 | |
| Location | 43700 Expo Center Drive Novi, Michigan 48375 United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°29′08″N83°28′46″W / 42.485612°N 83.479529°W |
| Owner | Adell family |
| Type | Convention center |
| Construction | |
| Opened | March 1992 |
| Closed | 2009 |
| Demolished | June 2012 |
The Novi Expo Center was a convention center located in Novi, Michigan. Located off Interstate 96 and Novi Road, it was one of the largest convention centers in Metro Detroit.
In the late 1980s, Irvin Yackness, the president of the Home Builders Association of Southeast Michigan, proposed the construction of a convention center in one of Detroit's suburbs to host the organization's expositions and events. [1] [2] He approached Blair Bowman, a local attorney, to develop the proposed venue. In lieu of constructing a new facility, Bowman instead opted to lease a vacant warehouse near the I-96 interchange at Novi Road.
Originally constructed in 1966 as a factory for the Adell Corporation, a manufacturer of automobile door guards, the warehouse was closed when its owner, Franklin Adell, relocated the company to Texas in the 1980s. Adell initially leased the building to Mohawk Liqueur, which used it to bottle Kahlúa for sale across the Midwest. [1] When Mohawk moved out, Adell agreed to lease the building to Bowman. Following extensive renovations, the Novi Expo Center opened in the space in March 1992. [3]
In 1994, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America subleased a space in the Expo Center to open a museum and continued to lease the space until 2009.
In 2000, Bowman announced plans to relocate the Expo Center to a new facility, to be built 1 1/2 miles to the west. [4]
The new, $18 million facility opened in August 2005 as the Rock Financial Showplace , under a naming rights deal with Quicken Loans, which, at the time, used its former name, Rock Financial, for its Metropolitan Detroit operations. [5] [6] The company later expressed more interest in using the Quicken Loans name, which was nationally known, instead of Rock Financial, which was only well-known around Metro Detroit. Bowman instead terminated the original naming deal, and resold the naming rights to the Suburban Collection, a local automobile dealership group, in 2010. [7]
Following the new Showplace's opening, a portion of the original Expo Center was still used by the Motorsports Hall of Fame, until the Hall's collections relocated in 2009 to the Detroit Science Center. The building was then completely vacant, and remained so until its demolition in June 2012. [8] [9] The land, still owned by the Adell family, would eventually be redeveloped into the Adell Center, a mixed-use complex including hotels, retail, and restaurants.
The Novi Expo Center has been known for hosting many events in its long history. From 1992 to 2005, the expo center was home to the Novi Spring Home & Garden Show. The expo center was also the site of the Insane Clown Posse's inaugural Gathering of the Juggalos from July 21–22, 2000. Motor City Comic Con also held their annual convention at the expo center from 1994 to 2004.