Detroit Auto Show Venue Gets a New Name

Cobo Center, the downtown convention facility that has hosted the Detroit auto show for decades, is now named TCF Center.

Naming rights for the 59-year-old facility were acquired in February by Detroit-based Chemical Finance Corp., better known as Chemical Bank. The name change announcement was delayed until today because Chemical was completing a merger with Wayzata, Minn.-based TCF Bank.

Combined under the TCF Bank brand, the merged institutions will be permanently headquartered in a new building to be located a few blocks from the convention center.

The convention center’s new name ends the facility’s link to Albert Cobo, who served as Detroit’s mayor between 1950 and 1957. Cobo actively supported racist policies that limited housing options for the city’s black population. He also backed urban renewal projects that destroyed black neighborhoods near the city center.