Detroit's auto show glances at suburbs

DETROIT, May 5 (UPI) -- The North American International Auto Show could move to the suburbs of Detroit in 2011, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said.

The move from the show's current site at Cobo Center, would require an addition of about 500,000 square feet to the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, Mich., The Detroit News reported Tuesday.

Oakland County officials met with representatives of the auto show and the Rock Financial Showplace to "check the temperature" of making a move, Patterson said.

Patterson said he was willing to entertain a plan to move the show, although the expansion at the Rock would cost "in the $150 million range," said Douglass Fox, co-chairman of the auto show's leadership committee.

Matt Marsden, a spokesman for Michigan's Senate majority leader Mike Bishop said Bishop was not involved in the discussions. However, "keeping the auto show in Michigan is of utmost importance to the state and the Metro area," he said. "So the Senate majority leader will listen to any plan that may be out there."