94 | S E A T | www.alsd.com | #SEATFall2015

REVITALIZING PERCEPTIONS OF DOWNTOWN DETROIT

The Ilitches are leading a mixed-use development of 50 blocks in downtown Detroit. The anchor of this development is the Detroit Events Center, a new home for the Red Wings and 180 events each year. By Jared Frank, Editorial Director, ALSD

What do you think of when you think of Detroit? Do you think of tower cranes and progress climbing into the sky? Do you think of buzzing public transporta-

tion and commerce bustling in the streets? Do you think of potentially the greatest comeback story in American history?

It’s the dawn of a new day in the Motor City, where an upsurge of growth is muting the jokes and editing the na-tional media’s narrative that has circulated in recent years.

Today, a new narrative is rising out of the ashes of De-troit, one that you probably haven’t heard yet, one of resil-iency and resurrection, one being led by sports and enter-

QUICK HITSBy building the Detroit

Events Center 40 feet into the ground and “deconstruct-

ing” many traditional venue components, the arena is on the

same scale as the surrounding neighborhood.

One of The District Detroit’s biggest impacts is its dedication

to infrastructure. New streets, sidewalks, and streetlights are

being built throughout its 50 blocks.

Including the 180 events that the Detroit Events Center will host annually, The District Detroit will host 1,100 events

each year.Minus a few suites included

in sponsor deals, all suites in the Detroit Events Center have

already been sold, as have all theater boxes.

tainment. Sometimes good news travels much slower than bad news, so let’s take a moment to get caught up to speed.

Yes, just two years ago, Detroit circled the drain. The city declared the largest municipal bankruptcy in the his-tory of the country. Legacy costs soared, as home prices hit rock bottom.

But now Detroit is in the midst of a grand revitaliza-tion, led in large part by the investments of entrepreneurs (and sports franchise owners) like Dan Gilbert and the Ilitches, who are breathing life into the city’s economy by developing The District Detroit – 50 downtown blocks of mixed-use development, anchored by a new arena for the Detroit Red Wings.

95 | S E A T | www.alsd.com | #SEATFall2015

“We’re really building a city within a city,” says Wilson.Located in the heart of it all, connecting downtown

and midtown, The District Detroit has something for all lifestyles, not just sports fans. There will be green space and public gathering spaces, a variety of restaurants and retail, as well as much-needed residential units for a brim-ming downtown rental market that sits 99% occupied. “If it’s livable, somebody’s in it,” says Wilson of the current downtown real estate environment.

The centerpiece of The District Detroit is the Detroit Events Center, the new home of the Detroit Red Wings, scheduled to open in September 2017. The arena is meant to set the standard in an urban venue, with architecture and quality that will permeate throughout the 50 blocks.

The Detroit Events Center is currently being built 40 feet into the ground below street level. Because it will top out somewhere around only 100 feet at its highest point, four-story commercial and residential structures can be built throughout the District and not feel out of place, or rendered insignificant by the arena’s size.

The arena’s exterior will be concealed by examples of these four-story buildings to further root it into the larger fabric of the District. This architectural field is also meant to mimic the diverse styling that currently exists through-out downtown Detroit.

“If we do this right, [The District Detroit] will feel like it’s been here for 20 years because everyone will fit in and have a comfortable feeling that they belong,” Wilson says. “[The Detroit Events Center] is one part of the neighbor-hood.”

“You should be able to walk right by this building with-out realizing it’s an arena,” adds Ryan Coyle, Director of Corporate and Premium Sales for Olympia Entertain-ment. “This was meant to be part of the streetscape, part of the urban environment.”

INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTPerhaps the biggest impact of The District Detroit is its dedication to infrastructure. New streets, new sidewalks,

Top: The Detroit Events Center is being built 40 feet below grade, which is one reason why it will seamlessly integrate into The District Detroit.Bottom: Because of its subterranean design, four-story buildings will conceal the arena’s exterior, further rooting it into the neighborhood.

The District Detroit and new arena are among the larg-est financial commitments ever made by a team owner for a city’s restoration.

“The impact this project will have on Detroit’s economy, southeast Michigan, and the state of Michigan will exceed $2 billion, but most importantly, it will accelerate the re-development of Detroit,” says Mark Rosentraub, Professor of Sport Management at the University of Michigan, who has been studying the linkage between sports and urban economic development for more than 30 years.

“The Ilitches are making an enormous, enormous in-vestment to help bring our city back,” adds Tom Wilson, President and CEO of Olympia Entertainment, which handles business operations for the Detroit Red Wings. “There’s a greater purpose than just an arena. It’s about the transformation of a city and a community – and that’s a remarkable story.”

THE DISTRICT DETROIT To put 50 blocks in perspective, consider that the en-tirety of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan is 46 blocks.

96 | S E A T | www.alsd.com | #SEATFall2015

new parks, and new lighting are all part of the construc-tion timeline. Lighting in particular, which may seem mi-nor, is a major improvement for a city that two years ago had only 40% of its streetlights working.

