Cobo renovations show progress before auto show
To the casual visitor to next month's North American International Auto Show, visual evidence of the $300-million remake now under way at host facility Cobo Center may be in short supply.
That's because most of the work so far has been of the back-of-the-house variety -- extending loading docks, upgrading electrical and temperature control systems, and the like.
Larry Alexander, chairman of the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, said auto show visitors should notice the construction work "not at all."
"We've done a very good job of separating the work that they've done from where the customer activities are," Alexander said Tuesday. "It's almost come back to haunt us because we've got customers who've walked in who say they can't tell there's any work going on."
But there is, of course, and on Tuesday, Cobo General Manager Thom Connors led a pack of news media representatives on an hour-long, hard-hat tour of the work.
"We've come a long way in a short period of time," Connors said. "People who work here are passionate about making it better."
One of the more visible changes: About 25,000 square feet of new space has been added on to Cobo's Oakland Hall by building on an annex on the west side of Cobo. It will house the Pure Michigan exhibit and some auto suppliers during next month's show.
The biggest changes are yet to come. In perhaps the most dramatic, a new waterfront atrium entrance will be built off Atwater, a project that will begin immediately after next month's auto show closes. It will be ready for the January 2013 auto show.
http://www.freep.com/article/2011121...text|FRONTPAGE