Upscale boutique hotel "The Foundation" coming downtown, old fire dep HQ

[jt1]

One year is not a trend. You need to sustain it over a much longer period of time. For example, it has been years since Detroit has hosted a Superbowl, All Star Game, or Final four. If you look at the trend of hosting major sporting events it has been a downward trend. Is this all bad? No. But don't place your bets before you sit at the table.

I agree however I recall reading an article that the number of events booked in the next three years are already more than in past years [[year over year). The books, if memory serves are much stronger in 2015 and 2016 as well. There are also more large scale events already booked.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I agree however I recall reading an article that the number of events booked in the next three years are already more than in past years [[year over year). The books, if memory serves are much stronger in 2015 and 2016 as well. There are also more large scale events already booked.

This is true. Cobo already has many more non-Auto Show bookings in the coming years. Also, the improvements at Cobo free up time there so that other events can be booked during some of the time previously used for set up and break down for the Auto Show. Hotel room rates and occupancy levels have been on a consistent upswing in the last few years. But event-related hotel bookings are only part of the equation. All the new people living and working downtown themselves cause hotel bookings. All the new office tenants generate them, too. And we have already crossed over a once unthinkable threshhold [[I know this first hand from people I deal with every day): people from SE Michigan and even a little further out now regularly book a room downtown, with a plan to eat dinner, catch a game or show, spend a little time at a casino, have breakfast followed by a walk along the river. In short: hanging out in Detroit for a day or a night is now a thing a lot of people do, event without an event or obligation attached. That is probably the most valuable thing in the long run: getting locals to appreciate what's here.