In parallel to the District’s infrastructure construction, the city is installing an M-1 rail – a 3.3-mile streetcar line to run along Woodward Avenue between Congress Street and West Grand Boulevard. Woodward Avenue is a ma-jor thoroughfare that bisects downtown, starting at the Detroit River up past the doorstep of the Detroit Events Center. The addition of public transportation will greatly help with traffic flow into and out of the areas adjacent to the arena.

EPICENTER OF ENTERTAINMENTThe District Detroit differs from previous iterations of entertainment districts, as the Detroit Events Center isn’t the first piece of the entertainment puzzle. Instead, it’s the last piece of the puzzle. After construction concludes, be-tween the arena and its 180 events per year, the Masonic Temple, Fox Theatre, Fillmore Detroit, Detroit Opera House, Motor City Casino Hotel, Comerica Park, and Ford Field, over 1,100 events will take place annually in The District Detroit.

“There are feet on the ground here every night,” says Wilson. “This is the ultimate catalyst because every de-mographic possible is here. If I’m a businessman, I want to put my business in the most exciting part of Michigan, and that’s right here.”

The concert landscape has already improved in down-town Detroit. In 2015, Garth Brooks, The Rolling Stones, and Taylor Swift performed in Joe Louis Arena, Com-erica Park, and Ford Field respectively.

“Five years ago, it was unimaginable that we’d have this number and this magnitude of concerts in downtown De-troit,” Wilson says. “It’s becoming the epicenter of enter-tainment in Michigan.”

Beyond the “play” components, the Ilitches are devel-oping a place for the people of Detroit to live and work. Mike and Marian Ilitch have gifted $40 million to Wayne State University and the land to build a new business school (the Mike Ilitch School of Business) on the south-west corner of Woodward Avenue and Temple Street. The gift is the largest in the history of the university.

Loft-style condos and other living opportunities will exist throughout the five neighborhoods of the District, which will also offer retail specialty shops, boutiques, gal-leries, wine bars, and much more.

THE DETROIT EVENTS CENTERSitting squarely at the center of The District Detroit is its keystone – The Detroit Events Center – which has been noted for its “deconstructed” layout, meaning many of the components found in conventional arena designs have been pulled out of Hockeytown’s arena.

Inside the arena, the Red Wings won’t need to over-crowd the space with restaurants or offices. They also

“The Ilitches are making an enormous, enormous investment to help bring our city back. There’s a greater purpose than just an arena.”

– Tom Wilson, Olympia Entertainment

New School Concourse: Inspired by the vias of Rome, the Detroit Events Center will offer one of the most unique concourses in the venue marketplace, complete with video graphics projecting onto the arena’s stainless steel skin and stars shining through a transparent ETFE roof.

97 | S E A T | www.alsd.com | #SEATFall2015

won’t have the team store or a box office within the in-terior structure. All of these requisites will be outside in those aforementioned, four-story buildings that sit on the arena’s exterior all along Woodward Avenue.

Eliminating the need to include these traditional de-sign staples inside the confines of the arena, along with its subterranean positioning 40 feet below grade, is what has allowed architecture firm HOK to design the venue to be significantly shorter than other arenas in the facility mar-ketplace, and it allows the Red Wings to achieve their goal of creating an arena on the same scale as its surroundings.

“The innovative arena design has been driven by owner-ship, and specifically Ilitch Holdings President and CEO Chris Ilitch,” says Wilson. “I think it may revolutionize the way buildings are built.”

By putting those buildings out front and connecting them to the arena, the space between becomes the con-course of the arena. With a transparent, energy-efficient ETFE roof overhead, the wide concourses (100 feet in some places) change the entire feel of being at an indoor sporting event.

“When you walk the concourse and look up, you’ll be able to see the stars,” Wilson says. “So you’re inside, but you’re outside. It’s a completely different feel for an arena.”

Reminiscent of a Roman via, restaurants will have ta-bles out on Detroit’s via – the arena concourse – creating a convenient, trendy setting for Red Wings games, concerts, and even non-event days.

The skin of the building, visible from the via and from the streets of The District Detroit, is stainless steel and will display video and graphics. These images could be a hockey player skating or a sponsor’s car driving all the way around the building, a level of visibility and engagement that is sure to excite Red Wings corporate partners.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATEThe giant 40-foot hole has been excavated, foundation work is complete, cement has started pouring, and the first pieces of structural steel were delivered and set in place the first week of November.

Contracts awarded so far total more than $200 million, and a majority – more than $136 million – have gone to Detroit-based or headquartered companies. Olympia De-velopment’s goal is to award at least 31% of contract dol-lars to Detroit companies.

In addition to the Detroit business participation effort, Olympia has also set a goal of hiring at least 51% Detroit residents for the arena construction. That target is being

“There are feet on the ground here every night. This is the ultimate catalyst because every demographic possible is here… It’s becoming the epicenter of entertainment in Michigan.”

– Tom Wilson, Olympia Entertainment

The Via: The Detroit Events Center concourse connects the seating bowl with the “deconstructed” four-story buildings along the arena’s exterior. This space creates unique dining opportunities on event and non-event days.

