Being inextricably tied to a major industry, as Detroit has long been connected with the American automobile landscape, can be a double-edged sword.
When good times start to go bad, which they certainly have in recent years with the U.S. auto sector, it's easy for an identity crisis to set in. If Detroit isn't just about cars after all, what else does it have to offer?
Plenty, it turns out.
"While cars will always be in our DNA, we also have some of the world's great museums—like the Detroit Institute of Arts and The Henry Ford, and three Vegas-style casinos," says Christopher Baum, senior vice president, sales and marketing for the Detroit Metro CVB. "We're also one of America's top concert and performance towns—home to Motown, Bob Seger, Kid Rock, The White Stripes, Eminem and many more—and home to several of America's favorite sports franchises, including the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings. Nobody ever comes to southeast Michigan and says, 'There's nothing to do.'"
What they are saying, according to Baum, is more along the lines of 'Wow, I had no idea!' No idea that Motown is a hub of some of the best museums in the country; that the city's downtown is extremely safe according to no lesser source than the FBI; that the "Motor City" has shown the drive to branch out from automobiles into more contemporary fields—such as urban farming, green tech and entertainment. In regards to the latter, the city brought almost 50 feature films and TV series to shoot in Motown in 2010 alone, and according to the Detroit Free-Press, film production companies paid for 100,000 room nights across the state of Michigan in 2010.
The driven diversification is part of Detroit 3.0, a promotional effort launched last year by the Metro Detroit CVB to nurture and spread the word on the city's cultivation of fresh industries with bright futures. In addition to the aforementioned sectors (and the region's ongoing automotive efforts), other areas in the Detroit 3.0 initiative include medical research, defense and aerotropolis—focusing on the city's growing status as an international air-shipping hub.
A number of the top meeting venues and attractions are benefitting from, and contributing to, the city's ongoing reinvention. You might never have thought that Detroit would evolve into the Vegas of the Midwest, for example, but its trio of stylish casinos—including the spectacular MotorCity Casino Hotel—have provided an additional element of excitement for both visitors and locals. They've also added substantially to the city's overall meeting product, with the MotorCity Casino alone providing 67,000 square feet of function space and the MGM Grand adding another 30,000.
And at the Cobo Convention Center, a well-publicized makeover is taking place, integrating $300 million in improvements and additions. One highly anticipated new feature will be a stellar banquet and event space housed in what was previously Cobo Arena. Another fresh element has numerous walls being replaced by floor-to-ceiling glass—visually bringing the city in to the facility and providing views that highlight the city's proximity to neighboring Canada. The ambitious revitalization is taking place in stages to diminish impact on scheduled events, with completion expected in 2014.
Detroit's meetings properties, including the aforementioned casino hotels, are blossoming as well.
"In one of the hardest-hit cities in the nation, we have managed to add an astonishing 1,500 new hotel rooms in beautiful, new, first-class downtown hotels in the past five years—which boast 155,000 square feet of new meeting space," says Nancy Major, general manager for destination management company Show Me Michigan.
Among the prized properties is the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, beneficiary of a recent $200 million upgrade that paid off with AAA Four Diamond status in March, only the fifth establishment in the city to attain that standing. The 33-floor Cadillac was the tallest hotel in the world upon its 1924 construction, and today showcases 453 guest rooms and 30,000 square feet of function space.
Other downtown meetings properties include The Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, with 1,300 rooms and 100,000 square feet of space in the GM Renaissance Center; and the Greektown Casino Hotel, with 400 rooms and 25,000 square feet of meeting space.
Another sign of Detroit's healthy climate is a blast from the past—the slated September return of Joe Muer's Restaurant, a local seafood standby between 1929 and 1998. The reincarnated restaurant will fittingly reside within the Renaissance Center and offer sweeping views of the Detroit River from its spacious setting.
And the city's cultural side provides yet another pleasant surprise.
"The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village is perhaps the best history museum in the U.S.," says George Percy, spokesperson for Travel Michigan, referring to the famed attraction in outlying Dearborn that includes a living history village, IMAX Theatre, museum and research center. "The Charles Wright Museum is the best African-American museum, and the Arab-American National Museum is the only one in the country. The Holocaust Memorial is one of the two or three best in the U.S., including the museum in Washington, D.C., and the Detroit Institute of Arts is one of the top five or six art museums in the U.S."
Suburban Renewal
Detroit's bevy of compelling outlying communities—including Dearborn, Novi, Broomfield, Romulus, Troy, Southfield and Plymouth—adds a substantial gamut of choices for planners, including some new and upgraded hotel properties.
In Novi, the hip and trendy Baronette Renaissance has renovated its public spaces—creating the new Renaissance Lounge and Toasted Oak Grill—and offers 5,000 square feet of event space. Novi is also home to the Suburban Collection Showplace, with almost 215,000 square feet of function space.
In Troy, the Detroit Marriott Troy has just spent $1.2 million on "The Lobby Reinvented," providing public computer terminals, business cubicles and even a new bar with 42-inch flat-screen. The destination is also home to the new Met Troy, with 191 rooms and meeting space for smaller groups.
But regardless of whether planners aim for downtown Detroit or one of its suburbs, it's hard not to feel the energy of a metropolis in the midst of a colossal comeback.
"With a new mayor who is taking charge of the city, auto sales on the rise, and many locals going back to work after being unemployed for some time, our future is looking brighter every day," says Show Me Michigan's Major. MFMA
