showed off the new riverside atrium entrance, a 16,000-square-foot, three-story glass-enclosed space that promises to become one of Detroit's new ceremonial venues.

Still filled with construction workers and equipment, the atrium entrance will be tidied up for the North American International Auto Show in January, then closed off again for its finishing touches.

"It gives us a magnificent point of entry that the facility never had before," Patrick Bero, CEO of the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, told reporters on a hard-hat media tour. "It gives us spectacular views of the Detroit River and the Windsor skyline."

The new riverside entrance and atrium is part of the years-long renovations of Cobo undertaken by the regional authority, which took over management of the center from the City of Detroit in 2009.

The multi-phase upgrades are budgeted to cost $277 million in construction spending, and Bero said the project is on time and within the budget.

Cobo Arena, adjacent to the atrium, is being turned into a ballroom and meeting rooms and should be ready by June 2013.

Bero noted that the lower-level Michigan Hall will open directly onto the new atrium. That should transform the formerly little-used Michigan Hall into prime meeting space.

The entire slate of Cobo renovations, including new electronic signs on the Washington Boulevard side, should be finished by late 2014 or early 2015.

http://www.freep.com/article/2012122...text|FRONTPAGE





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