By Steve Grasso
Midwest destinations offer hidden cultural gems and a spate of new openings and renovations ideal for meetings and events.
Detroit is set to revitalize its ability to host larger conventions with the planned JW Marriott Detroit Water Square. The new 600-room hotel will be connected to the Huntington Place Convention Center by a skybridge and will offer 50,000 sf of meeting spaces, restaurants, a lobby bar, market, and more. Hotel construction began in April 2024 and is expected to be completed by early 2027, in time for the Men’s NCAA Final Four tournament in Detroit in March of 2027. The project is expected to serve as an economic catalyst for the area and greatly increase the city’s capacity for events.
“It’s incredibly important for us,” says Claude Molinari, President and CEO, Visit Detroit. “We did a study that said we lost over 600,000 room nights in the last five years for the sole reason that we did not have enough downtown hotel rooms in Detroit. We have the 16th largest convention center in North America, so you’re talking about a huge discrepancy between the amount of exhibit space we have and the amount of hotel rooms we have. So from the standpoint of now having the second largest hotel in the state of Michigan connected directly to the convention center, that’s a huge bonus for us, and we’re going to take that next step to the next level.”
Other recent openings in Detroit include the Cambria Hotel, which opened in October 2023 in Downtown Detroit following an $80 million investment. The 154-room property features numerous public spaces, eateries and sports facilities, as well as 18,000-sf of meeting and event space including a 3,600-sf ballroom and an open-air event space.
The Hudson Tower will be Detroit’s largest ground-up development in the past 50 years and the second tallest tower in the state of Michigan. The project will include a new EDITION hotel, with approximately 300 rooms across 45 floors of the high-rise tower, which will be the city’s first five-star hotel. It will offer four diverse F&B outlets, a pool, a large outdoor terrace, a fitness center, spa and more than 16,000 sf of event space.
“Detroit right now is fifth in the nation in the number of hotel rooms under construction and development,” says Molinari. “So this is a real call to action for our destination.
Construction began this year on a new $190-million hotel that will be located next to Little Caesars Arena. The 14-story, 290-room hotel is slated to open in 2027, and will also include 30,000 sf of street-level retail and F&B space. The historic Fox Theatre, which originally opened in 1928 as the flagship movie palace of silent-era mogul William Fox’s theater chain, is also set to receive a new 175-room hotel.
Book Tower, which originally opened in 1923 as the then-tallest structure in the city at 38 stories, has undergone a 7-year, nearly $400 million restoration. The complex includes the 117-room ROOST Detroit, which opened in June 2023, and includes a fitness center and a 3,000-sf co-working space. Book Tower’s Anthology Events can accommodate 225 seated or 275 standing in the 2,800-sf Conservatory Ballroom or host business meetings, executive lunches or classroom-style events in the 1,440-sf Linden Room.
“We believe Detroit is the cultural epicenter of the world,” says Molinari. “I mean, cars wouldn’t be cars, music wouldn’t be music, your world wouldn’t be your world without Detroit. Seven genres of music were either invented here or perfected in Detroit.”
“We’re also the only UNESCO City of Design in the U.S.,” adds Christopher Moyer, Sr. Director, Communications, Visit Detroit. “And one of only 43 in the entire world. And that’s because of our architecture, the design ethos that’s interwoven into the automotive industry, and the visual arts. We have more than 600 public murals, in addition to multiple art museums such as the DIA, which was the first art museum to have a Van Gogh in the U.S.”
The Motown Museum is undergoing a multi-phase, $65-million expansion, the heart of which will be called Hitsville NEXT, and will extend the museum campus to a 50,000-sf entertainment and education tourist destination. Headquartered in three historic, Motown-era homes on West Grand Boulevard, Hitsville NEXT will be a creative hub for entrepreneurship and education. The existing museum is located in the original headquarters and recording studio for Motown Records, and documents the label’s history with artifacts, photographs, costumes and other memorabilia.
Michigan Central train station had its grand opening in June this year. Originally built in 1913, the historic station closed in 1988 and has lain derelict for decades. Its disrepair had become a symbol of the city’s own decline, but the property was bought by the Ford Motor Company in 2018 and has undergone a 6-year renovation. More than 1.7 million hours have been spent returning The Station to its original architectural grandeur, while retrofitting it with modern technology and infrastructure to support its next chapter.
The Station is set to become the centerpiece of Michigan Central, a 30-acre technology and cultural hub in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. Google is set to join Ford on the campus, which will be a collaborative district where other companies, including Ford competitors, will work on future mobility products and services. Michigan Central will eventually feature 640,000 sf of retail, hospitality, event and collaborative innovation spaces, including a new public park that will offer a mix of gardens, community gathering and event spaces.
“Detroit wants to be the epicenter of where autonomous vehicle electrification and automobility is created,” says Molinari. “There’s no doubt that the automobile has produced a lot of carbon emissions, and currently transportation is the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world,” adds Moyer “But Detroit’s out in front of everybody else. The Detroit automakers, Ford and GM in particular, have been at the vanguard of transformation to sustainable mobility, and Detroit is making this pivot. We were the arsenal of democracy in World War Two, where the planes and tanks and battleships were all built. Now we’re the arsenal of decarbonization.”
