Huntington Place

So we looked like we were from the 70s.

We had the gear from the 70s, but we played cover songs in a, hey, Cobo Hall burned down and we had to bring all of our gear to this little place.

So we would have...

On any given night, we would have 12 cabinets, 412 cabinets, and 12 heads.

It certainly is.

You know, not only is this the first, as you mentioned, JW to come to the city of Detroit, but obviously it's the first luxury, large-scale meetings hotel to be attached to Huntington Place Convention Center, which we think is really going to elevate the city on the global meetings and events stage and help us attract business that might not have considered Detroit before.

We have some other very, very significant hotels in Detroit, in Birmingham, in the surrounding area.

But the JW Marriott is a name people know worldwide, and they understand what it means.

And anytime you bring a new anchor to a new part of the city, which the West waterfront is and plants it right smack in the middle of the number one river walk in America, it's bound to create interest and bring more people to the city, not just for meetings, but people who want to spend leisure time, you know, even in other drive markets like Chicago, Toronto, Columbus, places like that that might not have considered Detroit in the past.

More than 53,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space, including a 17,000 square foot grand ballroom, 13,000 square foot junior ballroom, each with private waterfront terraces overlooking the Detroit River.

And it is connected, as we mentioned, directly to Huntington Place, the 2.4 million square foot convention center located in downtown Detroit.

via the sky bridge i it that makes a having gone to conventions around the world gone to events around the world if you can stay right where you have to be that's an excellent way to use your time and and enjoy yourself while you're doing your work and with more than 600 luxury guest rooms with 44 suites and a presidential suite and a an 11 000 square foot spa by jw this is a major investment by jw marriott don't you agree scott did we lose scott we may have let's try i'll get him back here looks like we did lose him the the good news the other good news besides the restaurants that jw marriott is bringing in some that we know and love very much run by joe and rosalie and for that matter john vicarry And that means the Joe Muir Seafood and Chops, the iconic Detroit institution reimagined with prime steak, sourced seafood and seasonal specialties, is going to be one of the great, if not the greatest restaurant in the new J.W. Marriott.

So it was cool.

I got to see fish at Kobo and we got tickets for like $9 off of StubHub.

Somebody oversold and they were, you know, up in the upper top or whatever.

But I was like, I don't care.

Because Detroit has always been a city of people who came here carrying something larger than themselves, a faith, a family, and an abiding belief that what we build together can be far greater than what any one of us could build alone.

The convention takes place at the home of Detroit's Auto Show, Huntington Place, and will feature a mini auto show of its own.

For NPR News, I'm Nargis Rahman in Detroit.

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