The D in the News

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Detroit is America's Great Comeback City
by the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, April 14, 2013
Detroit is America’s Great Comeback City with a transformation underway more rapid than any time in its history. But don’t just take our word for it. Watch the recent buzz in the news media and then come see us for yourself.
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NEWS YOU CAN USE

Selling the Detroit of the Future with Larry Alexander
B4B Connect, April 24, 2013 
With meeting and convention planners scheduling for 2015, 2016 and beyond, Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau (DMCVB) President & CEO Larry Alexander has the responsibility of marketing and selling the future of Detroit and the surrounding region to audiences around the nation and around the world.
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10 Reasons Why Detroit Will Prove Critics Wrong
by Tom Bellino, Buzzfeed.com, April 4, 2013 
With meeting and convention planners scheduling for 2015, 2016 and beyond, Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau (DMCVB) President & CEO Larry Alexander has the responsibility of marketing and selling the future of Detroit and the surrounding region to audiences around the nation and around the world.
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Future bright for Metro Detroit's convention business
by Michael Martinez, Detroit News, March 20, 2013
With renovations well under way at Cobo Center and new hotels under construction and others being rehabbed, the future of Metro Detroit's convention business is looking up after years of few options and unimpressive facilities.
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Detroit Back in Business
by Brendan Manley, HotelNewsNow.com, March 12, 2013
The Motor City is on the mend, thanks in no small part to the recent government bailouts of the once-sagging U.S. automotive industry. Sources say Detroit is now entering a market-wide rebirth, triggering significant hotel development in the downtown area and outlying suburbs.
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Having Cobo under regional authority has proven to be a key to comeback
by Sherri Welch, Crain’s Detroit, March 11, 2013
With the governor’s pending appointment of an emergency financial manager, the 2009 decision to move Cobo Center out from under the city of Detroit to a regional authority has become key in the city’s comeback. Also key: the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau’s status as an independent, regional group, rather than a department of the city, as convention and visitor bureaus often are in other places.
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Ad agency Campbell Ewald headed downtown, with 600 jobs
by Tom Walsh, Detroit Free Press, March 6, 2013
Downtown Detroit will get a new jolt of creative talent and another funky work space with the move of advertising agency Campbell Ewald from suburban Warren into the old J.L. Hudson warehouse space in Ford Field, a move to be announced today by Bill Ludwig, the firm's chairman and CEO, and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.
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Detroit sees hotel rebirth with boutique developments, renovations
by Michael Martinez and Louis Aguilar, Detroit News, March 5, 2013
Downtown Detroit's hotel scene is roaring back to life. The former Hotel Pontchartrain is being transformed into a 371-room Crowne Plaza Hotel, and a 136-room Aloft boutique hotel is coming in the old David Whitney building on Woodward. Now, Chicago-based Aparium Hotel Group is in the "early stages" of buying and converting the Detroit Fire Department headquarters, across from Cobo Center, into a 75-80 room boutique hotel, according to the company's CEO.
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A Private Boom Amid Detroit’s Public Blight
by Monica Davey, The New York Times, March 4, 2013
Private industry is blooming here, even as the city’s finances have descended into wreckage. In late 2011, Rachel Lutz opened a clothing shop, the Peacock Room, which proved so successful that she opened another one, Emerald, last fall. Shel Kimen, who had worked in advertising in New York, is negotiating to build a boutique hotel and community space. Big companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield have moved thousands of workers into downtown Detroit in recent years. A Whole Foods grocery, this city’s first, is scheduled to open in June.
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Renovations registry: Hotels upgrade to ride a rebound in occupancy
by Sherri Welch, Crain’s Detroit, March 3, 2013
A number of metro Detroit hotels are booked for renovations this year. Industry experts say financing for new hotel construction is still tough to come by, but funding a hotel makeover is an easier sell.
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Unconventional spaces lift meetings, events out of the bored room
by Ryan Felton, Crain’s Detroit, March 3, 2013
Shane Pliska, president of Planterra Corp., had no idea that when the company opened a state-of-the-art greenhouse in 2010, it was also creating an entirely separate business venture.
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Moving on up: New hotel construction projects on the grow
by Sherri Welch, Crain’s Detroit, March 3, 2013
A handful of new hotel projects in the region have obtained financing and are moving ahead, while a number of hotels have begun construction and look to open before year's end.
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Future Bright for Event
by Sherri Welch, Crain's Detroit, March 3, 2013
While Detroit's schedule for major meetings and conventions is about even with last year's, the best is yet to come, according to the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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Made in Detroit: Serving Up Good Times Again
by Joan Lynch Luckett, Midwest Living Magazine, March/April 2013
The Motor City is rising again, and we don’t just mean automakers. Meet a few of the entrepreneurs helping to put Detroit back on its feet—and serving some great drinks and dishes in the process.
