Major Changes Coming to Cobo Center

DETROIT (WJBK) - Big bucks are headed to Cobo Center for a massive renovation and expansion. It's a plan that has been in the works for years.

In a Detroit more often celebrated for urban decay than urban development, this is big news. The home of the North American International Auto Show is finally undergoing a major transformation.

You can watch it in the video player below. An animation sends you flying in and around a renovated Cobo Conference and Exhibition Center, one that showcases the riverfront and turns Cobo Arena into a 40,000 square foot ballroom. Billed as more than a renovation, this is the long awaited, much needed reinvention.

"This is a great thing for the metropolitan Detroit area, the region," said Joseph Abdoo with the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority. "We all have to work together to … make things like this work."

"When we're ready to go in a couple of years, we'll be able to deal with 95-percent of all the shows across … the U.S. and internationally, as well," said Waymon Guillebeaux with the DRCFA.

The $221-million bond financed plan will mean a new, premiere facility -- a much better home for the North American International Auto Show, which had threatened to relocate.

The controversial Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority is making it happen over the next three years.

"We want to be an example of how we can get something done that will be good for the whole state, not just for the Southeast Michigan region," said Juliette Okotie-Eboh with the DRCFA.

City Council President Charles Pugh says it's about time.

"The expansion … and the plans that they showed me are what we need for the 21st century and for a world class city like Detroit," he told FOX 2.

Take a look at the changes in the video animation below: