"Quicken Loans billionaire Dan Gilbert today called for the creation of an automotive-themed tourist destination in Detroit.
Gilbert said he has considered hiring an executive from Universal Studios or Disney to help formulate a proposal, but he is not pitching a theme park.
“We have to leverage the sexiness of the car, which we’ve had a hard time doing in the past,” Gilbert said.

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Gilbert also argued that Detroit’s annual North American International Auto Show should lure more technology companies away from the annual Consumer Electronics Show that is also held in early January in Las Vegas.

The two events in some years have overlapped. Many automakers make major announcements at CES instead of Detroit.

Speaking at a forum tied to the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, Gilbert said he’s talked with other Detroit business leaders about a “technology hall” during the Detroit auto show at Cobo Center.

He also suggested that the annual Woodward Dream Cruise in Oakland County could be dramatically expanded, though he didn't offer specific ideas.

More than a “million people are willing to come to southeast Michigan on a hot muggy August weekend, in essence, to see nothing,” Gilbert said. “What I mean by that is they’re bringing their own thing. Imagine if there was a something. We might get 2.8 million.”


His appearance Wednesday came a day after he took part in disclosing the Detroit blight study, which called for the removal of 40,000 abandoned and blighted buildings."