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Former Pontchartrain among spring hotel openings
by Louis Aguilar, Detroit News, Jan. 30, 2013
Detroit's once-landmark Pontchartrain Hotel, now a shuttered eyesore, is slated to reopen in April as an upscale Crowne Plaza property.
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Leg Up for Downtown Detroit
by Matthew Dolan, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 28, 2013
In a back office at the headquarters of mortgage company Quicken Loans Inc., workers are assembling a 9-by-5-foot scale model of Detroit's modest downtown that will be used to plot the district's future.
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The Return of Detroit
by Michael Hart, EXPOweb.com, Jan. 21, 2013
One thing I learned last week: Downtown Detroit, Cobo Center and the North American International Auto Show are all back. On Friday night, I attended the black-tie charity preview traditionally held the night before the public portion of the annual car show opens.
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Double Down Work Together
by Michael Hart, EXPO Magazine, January/February 2013
Just a few years after a massive recession hit the automotive industry and its home, Detroit and its fabled North American International Auto Show are back in business.
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USA Travel: Detroit Cleveland and Pittsburgh on the rise
by Tim Johnson, Toronto Star, October 11, 2012
Although the Motor City still has its fair share of problems, it has undergone an impressive – and very recent – renaissance. Characters, artists, and tourists are welcome here.
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Detroit Revival
by Stephen Jermanok, American Way Magazine, October 2012
Fans pour into Comerica Park to watch the Detroit Tigers take on the New York Yankees. Across Woodward Avenue, at the Fox Theatre, hordes of young girls wait in line to see the popular British boy band One Direction. Down the road, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing to a full house at Joe Louis Arena. And the loud hum of revving engines in the distance is the sound of Formula 1 racing cars practicing for the Grand Prix on Belle Isle, the first time in three years the race will be held in Detroit. This city, once the poster child for the Great Recession, is hopping.
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Detroit: Cobo Center Undergoes a Renaissance
by Michael Hart, EXPO Magazine, October 2012
A resurgent regional economy and collaboration among governments has led to the dramatic improvements underway at Detroit's Cobo Center, which 50 years ago was the largest convention center in America.
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Chicago, New York, Minneapolis levy highest travel taxes in U.S.
Travel Weekly, Sept. 18, 2012
Chicago, New York and Minneapolis levy the heaviest travel-related taxes on visitors, while Portland, Ore.; Detroit; and Florida cities such as Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach taxed visitors the least, according to a recent report by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).
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Motor Mouths
by Andrew Sessa, New York Times T Magazine, Sept. 13, 2012
In downtown Detroit, the same spirit of renewal that turned abandoned factories into artist studios is feeding another micromovement centered around food.
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Celebrate the Season in Style
by Anne Nagro, Michigan Meetings + Events, p. 40, Fall 2012
In downtown Detroit, the same spirit of renewal that turned abandoned factories into artist studios is feeding another micromovement centered around food.
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Top US Revival Cities Worth Visiting
by Shira Levine, FoxNews.com, July 30, 2012
Detroit and its artful decay is often viewed as a place where cool people want to photograph (not necessarily reside) thanks to a haunting, fascinating collection of abandoned buildings. When Detroiters made their suburban migration to swank suburbs, they left Motor City ironically car-empty and bike-friendly. Things have changed slowly for the "Paris of the Midwest," thanks to good vibes, affordable housing, and flourishing art and sports tourism.
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Just back: Detroit
by Max Gross, New York Post, June 12, 2012
On a solo bike ride along the fringes of downtown Detroit, gliding past the ghostly shells of buildings long since abandoned, two things occurred to me: One, these buildings are really spectacular. Two, I am riding my bike on the sidewalk. Something I could never do in New York.
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The Short Order: Chef Dave Mancini's Guide to Detroit
by Nate Erickson, GQ, June 11, 2012
The man behind Eastern Market's can't-miss pizza lists his summertime musts in the Motor City, proving that indeed, Detroit Lives.
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5 Spots to hit in Corktown, Detroit's Coolest Nabe
by Crystal Meers, Bon Appetit Magazine, June 1, 2012
Need a good reason to visit Detroit? Here are five spots that have made the emerging Corktown neighborhood a destination for the city's hungry creative class.
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Discover Downriver
by Cathleen Hagan, Michigan Meeting + Events, Summer 2012
For obvious reasons, large meetings and events in large cities with big attractions tend to get the most attention. Even tier-two cities have gained more visibility as destinations with great amenities at good value. But meetings and events happen everywhere, every day, in less publicized locations ready and able to host them and worth exploring- like the Downriver area.
