Why Michigan for Your Next Meeting or Event?
Emblematic of downtown Detroit's rebirth, the new Shinola Hotel is an adaptive restoration of two historic buildings to create the first-ever boutique property from the locally based luxury-goods brand. The 129-room hotel oozes residential style and offers
three event spaces and several F&B options.
Detroit
• In Novi, 30 minutes from downtown Detroit, the Suburban Collection Showplace recently opened the 188,000-square-foot Event Center. The new venue adds 89,000 square feet of exhibition space, connected to the existing 215,000-square-foot hall. About 67,000
square feet of the Event Center is column-free, with a 40-foot-high ceiling. The addition also includes 14 meeting and banquet rooms, among those a 24,000-square-foot second-story ballroom. Another 16,000 square feet of prefunction space is split
between the upper and lower levels.
The 100-room
Detroit Foundation Hotel opened in 2017 in the historic former home of the Detroit Fire Department, and its gathering areas combine classic touches with modern luxury. Consider the fifth-floor event space, with city views and an outdoor terrace, for up to 120 people.
• The 110-room Element Detroit at the Metropolitan, which was due to open by this month, is in the historic Metropolitan Building downtown. Guest rooms have kitchens
or kitchenettes and free WiFi. The Monarch Club, an indoor rooftop bar with a patio, offers city views. The hotel has three event rooms for a total of nearly 3,000 square feet of meeting space.
• The 106-room Siren Hotel opened in spring
2018 in the Wurlitzer Building. There are six food-and-beverage outlets on-site, including a tasting counter by James Beard-nominee Garrett Lipar. The 55,000-square-foot rooftop space offers panoramic views of the city.
Meeting Hotels
Properties in the downtown area include the 1,298-room Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center,
453-room Westin Book Cadillac, 400-room Greektown CasinoHotel, 400-room MGM Grand Detroit, 400-room MotorCity Casino Hotel,
367-room Crowne Plaza–Detroit Downtown Riverfront, 260-room Courtyard by Marriott–Detroit Downtown, 240-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites–Detroit Downtown, 203-room DoubleTree Suites by Hilton–Detroit Downtown, 198-room Hilton Garden Inn–Detroit Downtown,
174-room Atheneum Suite Hotel and Conference Center, 143-room Trumbull & Porter, 136-room Aloft Detroit at the David Whitney and 129-room Shinola Hotel.
Venue Additions & Renovations
Convention Center
Cobo Center; exhibit space, approximately 723,000 square feet; number of meeting rooms, 130. cobocenter.com
Area Transportation
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, about 21 miles southwest of downtown.
Metro Cab taxi and Metro Cars sedans to downtown start at $47. Uber and Lyft both operate in Detroit.
Taxes
Sales tax, 6%; Cobo expansion tax, 6% (for hotels with more than 160 rooms); CVB assessment, 2%; stadium tax, 1%; total
tax on hotel rooms, 15%
CVB
Visit Detroit, visitdetroit.com
• The Greenwich Hospitality Group has big plans for the West Bay Beach Holiday Inn Resort in Traverse City, acquired last month. While remaining open, the 179-room waterfront resort will be transformed over the next two years
with a $10 million-plus renovation and subsequently rebranded as the four-star Delamar Traverse City.
• The 243-room Firekeepers Casino Hotel in Battle Creek plans to add a second hotel tower to meet surging demand. The property's owners,
the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi tribe, say more rooms and meeting space will bring in additional visitors. The current hotel, which has more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space, opened in 2012 and has been experiencing 95 percent
occupancy.
• A 115-room Home2 Suites by Hilton has been proposed for Ann Arbor's south side. The four-story hotel would include an indoor pool, an outdoor patio, a large meeting room and a conference room.
Top 10 Automotive-Related Things to See in Michigan
From tours to museums, there's plenty of choices to please both car enthusiasts and history buffs.
- Gilmore Car Museum - Hickory Corners
- The Henry Ford - Dearborn
- Edsel & Eleanor Ford House - Grosse Pointe Shores
- Greenfield Village - Dearborn
- The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant - Detroit
- Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum - Ypsilanti
- R.E. Olds Transportation Museum - Lansing
- Stahls Automotive Collection - Chesterfield
- Ford Rouge Factory Tour - Dearborn
- Automotive Hall of Fame - Dearborn