Legislature Clears Way for Detroit Convention Center Makeover

Detroit’s Huntington Place Convention Center could soon be getting a major makeover that would include hundreds of new hotel rooms aimed at drawing more conventions to the city, reports David Eggert in Crain’s Detroit Business.

“The overall effort could make the area — a complex cobweb of infrastructure that is uninviting to pedestrians — more conducive to a big hotel development that would attract more convention business to the city.” The convention center is managed by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority. As Eggerts explains, “The state's Convention Facility Development Fund, which is funded by hotel and liquor taxes and takes in roughly $100 million yearly, is primarily distributed to counties and the authority.”

The redevelopment would be enabled by a set of bills passed by the state legislature and awaiting Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s signature. “The legislation would let the authority enter into public-private arrangements, lift a $279 million spending cap, authorize $299 million in new bonding and expand the facility's definition to include bike paths, plazas, green space and roads necessary or convenient for use in connection with the facility.”

The authority also wants to connect Second Avenue to the adjacent riverwalk west of the convention center to provide more connectivity.