Former names | Cobo Hall (1960–2010) [1] Cobo Center (2010–2019) [1] TCF Center (2019–2021) [1] |
---|---|
Address | 1 Washington Boulevard |
Location | Detroit, Michigan |
Coordinates | 42°19′34″N83°2′49″W / 42.32611°N 83.04694°W |
Public transit | Convention Center |
Owner | Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority |
Operator | ASM Global |
Type | Convention center |
Construction | |
Opened | 1960[1] |
Renovated | 1989, [2] 2015 [2] |
Expanded | 2015 [2] |
Architect | Giffels & Rossetti [3] |
Website | |
Official website |
Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Washington Boulevard, the facility was originally named after former Mayor of Detroit Albert Cobo.
The largest annual event held at Huntington Place is the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), which has been held at the center since 1965.
Huntington Place is 2,400,000-square-foot (220,000 m2) in size and has 723,000 square feet (67,200 m2) of exhibition space, with 623,000 square feet (57,900 m2) contiguous. [4] It previously featured an arena, Cobo Arena, which hosted various concerts, sporting events, and other events. [2] In 2015, the facility completed a renovation that repurposed the Cobo Arena space, adding additional meeting halls, a glass atrium with a view of the Detroit riverfront, and the 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) Grand Riverview Ballroom. [5] [6]
It is served by the Detroit People Mover with its own station. [7] Huntington Place has several large, attached parking garages, as well as parking on the roof of the facility, and direct access to the Lodge Freeway. [8] [9] The facility is located along the Detroit International Riverfront, and within walking distance of several downtown hotels. [10]
The facility and its attached arena initially cost $56 million. [2] It was designed by the Detroit architectural firm Giffels & Rossetti and took four years to complete. [2] [3] Louis Rossetti was the chief architect. [3] The facility is on the site where Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French colonist, first set foot and landed on the banks of the river in July 1701 and claimed the area for France in the name of King Louis XIV. [2] The first convention at the facility was held in 1960 by the Florists' Telegraph Delivery (FTD). [2] The first event was the 43rd Auto Industry Dinner on October 17, 1960, at which President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the keynote speaker. [2] In 1989, a renovation was completed to expand its size to 2,400,000 square feet (220,000 m2). [2] [4]
Joe Louis Arena, named after boxer and former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, was built adjacent to the facility. [11] It served as the home of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League from 1979 until its closure in 2017 when they moved to Little Caesars Arena. Demolition of the arena began in 2019. [12]
In 2009, Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. vetoed the Detroit City Council's resolution against the expansion of the facility. [13] [14] Shortly after, the facility came under ownership and operation, through a 30-year capital lease, of the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA). The five-member Authority Board consists of one representative from each of five government agencies – the City of Detroit, State of Michigan and the three Metro Detroit counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb. Consensus agreement from the authority is needed for all decisions, and it has become a model for regional cooperation in Southeast Michigan. [15]
In October 2010, the DRCFA awarded a management contract to SMG, [16] which merged with AEG Facilities to form ASM Global in 2019. [17] It extended the contract for three years in September 2013 and again in June 2017. [16] [18] In 2015, a five-year, $279 million renovation was completed, including a new atrium, ballroom, and meeting spaces, constructed mainly within the former Cobo Arena building. [5] [6]
In 2017, in the wake of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Detroit riot, current mayor Mike Duggan proposed that Cobo Center be renamed due to modern reappraisals of Cobo's tenure as mayor. Cobo had upheld exclusionary covenants against African Americans, and was accused of responding poorly to allegations of harassment and police brutality against African American residents. [19] [20] [21] [22] In 2018, the DRCFA stated that it had already been considering the sale of naming rights to the facility, for the first time in its history. [21]
In June 2018, the DRCFA approved a 22-year naming rights agreement with Chemical Bank, which took effect on July 1, 2018; the following month, Chemical announced that it would relocate its headquarters to downtown Detroit. The deal would not be publicly announced until February 20, 2019; the parties agreed to delay the official announcement until Chemical finalized and announced its agreement to merge with the Minnesota-based TCF Financial Corporation. [23] A new name for Cobo Center was not formally announced at this time, as the bank wanted to wait until after the completion of the merger. In the meantime, Chemical Bank logos would appear on advertising and signage at the facility, and a ceremonial bust of Albert Cobo was removed from public display. [23] [24] [25] The Chemical–TCF merger was completed on August 1, 2019, and the combined company took on the TCF name. [26] Cobo Center was officially renamed TCF Center on August 27, 2019. [21]
On December 13, 2020, TCF announced another merger with Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares. The merged company would operate under the Huntington name, and it was expected that TCF Center would be renamed by mid-2022. [27] The merger was completed in June 2021, [28] and on December 9, 2021, it was announced that TCF Center had been renamed Huntington Place. [29]
In 1961, the show car event Detroit Autorama moved to the facility, and has been held there ever since. [30]