“The State of Michigan has one of the most aggressive net zero plans of any state in the country, or really any place in the world,” adds Moyer. “And combining that with land reclamation in the city to create this beautiful riverfront, and then this transformation of the auto space, and how this all plays into meetings and conventions. Well, we’re the epicenter of engineering and strategic talent around sustainability and mobility, right? This is a sweet spot for us when it comes to meetings and conventions.”
“Visitors to Grand Rapids will easily discover the city’s love for art and design,” says Mary Manier, VP Sales & Services, Experience Grand Rapids. “The city boasts 252 works of public art throughout downtown, multiple museums highlighting art, history and science and a nationally recognized craft beverage scene. Downtown features several different-sized music and entertainment venues offering endless options for live music and performances. Our close-by agricultural richness fuels local cuisine at area restaurants. Meeting organizers can easily tap into these offerings by hosting events in the museums and entertainment venues, on bridges traversing the Grand River, and suggesting walking tours around town. Downtown Grand Rapids is truly walkable.”
Recent renovations in Grand Rapids include the four-star downtown hotel, Amway Grand Plaza, Curio by Hilton, which just completed a refresh of its historic lobby and is set to renovate its largest ballroom in 2025. The Sheraton Grand Rapids also just completed a $14 million renovation to its public areas and guest rooms, while Grand Rapids’ most visited cultural attraction, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, will renovate its Grand Room (ballroom) in 2025. Outdoor public gathering space Lyon Plaza, located adjacent to the Amway Grand Plaza, DeVos Place Convention Center and the Grand River, is slated to complete its renovation this year; while a new 12,000-seat public amphitheater along the river’s edge is also in the works and will host its first concert in summer 2026.
“The Experience Grand Rapids (EXGR) team works alongside the meeting planner to suggest local venue options that best align with the planner’s goals,” says Manier. “Perhaps the group wants to throw a fun outdoor party on the bridge. The EXGR team knows who to contact to reserve the bridge, who has experience with the setup, F&B and what type of entertainment works best. This past summer a group surprised their attendees with a drone show over the river. Another group chose an indoor museum that offered F&B, entertainment and access to explore the museum’s exhibits. Guests were free to learn something new while socializing with their fellow attendees.”
Groups looking for CSR opportunities will find many non-profits in Grand Rapids offering immersive experiences for attendees. Two suggestions include helping decorate brown lunch bags for area school children or supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities gain vocational training and employment creating dog biscuits with leftover grains from area breweries.
“Groups are looking for fun and exciting experiences in destinations where their attendees can combine fun and socializing together while learning something new,” says Manier. “Routinely we hear from planners and their attendees that they were positively surprised by the big-city amenities and smaller-town friendliness of Grand Rapids.”
“Kansas City is a trove of undiscovered and best-kept secrets for groups to experience when in town for an event,” says Nathan Hermiston, Sr. VP of Sales and Services, Visit KC. “The historic 18th & Vine district with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum complex—in addition to Kansas City and Missouri’s first Black-owned brewery, Vine Street Brewery—is a must-see neighborhood in Kansas City. Additionally, KC continues to experience growth and diversity within our culinary scene, highlighted by restaurants within our creative Crossroads Arts District. Institutions like Corvino, Farina and Lazia encapsulate the elevated culinary experiences that can be had while in Kansas City.”
New openings in Kansas City include the 238-room AC Hotel Kansas City Downtown and the 120-room Origin Hotel along the Riverfront; the recently opened 175-room Cascade Hotel, Kansas City, a Tribute Hotel in the Country Club Plaza district; and the soon-to-open 104-room Atwell Suites Kansas City Airport. The new hotels follow on the heels of recent development such as the CPKC Stadium, the first purpose-built women’s professional sports stadium in the world.
Kansas City is also set to expand its free-to-ride KC Streetcar, which will soon nearly double in size as it expands from the River Market district through Downtown. It will then extend to the Country Club Plaza area, providing efficient transportation between major commercial districts. The city’s new development will culminate when it serves as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Only 11 domestic cities (and 16 in total in North America) have been selected to host the tournament, which will be the largest event Kansas City has ever hosted, and is expected to spur more development.
“We can collaborate with your team to identify those ‘only in KC’ venues that truly cannot be experienced in any other city that may be harder to find when executing your planning without Visit KC’s input,” says Hermiston. “Venues and attractions such as the Zhou B Art Center in the historic 18th & Vine District, The Rabbit hOle in North Kansas City or The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures are just three of many unique and harder to find venues that wouldn’t be at the top of your list of offsite venues for Kansas City, but they can offer a unique and memorable experience for your attendees.
“Groups can also tap into the history of Kansas City and our standing as ‘The Paris of the Plains’ during the Prohibition era,” adds Hermiston. “Kansas City’s nightlife thrived due to looser laws surrounding prohibition. Institutions such as Tom’s Town Distillery and J. Rieger & Co. are wonderful distilleries and venues to host big or small offsite events that can incorporate some of the history and culture of Kansas City into your program.”
visitdetroit.com/meet-detroit/plan-detroit-meeting; experiencegr.com/meetings; visitkc.com/meetings