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The Comeback Kid
by Beth Bartlett, Meetings Focus MidAmerica, May 2012
When you come to Detroit, you come to a city that changed the world, according to Carla Conner-Penzabene, director of sales at the Detroit Metro CVB. Thanks to a recovering economy and new industries, the world is now returning the favor.
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State of Revival in the Great Lakes
by Jane Simon Ammeson, Smart Meetings , May 2012
Michigan has faced its challenges in recent years, with the automobile industry recalibrating itself, but the state, with rivers, lakes, mountains (yes, they call their green hills mountains) and lively, thriving cities, has always been about more than cars. After all, it was here that the legendary Motown sound was born and originally flourished.
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Your Adventure in Detroit
by Amanda Gleason, Spirit Southwest Airlines, May 2012
It's not just the cars of Motor City that will get your engines revving: Historic theaters, art-filled exhibits, and global fare drive Michigan's largest metropolis. Our guide uncovers some of the city's best sights, sounds, and flavors — from a Motown recording studio to an idolized hot dog shop. Ready to get moving?
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Michigan: The Past is Present
by Beth Bartlett, Meetings Focus MidAmerica, March/April 2012
Michigan may be best known for automotive history and the Great Lakes, but this state can still serve up some surprises, from the Underground Railroad history of Detroit and Ann Arbor to the covered bridge tours of Grand Rapids and Lansing's hand-painted state capitol building. Mix in the maritime heritage of Traverse City and Muskegon with the living history of Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island, and the Wolverine State provides time-travelling fun for everyone.
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The Trade Show of Rod Alberts The Rolls Royce of Auto Shows
by Bob Dallmeyer,Trade Show Executive , April 2012
Rod Alberts is executive director of the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) and the Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA). He manages all aspects of the NAIAS show, which in 2012 boasted 146 exhibits occupying 800,000 net square feet of exhibit space, featured 43 new vehicle introductions, drew 5,196 media representatives from 63 countries and an overall attendance of 770,000+, which was up more than 30,000 from 2011.
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Detroit Offers More Than One Might Think
by Molly Snyder, OnMilwaukee.com, April 16, 2012
In years past, stunning-yet-depressing photo collections of a very decaying Detroit appeared in magazines and circulated on the Internet. In the past few years, Detroit has started to come around again and many new businesses, mostly bars and restaurants, are opening all over the city. The addition of three casinos has helped the city attract more visitors.
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Rise and Shine Detroit Hard times aren't over, but there's no denying the Motor City's new spirit
by Andrew Nelson, National Geographic Traveler, March/April 2012
It's not called a "tug" of memory for nothing: I'm outside Detroit's railroad station, and I instantly recall my mother's gloved hand pulling mine as we rushed through the vast atrium that was inspired by the imperial baths of ancient Rome. We are in a hurry to get somewhere, and Detroit is, too. Even a little boy in the mid-1960s notices the tempo. The Motor City is in motion.
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How the Motor City Got Its Groove Back
Inc. Magazine, by Tim Donnelly, March 1, 2012
Crumbling cities aren't supposed to be this popular. For the most recent Startup Weekend in Detroit in mid-February, organizer Brandon Chesnutt cap attendance at 120, and still had people banging down his door.
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Great American City: Detroit
New York Daily News, by Robb Todd, Feb. 25, 2012
Delicious food, strolls along the water, architecture that transports you to a different time, thriving music scene, art ranging from folk to street to masters, and the history of a city that is inseparable from the history of this country.
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Detroit Art, Culture Organizations Have Large Economic Impact
by Kate Abbey-Lambertz, Huffington Post Detroit, Jan. 24, 2012
A new report makes the case that the arts can be profitable in Michigan, with state spending on cultural programs bringing significant dollars to the economy.
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The 10 Emerging Sustainable Cities to Watch in 2012
by Leon Kaye, www.triplepundit.com, Jan. 3, 2012
When "green," "sustainable" or resilient cities come to mind, the usual suspects crop up: Portland, Amsterdam, San Francisco and even high-tech Abu Dhabi score plenty of attention. As more cities push their green agenda the way they promote business opportunities or local tourism, some cities are way ahead of others.
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3 Days in Detroit
by Joanne Keo, Successful Meetings, Jan. 1, 2012
Detroit, no stranger to bootstrapping, is once again carving out a dynamic identity for itself. Job creation is up, crime is down, and initiatives like the Detroit Works Projects are working to shape the city's future.
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