Since 1965, the largest event held at Huntington Place is the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). This event draws thousands of international press and suppliers during its initial five days and has a charity preview party for 11,000 guests before the public opening. [31] Since 1976, the Charity Preview has raised an average of $2.4 million yearly for southeastern Michigan children's charities. [32] After the Charity Preview party, the NAIAS is open to the public for ten days, drawing, on average, 735,000 attendees. [16] [33] The show was originally held in January, but was to move to June beginning in 2020. [34] On March 29, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 NAIAS had been cancelled due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. [35] The 2021 NAIAS was also cancelled and replaced by a downsized outdoor event in Pontiac, Michigan. [36] [37]
The anime convention Youmacon has been held annually at Huntington Place and the Renaissance Center since 2012. [38]
Capacity | 12,000 |
---|---|
Construction | |
Built | 1960 |
Closed | 2010 |
Demolished | 2010–2015 |
Tenants | |
Detroit Pistons (NBA) (1961–1978) NCAA Division I Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships (NCAA) (1965–1981) Detroit Loves (WTT) (1974) Michigan Stags (WHA) (1974–1975) Detroit Mercy Titans (NCAA) (1989–1994; 1997–1999) Detroit Ambassadors (OHL) (1990–1992) Detroit Rockers (NPSL) (1990–2001) Motor City Mustangs (RHI) (1995) Detroit Dogs (ABA) (2000–2001) |
Cobo Arena was an arena built in 1960 with seating for 12,000 that served as the home court of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association from 1961 to 1978 and the host of the NCAA Division I Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships from 1965 to 1981. [2] [39] The short-lived Michigan Stags of the World Hockey Association and the Detroit Loves of World TeamTennis called Cobo Arena home in 1974, as did the Detroit Rockers of the National Professional Soccer League, the Detroit Mercy Titans basketball team of the NCAA, and the Motor City Mustangs of Roller Hockey International. [40] [41] [42] [43]
Cobo also hosted rock concerts, by such artists as Van Halen, The Doors, J. Geils Band, Jefferson Starship, Queen, Black Sabbath, Journey, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Iron Maiden (twice in 1982), David Bowie, Ted Nugent, Prince, The Tragically Hip, The Who, Judy Garland, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Parliament-Funkadelic, Duran Duran, the Cure, Phish, Madonna, Anthrax, Exodus and Helloween. [44] [45] [46] Bob Seger recorded all of Live Bullet and part of Nine Tonight at Cobo Arena. [47] [48] Yes recorded two songs at Cobo Arena for their Yesshows album, released in 1980. Kiss recorded most of live album Alive! and video Animalize Live Uncensored at the arena and it is featured in their video for "Modern Day Delilah". [44]
On August 4 and 5, 1980, Journey recorded most of their live album Captured at Cobo Arena. [49]
As the venue for Big Time Wrestling on every other Saturday night in the 1960s and 1970s, it was considered to be "The House the Sheik built." [50] It also hosted Skate America in 1995. [51]
WWE and WCW also hosted numerous house shows and tapings in the arena during the 1990s, but WWE would return in 2006 for the premiere of the 2006 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.
On June 23, 1963, following the Detroit Walk to Freedom civil rights march, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the original version of his "I Have a Dream" speech at Cobo Arena to a full house. [44] [52] [53]
In January 1994, during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Joe Louis Arena, skater Nancy Kerrigan was bludgeoned in her right lower thigh by an assailant in a corridor of Cobo Arena, which was being used as a practice facility. The assault, which was dubbed "the whack heard 'round the world", [54] was planned by rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and co-conspirator Shawn Eckardt, in a plot to prevent her from competing at the championships and the 1994 Winter Olympics. [55] [56]
Cobo Arena closed in 2010 as part of a major renovation completed in 2015. The space was used to construct new facilities, including the 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) Grand Riverview Ballroom, a new atrium area, 21 additional meeting rooms, and an outdoor terrace. [57] [58]
The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), also known as the Detroit Auto Show, is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., at Huntington Place. The show was held in January from 1989 to 2019. It was intended to move to the summer in 2020, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic that year and 2021, before returning in September 2022. It is among the largest auto shows in North America. UPI says the show is "regarded as the foremost venue for [car] manufacturers to unveil new products".
Joe Louis Arena was an arena in Downtown Detroit. Completed in 1979 at a cost of US$57 million as a replacement for Olympia Stadium, it sat adjacent to Cobo Center on the bank of the Detroit River and was accessible by the Joe Louis Arena station on the Detroit People Mover. The venue was named after former heavyweight champion boxer Joe Louis, who grew up in Detroit.
The Palace of Auburn Hills, commonly known as the Palace, was a multi-purpose arena located in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Opened in 1988, it was the home of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Detroit Shock of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League, the Detroit Rockers of the National Professional Soccer League, the Detroit Neon/Detroit Safari of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, and the Detroit Fury of the Arena Football League.
Huntington Bank Stadium is an outdoor stadium located on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The stadium opened in 2009, after three years of construction. It is the home field of the Minnesota Golden Gophers of the Big Ten Conference.
TCF Bank was the wholly owned banking subsidiary of TCF Financial Corporation, a bank holding company headquartered in Detroit. As of August 10, 2020, TCF Bank had approximately 475 branches in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Ohio, and South Dakota.
