Cobo's Cramping Auto Show's Style

Detroit's 100-year-old North American Intl. Auto Show continues to enjoy its status as the pre-eminent auto show in the United States for media and vehicle manufacturers: Nearly 6,400 journalists attended and 44 worldwide product launches debuted at the Jan. 19-27 event earlier this year at the Cobo Center.

But the city that has long been the heart of the world's automotive industry is caught in a squeeze. Other cities with auto shows are doing their best to capture more of those important product launches and journalists, just as the Detroit show's managers anxiously wait for the chance to grow the event with the help of a long-anticipated Cobo Center expansion that repeatedly has been delayed and now scaled back.

“We've been looking to get an expansion for (years),” said Rod Alberts, executive director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Assn., which owns and manages the show that already takes up every inch of the center's 700,000 square feet of exhibit space. “With the industry expanding, we need to meet their needs, too. If we want to get it done right, we need to meet demand.”

And, if Detroit doesn't step up to the plate, Alberts added, another city might do what it takes to earn the title of the No. 1 car show. “There's no doubt that Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami would love to have the golden ring,” he said.

However, he added, “I think Detroit is still the place to be to get it done.”

The stakes are high for southern Michigan, an area that's struggling economically. According to a 2008 Media Metrics report on this year's Detroit show, besides the huge crowd of media that makes it so important, more than 700,000 attendees checked out the cars, creating an overall economic impact of $500 million for the Detroit area.

On the showfloor of the 2008 event, Wayne County (Mich.) Executive Robert Ficano, Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick announced plans for a scaled-back version of a previously proposed expansion for the center – 120,000 sq. ft. with a $323 million price tag, instead of an earlier 270,000 sq. ft., $800 million proposal.

“We have to maintain our status as the top show to get product announcements,” Ficano said at the time.

At the beginning of the year, it seemed as if the plan, which needed approval from the Michigan Legislature to extend a 4-percent tax on poured liquor in the Detroit metropolitan area for at least 10 years past the current 2015 deadline to pay for the expansion, was well on its way.

But there was another bump in the road.

Kilpatrick became embroiled in a political and personal scandal – which eventually resulted in both his resignation in September and jail time – that left little time for much else.

“The (previous) mayor was being consumed with legal challenges, and meetings (about the expansion) were unable to happen,” Ficano said.

A new mayor, Kenneth Crockrel Jr., was sworn in Sept. 17, and, once again, focus returned to the expansion proposal. “(The plans) are teed up and ready to go,” Ficano said.

According to Tom Tuskey, director of the Civic Center Dept. for the city of Detroit, which oversees the center, there are two expansion proposals. The first would entail knocking down the Cobo Arena that's attached to the center. Negotiations are underway between the city and Olympia Entertainment, which holds the current lease on the property, Tuskey added. The second option would be to build on the west side of the building where loading docks currently are located.

Ficano said the next step in the process is to get the liquor-tax extension through the legislature after the Nov. 4 election, but before the end of the year.

“A lame-duck session is a good time to get things done before a whole new crew comes in,” Alberts said. He also saw a new mayor coming in as a good sign, adding, “There's more of a probability (now) of getting this done.”

Tuskey said the auto show is not the only client that wants more space. “Groups are asking, in particular, for more meeting space and also for more exhibit space,” he added. “With more exhibit space, we can get bigger shows and hold more simultaneously.”

The auto show is, by far, the biggest show at Cobo, Tuskey said, but the second biggest – the annual Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress – takes up 600,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and all of the facility's 73 meeting rooms. Conceptual plans for the expansion, he added, call for about 30 percent of the new space to be devoted to meeting rooms – about 36,000 sq. ft.

Ficano said he was optimistic that the expansion project could soon become a reality. “If this thing hits on all cylinders, in theory, you could get this thing started early next year,” he added.

Alberts had a more cautious attitude. “We're feeling good about it, but I don't start counting things too early,” he said.