98 | S E A T | www.alsd.com | #SEATFall2015

THE SUITESUpon entering the model suite, built to scale, at The Dis-trict Detroit Preview Center, prospective suite buyers are struck with one common immediate reaction: they are enormous.

“[The size] is the first thing that everybody notices,” says Wilson.

The premium units, which approach 700 square feet, are double the size of suites at Joe Louis, and double the size of most suites in other markets. A suite purchase comes with 18 tickets, but they can comfortably accom-modate up to 30 guests.

“Our feeling was when a big act is in town, and every one of your clients is calling, you don’t want to say ‘no’ to anybody, and you don’t want to have to prioritize your cli-ents,” Wilson explains. “When we have a home-run event, we want you to hit a home run in here.”

All suite interiors are designed with multiple sections, essentially broken up into two “rooms” in addition to the 18 seats in the front of each suite. One of these “rooms” has a large communal table with bar chairs, and another has lounge furniture next to a fireplace. On the ceiling above the lounge furniture is an acoustic-absorbing material that allows for quiet fireside chats. With three different en-tertaining environments, whatever types of conversation suite holders need to have, the space allows for them to happen, and happen all at the same time.

Each suite also has five televisions. Suite holders can program each TV with a welcome message or brand in-formation, and can customize the messaging each night, using an app that’s loaded onto the tablets in each suite. The tablets are also a means to order merchandise or food and beverage, as well as to control the televisions and the curtain that can be closed in front of the glass walls in the back of each suite.

“The suites are the most exciting part for me,” Coyle says. “They truly are different than most of the suites that are being built around the country.”

SUITE SALESExcept for a few suites held back for sponsors, all suites in

exceeded with a current workforce comprised of 54% De-troiters.

“All along, there has been a commitment to a Michi-gan-made, Detroit-built arena,” says Wilson. “And that is a significant commitment to our community.”

HOME-ICE ADVANTAGENine thousand seats in the lower bowl, compared to only about 6,500 in Joe Louis Arena, will create an intimidat-ing home-ice advantage for the Red Wings. The entire seating configuration provides an improved and tighter viewing experience for hockey, as well as concerts and family shows.

The most unique seating products are the gondolas sus-pended over the event level on both sides of the Detroit Events Center. These gondolas, reminiscent of the Chase Bridges at Madison Square Garden, offer vantage points to watch hockey and concerts that few other venues can claim.

“They are our version of the left field wall in Fenway Park – a place where you can sit that you’ve never sat be-fore,” says Wilson.

Another seating amenity, one that will be included in the Detroit Event Center’s premium mix, is an exclusive lounge space embodying the “tunnel club” concept that has emerged in the last five years, where the players will walk right through the club to get to the ice. This feature holds even more value for hockey because with two in-termissions, players are in and out of the locker room a half-dozen times each night.

More Than Just an Arena: The investment being made by the Ilitches extends far beyond a sports and entertainment arena. The District Detroit is rejuvenating the city’s residential, commercial, and public infrastructure.

“The suites are the most exciting part for me. They truly are different than most of the suites that are being built around the country.”

– Ryan Coyle, Olympia Entertainment

99 | S E A T | www.alsd.com | #SEATFall2015

the Detroit Events Center have been sold, as have all the-ater boxes. The majority of suite units are situated front-stage, and went for prices and commitment terms that represent aggressive increases from Joe Louis prices and terms, demonstrating a high demand in the marketplace.

The suite inventory might have sold fast, but the pro-cess to get to the dotted line was slow and steady. Instead of internally going through each of the 120 companies in the database and guessing who was most likely to buy, the Red Wings took a different approach.

“Before we went on sale, we visited all 120 companies, which took us almost a year,” explains Coyle. “We sat down face-to-face and provided them with a sneak peek of the amazing suites.”

“Another very important component in the sales pro-cess was the development of a state-of-the-art preview center,” he continues. “Our clients were blown away with the fly-through video, the two scaled models featuring the District and the arena, and the full suite build-out. Many guests told us the suites felt more like they belonged in a 4-star hotel than an arena. Our sales team approach, the preview center, and some very aggressive goals were the key drivers in our early success.”

With its sold-out suites, revolutionary arena design, and burgeoning entertainment district that has spawned intrigue in investors all the way from China, The District Detroit and the Detroit Events Center is playing a key role in the revitalization of the city of Detroit.

The tower cranes on Woodward Avenue chronicle this next chapter. Motown is a hit again. #

Is your organization exploring mixed-use urban planning?Write to Jared at jared@alsd.com.

To view additional images, videos, and a live webcam show-ing the Detroit Events Center construction site, visit www.DistrictDetroit.com

“Many guests told us the suites felt more like they belonged in a 4-star hotel than an arena.”

– Ryan Coyle, Olympia Entertainment

Top: The suites at the Detroit Events Center will have glass back walls that overlook the via.Bottom: All suite units approach 700 square feet, large enough for multiple furniture themes and foodservice presentations, five televisions, and even a fireplace.