TCF Financial Corporation was a Wayzata, Minnesota-based national bank holding company until 2019, when it was purchased by the Chemical Financial Corporation, which adopted the TCF name. As of December 31, 2013, TCF had $18.4 billion in total assets and nearly 430 branches in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana, Arizona, and South Dakota, providing retail and commercial banking services. TCF, through its subsidiaries, also conducted commercial leasing and equipment finance business in all 50 states, commercial inventory finance business in the United States and Canada, and indirect auto finance business in 45 states.
Ilitch Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company established in 1999 to provide all companies owned by Mike and Marian Ilitch with professional and technical services. Its privately held businesses include Little Caesars Pizza, the National Hockey League (NHL) Detroit Red Wings, the Major League Baseball (MLB) Detroit Tigers, Olympia Entertainment, Olympia Development, Olympia Parking, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, Champion Foods, 313 Presents, the Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program, Hockeytown Cafe, and a variety of venues within these entities. Ilitch Holdings subsidiaries manage Detroit's Fox Theatre, City Theatre, Comerica Park, Pine Knob Music Theatre, Michigan Lottery Amphitheater, Meadow Brook Amphitheater, and Little Caesars Arena, which replaced Joe Louis Arena after closing in July 2017.
Daniel Gilbert is an American billionaire, businessman, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Rocket Mortgage, founder of Rock Ventures, and owner of the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers. Gilbert owns several sports franchises, including the American Hockey League's Cleveland Monsters, and the NBA G League's Cleveland Charge. He operates the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, home to the Cavaliers and Monsters. As of January 2023, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$18.3 billion.
Youmacon is an annual four-day anime convention held during November at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Youmacon's creation was inspired by other conventions including Anime Central and Ohayocon, with the convention's name coming from the Japanese word for demon or ghost. Founded by Morgan Kollin in 2005, it is the largest anime/gaming convention in Michigan. Midwest Media Expo was the convention's sister event.
Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is an American bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The company is ranked 466th on the Fortune 500 as of 2024, and is 26th on the list of largest banks in the United States.
Tourism in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan is a significant factor for the region's culture and for its economy, comprising nine percent of the area's two million jobs. About 19 million people visit Metro Detroit spending an estimated 6 billion in 2019. In 2009, this number was about 15.9 million people, spending an estimated $4.8 billion. Detroit is one of the largest American cities and metropolitan regions to offer casino resort hotels. Leading multi-day events throughout Metro Detroit draw crowds of hundreds of thousands to over three million people. More than fifteen million people cross the highly traveled nexus of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel annually. Detroit is at the center of an emerging Great Lakes Megalopolis. An estimated 46 million people live within a 300-mile (480 km) radius of Metro Detroit.
Albert Eugene Cobo was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit from 1950 to 1957.
The metropolitan area surrounding and including Detroit, Michigan, is a ten-county area with a population of over 5.9 million, a workforce of 2.6 million, and about 347,000 businesses. Detroit's six-county Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of about 4.3 million, a workforce of about 2.1 million, and a gross metropolitan product of $200.9 billion. Detroit's urban area has a population of 3.9 million. A 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers study estimated that Detroit's urban area had a gross domestic product of $203 billion.
Huntington Place station is a Detroit People Mover station in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is located inside the Huntington Place convention center, formerly known as Cobo Center and later as TCF Center, on the third floor near Congress Street. The track was originally built out in the open, and later enclosed by Cobo Center's late 1980s expansion. The station opened as an infill station on November 14, 1988, as the last of the system's thirteen stations to open. The track passes above the main convention hall, so passing trains can be heard from portions of the convention floor.
The QLine, originally known as M-1 Rail by its developers, is a 3.3-mile-long (5.3 km) streetcar system in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Opened on May 12, 2017, it connects Downtown Detroit with Midtown and New Center, running along Woodward Avenue (M-1) for its entire route. The system is operated by M-1 Rail, a nonprofit organization.
The Suburban Collection Showplace is a convention center in Novi, Michigan. Located off Interstate 96, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Detroit, it is the second-largest convention center in Metro Detroit. It is best known as the current location of the Michigan State Fair.
Little Caesars Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Midtown Detroit. Opened on September 5, 2017, the arena, which cost $862.9 million to construct, replaced Joe Louis Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills as the home of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA), respectively.
Gary Torgow is an American businessman active in civic, charitable and communal endeavors.
Garlin Gilchrist II is an American politician and activist serving as the 64th lieutenant governor of Michigan since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
TCF Financial Corporation was a bank holding company based in Detroit, Michigan. The current incarnation of the company was formed by a 2019 merger between the former TCF, which was established in 1923 in Wayzata, Minnesota, and the Michigan-based Chemical Financial Corporation. In December 2020, TCF announced a merger with Huntington Bancshares. It was announced on May 26, 2021, that TCF Bank will be required by the Department of Justice to sell off 13 branches in Michigan. These branches were purchased by Horizon Bank at the end of the third quarter. The final approval has been given for the merger and the merger was complete on June 9, 2021. The combined bank has $175 billion in assets.