Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson met with organizers of the North American International Auto Show Friday and says he'll defer future comment to them while negotiations continue to move the show from Detroit's Cobo Center to the suburbs.
Patterson has angered Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers by suggesting the show move to a suburban location after the council blocked transfer of Cobo to a regional authority and $288 million in funding to expand and renovate the aging facility.
Money to expand and fix up Cobo has been a debate for five years, with proponents saying it is necessary to keep the auto show in Detroit.
"I don't want to say anything that might damage the very sensitive negotiations that are ongoing," Patterson said.
Patterson specifically deferred comment to Douglass R. Fox, co-chairman of the Detroit auto show.
Fox said Friday's meeting was a fact-finding discussion with the owners of the RockFinancial Showplace, which claims 215,000 square feet of exhibit space.
Cobo Center has about 700,000 square feet of exhibit space and the deal rejected by the Detroit City Council would have expanded that to 866,000 square feet.
RockFinancial has been mentioned as a possible suburban location for the auto show by Patterson, although it would mean
adding on to the facility to accommodate it.
"Certainly we are absolutely committed to keeping the show in Michigan," Fox said. "Before we would consider anything outside of Michigan, we're going to talk to anybody and everybody we can to keep the show and the economic benefit and jobs in Michigan."
Fox said there are no immediate plans to move the auto show from Cobo. The 2010 show is already scheduled for Jan. 11-24 at Cobo.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
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